How I Reduced My IVDD Rate to Zero on My French Bulldogs
I spent 30 years breeding French Bulldogs. Over 300 puppies. And for the first 15 of those years, IVDD was the thing I dreaded most, then everything changed.
I am not a vet.
I am a Frenchie breeder who got tired of watching dogs I raised go down with IVDD and decided to do the homework so you do not have to.
The owner sobbing on the other end. Their dog was fine yesterday. Now they cannot move their back legs.
The vet is quoting $10,000. No guarantees. Eight weeks of crate rest if they are lucky.
I heard that call many times.
Many puppies I raised from birth. Many families I placed them with.
Many dogs that ended up paralyzed, in surgery, or in crate rest that lasted months.
It was not bad luck. It was never bad luck. And it was preventable.
This is everything I learned.
The Day I Stopped Trusting "Prevention" Advice
After a IVDD call from my Sister, I went to every vet, every breeder conference, every orthopedic specialist I could find and asked the same question:
“What can my puppy owners actually do?”
The answers were always the same.
Buy ramps. No jumping off furniture. Keep them lean. Use a harness instead of a collar.
So I started telling every new owner exactly that.
I printed a care sheet. I made them promise to use ramps. I followed up.
And IVDD kept happening…
To dogs whose owners did everything I told them to. Ramps on the couch. Ramps on the bed.
Some of them carried their Frenchie up and down the stairs every single day.
It did not matter.
That is when I realized something that changed everything I thought I knew about IVDD prevention.
Every single piece of advice I was giving, every piece of advice every vet was giving, every article and every Facebook post, all of it was missing something.
What Is Actually Happening Inside Your Frenchie's Spine
Let me explain this the way a Canadian specialist finally explained it to me.
Because once you understand this, everything else about IVDD suddenly makes sense.
Between every bone in your Frenchie's spine sits a disc.
Inside that disc is a soft jelly. Think of it like the filling inside a cushion.
That jelly absorbs every step, every jump, every movement your Frenchie makes every single day.
In most breeds, that jelly stays soft and hydrated for life.
In a French Bulldog, it does not.
Every Frenchie carries a gene called CDDY.
You cannot breed around it. It is in every single French Bulldog on earth.
And what that gene does is cause the jelly inside the disc to slowly get thinner, dry out, and become inflamed.
When these 3 things happen the jelly hardens.
In veterinary medicine, this process is called disc calcification.
It happens quietly. No limping. No crying. No visible signs.
Your Frenchie looks completely fine while the jelly inside their discs is slowly turning to stone.
And here is the part that broke my heart when I first learned it.
A calcified disc does not warn you. It just waits.
Every step, every jump, every normal movement, until one is too much and the disc cracks open.
The hardened jelly pushes into the spinal cord.
That is IVDD.
That is why every owner says the same thing: "He was fine yesterday."
He was not fine yesterday.
The disc had been calcifying for months, maybe years.
Yesterday was simply the day it gave out.
Why Ramps Could Never Have Been Enough
I want to be clear. Ramps are a good tool. I still recommend them. Frenchie Owners should have them.
But understanding what I just told you about calcification, ask yourself this:
Can a ramp reach inside a disc and stop the jelly from hardening?
Can a stair gate slow down calcification?
Can carrying your Frenchie up the stairs every day keep the jelly hydrated?
No. No. And no.
Ramps reduce external impact. They protect the spine from the outside. That matters.
But calcification is happening on the inside, and nothing you place under your dog or around your dog can touch it.
This is why I had owners who did everything perfectly and still got the call.
They were protecting from the wrong direction.
And so was I, for fifteen years…
The Three Things That Actually Cause Calcification
When I started researching this properly, reading the veterinary journals, talking to neurologists, and attending orthopedic conferences.
I learned that disc calcification does not just "happen."
It progresses when three specific things go wrong inside the disc at the same time.
The jelly gets thin.
It loses the nutrients it needs to maintain its structure.
Without those nutrients, the disc walls weaken and calcification has nothing resisting it.
The jelly dries out.
A hydrated disc is flexible. A dehydrated disc is stiff. Stiff becomes hard.
Hard becomes calcified.
This is not a metaphor.
This is literally what happens at the cellular level.
Inflammation speeds everything up.
Chronic internal inflammation accelerates the entire calcification process.
The disc hardens faster than it ever should.
When I understood this, I understood why everything I had been recommending for fifteen years could not have worked.
Ramps do not keep the jelly thick.
Harnesses do not keep it hydrated.
Weight management does not stop inflammation inside the disc.
None of it was wrong.
All of it was incomplete.
Why Your Current Supplement Is Probably Making It Worse
This is the part that made me angry.
After learning about the three conditions, the first thing I did was look at every supplement my puppy owners were giving their dogs.
The joint chews from Chewy.
The glucosamine treats from Amazon.
The "all breed" multivitamins their vets recommended.
I flipped every single one over and read the back label.
Not one of them contained a single ingredient that targets disc calcification.
Not one.
They were all formulated for hips and joints.
Glucosamine for synovial fluid.
Chondroitin for cartilage in the knees.
These are joint supplements being given to dogs with a disc problem.
A disc is not a joint. They are completely different structures.
A disc has no synovial fluid.
Glucosamine for discs is like putting motor oil in a diesel engine and wondering why it does not run.
