Elongated Soft Palate and other airway disorders: Every bulldog has an elongated soft palate to a certain degree, this is because of the shape of their heads (ie: brachycephalic - short nosed). In most cases this causes nothing more than snoring, but in severe cases may cause your bulldog difficulty in breathing. Heat and exercise will cause loud, gurgly breathing, (commonly known as "roaring") and your bulldog may appear to be "lazy". The severity can range from loud breathing when excited, during/after exercise to total exercise intolerance, regurgitation of food to permanent breathing difficulties. The condition can be corrected with surgery and you need to be sure that the vet you chose to carry out this surgery totally understand brachycephalic breeds.

Sleep Apnea: Common in humans that snore and also common in bulldogs. They appear to stop breathing whilst asleep and if you hear it happen it can be quite scary waiting for them to breath out again - they will ...... eventually

Frothing

Froth in the throat occurs for 2 reasons I know and is a serious problem. The Australian Bulldog has inherited the narrow windpipe of the British Bulldog and this is relevent for several major reasons. When the dogs over heat they don't dissipate heat like other breeds, it is done from the breathing and panting. So when an Australian Bulldog gets too hot it respires rapidly and because of the small throat this can lead to froth being created and choking the dog quite rapidly.

There is a couple of recommended first aid treatments and that is lemon or vinegar diluted and squirted into thier throats. I have syringes here and a 5ml one would be suitable for this purpose. Another method which I accidently found was puting my fingers down the dogs throat and the dog spews the froth out. This could be a quick way to try first but when it happens it is a serious emergency.

The only time I saw this happen it was a cool day and a male got over excited by my bitch in the last days of her season. 15 minutes alone and he had worked himself into a real state! When we went to check he was choking and I reached down his throat to see if I could dislodge the obstruction. When I removed my fingers it was followed by a very large froth spew. We then hosed him in cool water and put him in the bathroom on a cold floor and sat with him to calm him down!

I have had one of my males get heat affected a couple of times and immediately I have put him in the shower or under a tap and dreched him to help aid bringing his body temperature down. This method gave almost immediate relief to him and the situation. Great care should always be taken on hot days and that is fundamental care for this breed but sometimes the situation arises even though you have taken all the precautions. I always carry water in the car incase of emergencies.

Other Important Issues Regarding the Throat:

Operations: The Australian Bulldog must have a breathing tube for operations and this tube must remain in until the dog is awake. Early remaval has caused deaths as the throat collapses. I always instruct my vet to do this and I must sound like a broken record but I don't care how I sound when it comes to protecting my gorgeous dogs!

Size of the breathing tube: I have had a 13 week old pup have a cherry eye operation and she came back with terrible breathing that lasted for 4 months. Having spent money on more vet visits for this problem and a possible elongated soft palate diagnosis I am convinced a too large tube was used during the operation and this damaged her throat.

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