⚠️EDUCATION TIME⚠️
Tail awareness!🥨
I saw a post on one of the groups I am in, and also wanted to share this information to educate and help answer some FAQs.
I also wanted to show people our current mumma Harlie's gorgeous free moving strait tail. 😍 Its definately very surprising how many people don't want or like a pup with a good Bulldog tail!
I have produced a couple pups now with free moving straight tails and so many people screwed their nose up at them and went off elsewhere to get a piggy tail!
This is so disappointing because the tight little piggy tails are not only extremely high maintenance, but some even need to be amputated and that's a very serious surgery for your dog!
Bulldogs and Frenchies can have a variety of tail types from virtually non existent (from the outside), short and fixed, to free and mobile.
Being “screw tail” means that the bones in the tail deviate from a normal straight direction. This is due to hemivertebrae that are found in over 95% of french bulldogs in the entire length of their spine (cervical, thoracic and lumbar) as well as the caudal vertebrae which make up the tail
These coccygeal vertebral bones can deviate to varying degrees often growing tightly downwards and forwards forming a screw shape and essentially pulling the skin on the tail with it.
The resulting skin becomes tightly opposed and creates a deep pocket with poor ventilation, especially at the base where dirt may also build up. In dogs where the tail bone is “fixed”, getting underneath and in this pocket to clean can be painful and impossible. If the fixed tail covers the anus there may be a higher risk of faecal contamination.
Early signs of irritation such as rubbing their bottoms back and forth are often seen as funny quirks but these are actually your early signs as a pet owner to take action.
In severe cases of infection, if left untreated, the infection may create a sinus tract to the surface and cause a more serious infection or sepsis.
Management in severe cases can be life long so sometimes surgery to remove the screw tail and folds may be necessary (caudectomy). This vastly improves the dogs welfare.
Remember, prevention is better than having to cure and if it cannot be seen it probably needs a clean!
So far we have proved that removal of DVL2 to make a dog a carrier or clear, will eliminate hemivertebrae in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spinal regions, but not the tail. The tail will become a little longer and will be free moving, but can and will, still often have hemivertebrae. Hemivertebrae in the tail will not cause any health issues for the dog like they can in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions, where they can be the sudden cause of very serious health issues that may result in paralysis or even death.
Everyone better get used to seeing more tails like this moving forward with this gorgeous breed. In order to save the future generations, we need to work towards breeding out the DVL2 aka screw tail gene. If we can breed this gene out all together it will end problematic spines including tail pockets.
Breeding out DVL2 has also shown to improve snout length and therefore improve breathing. 🙌