Clinical-radiological study of the vertebral abnormalities in the English Bulldog

Introduction The aim of the study was to detect vertebral abnormalities in a series of english bulldogs and to compare clinical and radiographic findings. Materials and methods A group of 38 english bulldogs underwent complete physical and neurological examinations along with survey radiographs of the entire spine, prior to 4 months of age. From this group, 23 dogs were re-evaluated both clinically and radiographically with:11dogs once, between 4 and 8 months, 4 dogs twice, between 4 and 14 months, 5 dogs three times, between 4 and 27 months, 3 dogs five times, between 4 and 29 months. Results Radiographic investigation showed 148 thoracic hemivertebrae in 37 dogs (97.3%). At least one segment was involved with the understanding that many dogs had multiple lesions. Five of them (13.5%) showed mild neurological deficits, all consistent with a T3-l3 transverse myelopathy. The neurological signs were noted earliest at 3 months in 3 dogs, 8 months in 1 dog, 27 months in 1 dog and were stable. Butterfly vertebra, as typically described, was the most frequent type of anomaly (89 affected vertebrae), followed by unilateral (30), dorsal (25) and ventral (4) wedging of a vertebral body. The most frequently affected vertebra was T9 (22 cases), followed by T7 (20), T10 (19), T8 (18), T12 (16), T6 (15), T5 (11), T11 (10), T13 (9), T4 (6), T3 and T2 (1 each). It was difficult to obtain an exact number of segments and difficult to determine if the lesions were primary or secondary. Other abnormalities included: thoracic spinous processes fusion in 4 dogs between t8 and T9 (3 cases) and between T7 and T8 (1) and thoracic and lumbo-sacral spondylosis (8 each). Coccygeal anomalies (block and/or hemivertebrae) have been detected in all dogs. Conclusion The study suggested that in this series of english bulldogs the occurrence of hemivertebra was very common, but rarely associated with neurological deficits that required a treatment, at least during the first year of life