But it gets worse.
I looked at the ingredient lists on the most popular Frenchie supplements on the market.
The first ingredient in most of them? Chicken.
The second most common? Beef.
Chicken and beef are the two most common allergens in French Bulldogs.
Every Frenchie owner who has dealt with allergies knows this.
The itching. The ear infections. The food switches.
But here is what most owners do not connect: food allergies trigger inflammation.
Chronic inflammation accelerates disc calcification.
So the supplement that is supposed to help your Frenchie's spine could actually be feeding the inflammation that makes calcification worse.
When I realized this, I threw away every supplement in my kennel.
What the Research Actually Says Works
I spent months reading everything I could find on disc degeneration.
And three compounds kept showing up.
Over and over. In study after study.
Not glucosamine. Not CBD. Not mushroom powders. Not turmeric by itself.
Three specific compounds that, when combined, directly target the three conditions that cause disc calcification.
Green Lipped Mussel delivers the full complex of nutrients that keep the disc thick and strong.
Not isolated glucosamine extracted in a lab.
The whole food matrix, with every compound the disc wall needs to resist calcification.
This is the ingredient that made me rethink everything I thought I knew about supplements.
Hyaluronic Acid is the exact compound discs need to hold onto moisture.
It binds to water molecules inside the disc and helps the jelly stay soft and hydrated instead of drying out and hardening into calcification.
Every day a disc goes without adequate hydration is a day it gets stiffer. Hyaluronic Acid puts the moisture back.
Turmeric targets the COX-2 and 5-LOX inflammatory pathways.
These are the same pathways that prescription anti-inflammatories like Rimadyl target.
The difference is that Turmeric is natural and safe for daily use without the liver and kidney risks that come with long-term Rimadyl use.
One compound for each of the three conditions that cause calcification.
Thickness. Hydration. Inflammation. That is not a coincidence.
But here is the problem I ran into.
You cannot buy all three together.
Why I Built Frenchew
I tried to create a protocol for my puppy owners. Buy this Green Lipped Mussel powder from this brand. Buy this Hyaluronic Acid capsule from that brand. Buy Turmeric from a third brand.
Mix them together. Pray your Frenchie will eat it.
Nobody did it. And I do not blame them.
It was not realistic. And if it is not realistic, it does not get done.
And if it does not get done, the disc keeps calcifying.
So I built what should have existed years ago.
One daily chew. All three compounds. Dosed correctly. Bacon flavored because Frenchies will eat anything that tastes like bacon.
And hypoallergenic, because I was done watching supplements trigger the very inflammation they were supposed to fight.
No chicken. No beef. No dairy. No wheat. No yeast.
I called it Frenchew because it was made for one breed. The one breed that needs it the most.
What Happened When I Started Giving It to Every Puppy
Six years ago, I started sending every puppy home with a jar of Frenchew and instructions to give one chew every morning.
I still do the yearly follow-up calls with every family.
How is the dog doing. What are they eating. How is the spine.
In six years, across every puppy I have placed since then, my IVDD rate went to zero.
Zero.
Not reduced. Not "significantly lower." Zero.
I am not saying Frenchew cures IVDD.
I am not saying it guarantees your dog will never have a spinal issue.
Genetics are real. Age is real. No single product can promise that.
But I can tell you what I have seen with my own eyes across six years and hundreds of dogs.
The owners who give it every morning are the ones I never hear from with bad news.
What Other Frenchie Owners Are Seeing
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"Started at four. He is ten now. Still doing zoomies. Never one issue with his spine."— Rachel S.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"She started hesitating before steps. I started Frenchew immediately. Four weeks later she is moving like herself again. I am not waiting for it to get worse."— Nicole K.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"Bruno went down with IVDD at three. After recovery we started Frenchew. Not one flare up in four years."— Emily R.
What If My Frenchie Will Not Eat It?
I have been breeding Frenchies for thirty years.
I know exactly how stubborn they are about food.
A supplement that your dog will not eat is a supplement that does not work.
That is why we tested Frenchew on 900 Frenchies during development. Every single one ate it.
It is pork based and bacon flavored.
Not chicken flavored like most supplements on the market, which would trigger reactions in half the Frenchies out there.
Bacon. Because your Frenchie will eat it like a treat, not like medicine.
But every dog is different. And after everything you have tried, I understand being cautious.
So here is the deal. Try it for 30 days. If your Frenchie will not eat it, or if you are not satisfied for any reason, you get your money back. No questions. No hassle.
- 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
- 100% Satisfaction or Full Refund
- Human Grade, Third Party Tested
- Ships from the USA
One Last Thing
I have spent thirty years with this breed. I have raised them, loved them, placed them with families, and followed their lives for years afterward.
And for fifteen of those years, I gave the same advice everyone gives.
Ramps. No jumping. Keep them lean.
It was not enough. I know that now.
The discs were calcifying on the inside while we were all protecting from the outside. And by the time anyone noticed, it was already too late.
You are reading this, which means you are not going to be the person who finds out too late.
You already know more about your Frenchie's spine than most owners will ever learn.
The question is whether you are going to do something with it.
After everything you have been through with this breed, after every vet bill and every worry and every 2am Google search about IVDD, you deserve something that was actually built for your dog.
Your Frenchie cannot fight calcification alone.
But with one chew every morning, they do not have to.