The honest risk picture, before you decide
If you are thinking about getting a French Bulldog, or talking someone you love out of it or into it, here is the part the marketing never shows you. Not to scare you. So you can choose with your eyes open.
French Bulldogs are about 21 times more likely to develop IVDD than a mixed-breed dog.
The highest of any purebred breed studied (adjusted odds ratio 21.1). It is a trait of the whole short-legged group, and most live long, good lives with clear-eyed owners.
Source: Wee & Nin 2025, JAVMA
IVDD is a spinal disc disease. In a breed like this it can arrive early, often before the dog is four, and when it goes wrong it can mean surgery, months of crate rest, or a dog that loses the use of its back legs. Both of ours got it in the same June.
Frenchies don't carry this alone
- 21×French Bulldogthe odds of a mixed-breed dog, the highest measured
- ~6%Basset Houndowner-survey prevalence
- 6.4×Beagleclinical caseload rate (not a population figure)
- 15–24%Dachshundlifetime prevalence, the most-studied breed
- 5.7%English Cocker Spaniellifetime prevalence (large recent survey)
- 10.3×Pekingeseclinical caseload rate (not a population figure)
- ElevatedShih Tzuraised risk, not yet quantified
- ElevatedWelsh Corgiraised risk, carries both disc-disease genes
These come from different kinds of studies, population surveys, clinical caseloads, and genetic data, so the numbers are not directly comparable. What they share: every breed here runs well above dogs in general, because they carry the same disc-disease genetics.
What I came to understand is that this is not a French Bulldog problem, it is a body-shape problem. Dachshunds, Cockers, Pekingese, Beagles, Shih Tzus, Corgis, Basset Hounds, the whole short-legged group carries it, because they share the same genetics: an extra copy of a growth gene, FGF4, that landed on chromosome 12 and turns the cushioning discs in the spine brittle before the dog is even a year old. The Frenchie sits at the top of that group. But if you are reading this about a Dachshund, or a Corgi, or a Shih Tzu, you are reading about your dog too.
If it goes wrong, it gets expensive
Our acute medical bill came to about thirty-four to thirty-six thousand Singapore dollars.
Three months. Two dogs. One household. Before equipment, food, and everything after.
Source: Babi & Juju records
That was the surgeries, the scans, and the hospital nights, in our currency, in our city. Yours would look different, but a bill like this can land anywhere, in any currency. This is a disease that can ask for serious money on no notice, and insurance does not always cover the part you would expect.
See the real cost, and the insurance gapThe choice is yours, not your dog's
The real question is not whether you love dogs. It is whether you are set up to carry what a hard year can ask of you: the time, the money, and people who can be home with a dog in pain for weeks at a stretch. A dog cannot tell you whether you are ready. That part is on you to be honest about, before the dog is home, rather than after.
None of this means do not get one. Plenty of these dogs live long, good lives, and ours are at the park most days. It means going in clear-eyed, so that if a hard year comes, you can meet it, and so can your dog.
Sources: breed IVDD odds ratio, Wee & Nin 2025 (JAVMA); breed-group prevalence and caseload figures, Ball et al. 1982, Poacher et al. 2026, Priester 1976, Thatcher et al. 2024, Brown et al. 2017 (per the epidemiology research); shared FGF4-CFA12 mechanism, Brown et al. 2017 (PNAS); early disc degeneration before a year of age, Murphy et al. 2019 (Vet Pathol); age of onset, Mayousse et al. 2017. Our costs, Babi & Juju records.