pig's soft palate surgery

For those of you who follow me on Instagram you have probably heard me talk about how Pig had surgery last week. French Bulldogs are prone to a lot of health problems, one of them being Brachycephalic Syndrome, which basically means they have a lot of breathing problems because of their flat and smooshy faces. Pig had a ton of breathing problems and would snore, easily overheat, have trouble sleeping and about a year ago he almost died from Aspiration Pneumonia. Some Frenchies are worse than others but Pig had it pretty bad.

Here is a video of Pig's breathing before he had the surgery. You have to listen a few seconds to really hear how loud it is.



After the vet and breeder both suggested Pig was a good candidate for the soft palate surgery the bf decided to have it done last week. It was a pretty brutal because they had to remove Pig's tonsils, shorten his palate, and cut his nose to make his nostrils bigger. The first three days were the absolute worst and my boyfriend even brought Pig back to the vet because we were concerned that he wasn't doing well. It's been about a week now and Pig is almost back to his old self - except he can breath much better! This is a video I took 5 days after the surgery.



I asked my boyfriend if he thought it was worth it and he said absolutely, and I have to agree. A few days of pain is worth a long life of being able to breathe. This surgery is becoming pretty commonplace these days and a lot more vets are suggesting that Frenchies have it done. Here are the before and after pictures of Pig's nostrils. You can see that they are a lot bigger now:


If any of you are thinking of getting a French Bulldog know that they are truly the sweetest dogs to own, but they are expensive and require a lot of maintenance. If anyone has questions about the soft palate surgery please feel free to leave a comment and I will make sure to answer all of your questions!