Most people who read this will already know, I’m kind of obsessed with my dog Bruno. A black faced fawn French Bulldog who’s only 4 years old. Bruno woke me up Thanksgiving morning (11/27/19) struggling to breathing, and extremely restless. After 2 trips to the emergency vet (1 person sent us away within 30 minutes) Bruno was finally sedated and intubated. After an internal exam of his airway, the vet brought me back to the exam room to show me inside Bruno’s airway and where the obstruction was. Brachycephalic Syndrome is common in squished faced dog breeds (and Bruno’s is the squishiest of faces) but at 4 years old I thought I was in the clear. The vet and two others then told me “this is honestly the worst case we’ve ever seen.” How Bruno literally went from 0 to 100 I’ll never know. This dog runs at the dog park, swims in creeks (most of the time without sinking) and hikes at Letchworth! But now, he needs surgery to remove part of his soft palate to allow him to breathe properly. The vets have made it clear, Bruno is perfectly healthy in every other way (as he should be, he gets so much exercise and I feed him raw). But without surgery he will go into respiratory distress, further increasing his heart rate which can quickly lead to a life-threatening situation.