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Why Your French Bulldogs Ears Are Curling!

Although french bulldogs were holding steady as the fourth most common dog breed in North America for a number of years, they have managed to push up to the second most popular breed second only to labradors over the last year.

Due to this, there are a massive number of people new to owning french bulldogs out there with many of them wondering why their french bulldog’s ears are curling as the majority of french bulldogs have pointy ears.

Curling and flopping ears can be common in french bulldogs under one year old as their body priorities their teeth and bones for calcium usage rather than their ears.

This can be totally normal even if your french bulldog’s diet has plenty of calcium in it and is not due to something that you have done wrong. Curling or flopping ears in adult french bulldogs can commonly be due to a calcium deficiency in their diet.

If you have an adult french bulldog that is having these problems then you can try to supplement their diet with a doggy multivitamin to top up the calcium in their diet to help their ears point up.

There are some rare health conditions that may cause your french bulldog’s ears to curl so if you suspect that this may be the issue then booking a video call with a veterinarian to have them assess your french bulldog via the camera on your smartphone could be a good idea.

Is It Normal For A French Bulldogs Ears To Curl?

It is not considered normal for a healthy, adult french bulldog to have ears that curl but french bulldog puppies can commonly go through a stage where their ears will start to curl.

If you have an adult french bulldog that has floppy or curling ears then it may be an early indication of either diet or health problems with the dog that should be looked into.

If you know that the ears of your french bulldog have suffered trauma in the past then this could be a reason that the dog’s ears will flop or curl too.

This can be due to a range of issues with a simple nip from another dog when play fighting sometimes being enough to cause enough trauma to the ear to make it flip or curl. Depending on the level of trauma, it may take months or in some cases years for the ear to start to flop too.

This is why so many people overlook any potential trauma to the ear of their french bulldog as a potential cause of their ears not sticking up, the weeks, months or even years between the trauma and the ear showing issues just makes people forget.

For the most part, if your french bulldog’s ears are flopping or curling due to trauma, it is not usually something to worry about and is similar to “cauliflower ear” in humans where the blood vessels in the ear are damaged by trauma causing them to have problems.

How Do You Straighten A French Bulldogs Ears?

Making sure that your french bulldog’s diet is nutritionally complete or at least has enough calcium in it is the best way to straighten up your french bulldog’s ears.

If your french bulldog is still a puppy then simply waiting for their early development stage to pass is often the best route to take due to floppy ears being relatively common in french bulldog puppies.

You can usually top up the dietary calcium in your french bulldog’s diet by adding a doggy multivitamin to their daily meals.

This can help to straighten up their ears if the issue is due to calcium or cartilage problems. There are a number of specialist supplements on the market for these conditions but they are usually only available from a veterinarian after a checkup.

Ideally, you will be booking a video call with a veterinarian if you have an adult french bulldog with floppy ears anyway to have them assess your dog’s condition.

This can be a good idea as it will help confirm if the problem is due to a calcium deficiency in your dog’s diet or if it is due to a different issue that may require a different course of treatment.

If your french bulldog’s ears are flopping over due to trauma then it is unlikely that you will be able to correct the issue and get the dog’s ears to straighten up so keep this in mind too.

Should I Tape My French Bulldogs Ears?

If you have a french bulldog with floppy ears then taping their ears may help in some situations but this is controversial and in many cases, it does little to nothing as the ears are floppy due to an underlying problem that taping the dogs ears does not treat.

Taping your french bulldog’s ears is generally only done to puppies between the four and eight months of age mark too where your dog may naturally have floppy ears due to its body using the calcium for its teeth and bones to grow at a healthy pace.

This is why it is so common to see people on social media who have taped their french bulldog’s ears reporting that it has done little to nothing to improve the situation.

There are a couple of YouTubers who keep french bulldogs who have documented the progress of taping their french bulldog’s ears in an attempt to get them to straighten up but they have all failed to see any real improvement in the situation.

In our opinion, unless your veterinarian specifically recommends it due to the vet diagnosing the cause of the floppy ears in your french bulldog as something that taping the ears can help with then you should not tape the ears of your dog.

We would guess that some of the people on social media reporting that they taped their french bulldog’s ears and that it did help to straighten them up simply done it during the development stage of their dog’s life when it is highly likely that their ears would have straightened up in time without being taped anyway.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over why your pet french bulldog ears are curling to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand that there are a number of reasons that your pet french bulldog may have floppy or curling ears with each cause having its own specific treatment. This is why there is no one size fits all treatment that can get your french bulldogs ears to stick up and in the case of an adult french bulldog with floppy ears, you really should be looking at getting advice from a vet for a specific treatment.