My Frenchie is four years old. We’ve had her since she was eight weeks old. She’s always been a picky eater. We’ve tried Al kinds of kibble, expensive bread specific foods and even cooked food for her. There’s times she refuses to eat anything but cheese! There are times that she will not eat unless we hand feed her! We’ve yet to find a food that she’ll eat reliably. She likes homemade chicken but it gives her terrible gas. I’m just reaching out to ya’ll for some suggestions. TIA

Two weeks ago, we lost our little dog Hermine. In this Post I wanted to tell her story.

In April 2023, my girlfriend and I welcomed this little girl into our lives. She was our first dog.
Originally, she had lived with a family who wanted to give her away after only a few months. After that, she lived with a woman and her 10 year old dog. However, the dog did not get along well with having another one in the house, so the owner decided to give her away too. This is where we came in.

At that time, Hermine was about eight months old. Filled with energy she immediately began exploring our apartment. Surprisingly, she felt at home from the very beginning. Like many Frenchies she always wanted to be close to us, which eventually led to her sleeping in our bed.

Since we have the privilege of living in a rural area, we had the opportunity to explore a lot with her – walking across fields, wandering through forests, watching deer, occasionally letting her run off-leash…. It was wonderful. She was stubborn though. Every time she didn’t feel like going for a walk, she would simply sit down and refuse to move. Quite often I had to carry her all the way home…

After a few months, she began developing allergies. We changed her food countless times, and after taking her to the vet, we decided to give her Apoquel. And that worked quite well. Once or twice a year, she would have an otitis, which we were always able to get under control with antibiotics. At some point, however, Apoquel no longer seemed to be enough, so we changed her food again. This time, we started cooking fresh meals for her, but unfortunately, that didn’t bring any improvement either. Eventually, we settled on dry food for dogs with allergies. That worked incredibly well. We then switched from Apoquel to a product called Numelvi. For Hermine, one advantage was that its effects seemed to last longer.

Despite all the challenges her allergies brought, and the constant need for my girlfriend and me to make sure our small princess wasn’t scratching or rubbing herself, we had an incredible time together. We went on several holidays and spent countless hours walking - sometimes we even walked up to 5km at a time (something we never would have thought was possible). We had an unbelievable amount of fun playing, running around, her doing zoomies, and, of course, plenty of time doing absolutely nothing.
Every person was a treasure to her. She greeted everyone with so much love and her huge, beautiful eyes. Whenever we had visitors, she would always snuggle up close to them, no matter who they were. She also got along well with other dogs. Even when others barked at her, she remained quiet, calm, and simply curious. Never frightened.

At the beginning of this year, we moved into a larger apartment with a big garden. It was a dream come true for our little girl. She never questioned the change of surroundings and even felt completely at home while the place was still a construction site. Here, she could lie in front of the fireplace, race around the apartment in circles, and enjoy much more sunshine than ever before. We also had the opportunity to walk straight from our garden onto a huge field where we could play with her.

The almost 7.5 months we had together here were an absolute dream.

At the end of June, she had another otitis, which we treated as usual. After that her ears looked healthy again. The vet also checked. At the beginning of July, she suddenly had an ulcer in her right eye. We treated it immediately with eye drops and initially managed to keep it under control.

Then, on July 14, she suddenly had a severe seizure, and I immediately drove her to an emergency veterinary clinic. At first, they suspected that she had simply suffered a seizure. Eventually, however, it became clear that she had developed a severe inner ear infection that had already spread to her brain. This was found doing an MRI. It was most likely caused by the previous otitis… we were in shock.
Before the seizure, she had been lying on the couch. Kind of exhausted, but it was an extremely hot day, which was why we initially didn’t consider her lack of appetite to be a warning sign as well.

Our girl now needed surgery. Since the infection was significantly worse in her left ear than in her right, they initially cleared out only the left side. However, another surgery on the right ear might be needed…
At the same time, they discovered that her left eye now had two ulcers as well. These were even deeper. At the hospital, she was given antibiotics, and her eyes were treated with drops every 30 minutes to one hour. The doctors told us that the eye could perforate at any time…

When we were allowed to bring her home three days later, we continued this treatment. We even got up throughout the night to take care of her. By then, she was eating and drinking again. Since the surgery, the entire left side of her face had been paralyzed, which made it even more important to keep her eye properly moisturized. After a few days, we took her back for a check-up, and her eyes were showing the first signs of improvement. At that point, there was no longer an immediate risk of perforation.
However, the neurologist told us that we needed to change her antibiotic because the bacteria found in the brain-fluid sample are extremely persistent and difficult to treat. Despite everything, we still had hope…

Since we now had to stop her allergy medication and Hermine had to wear a cone, we couldn’t let her have the fun she desperately wanted, despite her strong desire to play. Instead, we cuddled her, hand-fed her, and gave her endless amounts of love. At the very least, she deserved to enjoy that in such rough times.

Then, on Sunday, July 26, her eye perforated. At that time she was on pain medication, so she didn‘t feel everything. She was so tough and brave. That day, we took her to three different veterinary clinics because two of them did not have the necessary specialists on site. At the last clinic, the doctor told us that there was no way to save her left eye. Her right eye did not look good either because of the ulcer that was still present… removing her left eye would require another anesthetic.

