Sina American Bulldogs

The American Bulldog can have various health issues, these issues have been shown to be more prominate in certain lines.  The most common health problem in the breed is Hip Displaysia as a potential buyer you can check over certain things to help reduce the chances of your future pet and companion being affect by Hip Displaysia although in nature there are no guarantee's .  The minimum you should ask of any breeder is that they are Hip Scoring (testing) Their Breeding dogs with either of the following associations and that they have all the approved paper work to prove they have carried out the test's samples of these are below.

In The Uk with the BVA

In The US with the OFA or Penn Hip System

Or in Europe with approved Institutes.

From my own experiences i have learned that even low scored parents do not guarantees you a low scored puppy but it does help greatly reduce the risk of it, and through consistently scoring we can establish areas of concern within certain bulldog lines.

The most important thing i can stress to you is to fully research the line you are looking at buying your new bulldog puppy from, and where possible ask for the Hip results of all siblings, Parents and even Grandparents were possible to build you the best picture of the lines 'Hip Health'

I say this as when i bought my first American Bulldog 'Reba' i did no research into the line and although his Parents were low scoring, Reba unfortuantly has Hip Dysplasia although his score did last year meet the median, the following breakdown will show why he has HD.

Right Leg / Left Leg

Norberg Angle (0-6) R5 / L0

Subluxation (0-6) R4 / L3

Crainial Acetabular Edge(0-6) R3 / L2

Dorsal Acetabular Edge (0-6) R2 / L0

Crainial Effective Acetabular Rim (0-6) R2 / L0

Acetabular Fossa (0-6) R0 / L0

Caudal Acetabular Edge (0-5) R0 / L0

Femoral Head/Neck Exostsis (0-6) R0 / L0

Femoral Head Recontouring (0-6) R0 / L0

Totals (max 53 per side)       R16 / L5   = 21

As this clearly shows Reba is Dysplastic on his Right Side, this result was done when he was 18 months old and i have no doubt if i were to re x-ray him now he would be far worse, CHD is a crippling disorder that takes away the normal life of your dog. 

 PLEASE RESEARCH FULLY TO MINIMISE YOUR RISK

 REBA

PLEASE SEE THE HEALTH ISSUES PAGE FOR INFO ON OTHER CONDITIONS THAT EFFECT THE AMERICAN BULLDOG.