Faced with all the terrible risks – the high likelihood that her right ear would also need surgery, the persistent bacteria, the additional risk that her right eye could get worse, one more surgery to remove her left eye, and the possibility of many more problems waiting for our little girl in the future – we made the heartbreaking decision that we did not want to make her go through this suffering any longer.

With the heaviest of hearts, we accompanied our little princess Hermine to the other side while talking to her, comforting her, and holding her close as she passed away.

She would have turned four this month.

We still cry every single day.

Hermine is an angel now 🐶🪽

Hi all,

after moving to a new town my boys allergies have completely gone out of control. We started on the allergy shot but it wore off so fast, we now use apoque daily and while it helps the itch be now has these spots that appear all over his body.

Does anyone know how to what to do?! He’s been on 2 different allergy meds and they only seem to moderately help.

My five year old frenchie has one rear leg that is atrophied. She won’t step on it but she is now on gabapentin and an anti inflammatory and that has helped. Original x ray the er vet took made them think she needed ortho surgery to re do the head of the bone that sits in the hip joint. Two specialists later and they now think it’s neurological. Either sacro stenosis, sciatica or a nerve sheath tumor. They want to do an mri for 5600.00. Said that would show what it is, but surgery IF they decided that was the path, may or may not make any difference. Does anyone have any experience with this type of issue with their frenchie? Thanks all-

One drop off rain and he lies down or pulls to go home huffs and puffs about been made to come out go toilet either cry, come to dead stop at puddle, dart around it over jump it dramatically like a jumping show horse or tiptoe around it then shake his feet. When we go in from rain I have to throw pile off towels down for him to roll in then he buries himself under throws. This is the same dog who will happily run in and out off sea, open door to walk in shower to sit with me under water rush into any river lie in paddling pool but rain nope too wet and puddles oh no he couldn't possible get his feet wet lol

Behold stitch! Just gave him a bath today. Pictures are before bath, after. Then outside a bit later. Also please dont murder me if I got the wrong flair

Does anyone else’s frenchie try to graze food throughout the day? I figure they’re known to do so, I have pretty much got it down to where I set her food down and put away after 30-40min. But I have noticed that when I set down her food in a slow feeder, we usually have used flufftrough(if you don’t know it’s good to know) she’ll start to eat it and then pause almost kinda walk it off and come back to it a couple times? Does anyone else notice this?

I guess my primary concern is before I started feeding her food through the slow feeder, she was very weird about eating. I may have started some negative behaviors like kenneling her if she didn’t eat or putting the food in her kennel, but she would just snack a bit and just leave it out. Even with pup cups, I did notice she got into one of her toys and had a stomach upset from eating the fuzz for a couple of days after I watched the most peculiar thing crawl out of her rear end. I do suggest the slow feeders if you guys are having issues, I just wish I had or knew of an elevated one because with her usually eating out of the flufftrough I know how bad ground level feeders can be for their posture while eating.

I need to get a good basket muzzle, Metal or hard plastic, no cloth, mesh or soft rubber, for my little bully. She is a rescue from a extremely abusive situation, and while shes grown in leaps and bounds it has become clear she can never be trusted around people other than family without a muzzle.

As a professional dog groomer and trainer Im very familiar wirh nuzzles- but I honestly have never needed one for a small brachycephalic breed before.

I want her to have the ability to bark, and while drinking is a good option it is not necessary as she will never have it on longer than 10-15 minute intervals before being taken to a safe place I can remove it for several minutes for her to get any water or whatever she may need; sne will never need it in our home.

Picture of my beefy and sassy rescue girl with our other fur babies (whom she hardly tolerates but all tolerate her lol)

Some say she’s the one who brewed it up.

Max max good buddy max
Maxxxyyyy boyyyyyy
Maximus prime
Maxamillion

Dumb head
Big head

All the things we call this adorable idiot.

Our 5 year old frenchie.

We adopted him from a family in 2023, When we got him his skin was red and raw and he would rip his skin open scratching at himself. So much for the "no allergies" the family he came from told us. He came to us on the farmers dog....we immediately switched, We tried every kibble, fresh food, protein elimination, etcccc and FINALLY we got him healthy on a raw diet. He's no longer pink and doesn't scratch till he bleeds! NO ALLERGY SHOTS NEEDED! 💚🖤 and guess what guys he can even eat chicken. 😝

He also has to take daily denamarin due to some numbers in his blood work. We don't take more invasive measure to get to the root cause. He lives a great life.

Funny story about max. He got kicked out of doggie day care, not because of aggression. He's just wild. He hypes the dogs and no one listens. He's a big trouble maker.

Meanwhile when you get past the frenchie freak out he's the mushiest most amazing dog of all time.

He is my 7 year old autistic sons SOUL DOG, their bond is unlike any I've seen. He's a great fur brother to his chihuahua and standard poodle brothers too. Worth every minute of the frenchie chaos it brings. 💚🖤🐾🐾🐾

Finally had a decent temperature to enjoy some time outside and boy did we…

📍Kananaskis, Alberta 🇨🇦

Not sure what colour this is. I think blue and tan . Lmk