Texas A&M Veterinary Specialists Help Pug Overcome Multiple Health Conditions

Story by Megan Bennett, VMBS Marketing & Communications

January 28, 2025

Unlike her high-energy, attention-seeking siblings Canela and Choclo, Chispa the pug is lovingly described by her owner Peter Schulte as more of a “potato kind of dog.”

“She just lies around,” said Schulte, who lives in downtown Houston with his partner Ramiro Flores and their three pugs. “She likes lying outside in the sun or, really, on any flat surface. Once a day, she’ll get a little playful streak and then she’s back to just lounging.” 

Chispa’s only other spurt of energy is when she springs into action as the garbage truck comes down her street. But when her legs started giving out mid-chase, her owners knew that something was wrong.

So, Schulte and Flores spoke to their local veterinarian, beginning a long journey that would lead to two specialty services at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ (VMBS) Small Animal Teaching Hospital (SATH). 

In the end, Chispa’s veterinary team used an individualized treatment plan and collaborative approach to restore the pug’s quality of life — and her ability to chase the garbage truck as much as her heart desires.

A Sudden Change

Chispa’s owners initially noticed that she was struggling to control her back legs in 2023.

“She was totally fine otherwise, and she was still happy,” Schulte said. “She would try to chase the garbage truck, but her legs would just give up.”

Chispa’s local veterinarian conducted testing but was unable to determine the problem, so they referred the pug to the SATH’s Neurology Service.

“Her veterinarians at A&M quickly allayed our fears that the problem was not as scary or bad as we thought it was,” Schulte said. “There was just a bit of a compression on her spinal cord by a certain vertebra that was causing her to lose control of her back legs every once in a while.”

Chispa’s veterinary team, led by VMBS professor Dr. Nicholas Jeffery and then-resident veterinarian Dr. Emily Dupont, performed surgery to stabilize her vertebrae to reduce their movement and compression of the spinal cord. 

“There was maybe a month or two during recovery when it was tough for her to walk, but she was more than happy to just lie down and stick it out,” Schulte said. 

Discovering A Secondary Problem

During the process of diagnosing and treating Chispa’s spine issue, her veterinarians noticed another potential problem while examining her full-body MRI scan — fluid had built up inside one of her middle ear cavities, in the space behind the ear drum.

Chispa was then referred to the SATH’s Dermatology Service, where Schulte and Flores shared that the pug also had a history of intermittent itching, skin sores and ear and skin infections. Her dermatology team, including clinical assistant professor Dr. Christina Gentry, began developing a treatment plan to narrow down the potential causes of Chispa’s symptoms and find ways to alleviate her discomfort.

“Our goal in the Dermatology Service is always to not only to address the patient’s infection right now but to give owners a strategy to prevent secondary infections by figuring out why this specific pet has infections in the first place,” Gentry said.

An additional benefit of addressing Chispa’s infections was reducing the chance that an infection could spread to the new implants stabilizing her spine. 

“Because Chispa is predisposed to getting skin and ear infections, the concern is that eventually, those bacteria could grow to a high enough number that they could travel through the lymphatic vessels or bloodstream and set up shop in her implants,” Gentry said. “Plus, it’s just not fun being itchy and having recurrent infections.”

Narrowing Down The Cause

When a dog has consistent itching and infections, the most common causes are parasites and allergies. Because Chispa was on parasite prevention, her dermatology team concluded that her symptoms were caused by allergies.

A common problem for dogs in Texas, allergies often occur due to dust mites, pollen and outdoor molds. In addition, some dogs can have allergies to specific proteins commonly included in dog food. Determining the exact allergens affecting a specific dog can be a long and complicated process, but Gentry was dedicated to helping Chispa find relief, no matter how long it took.

“The first thing we usually do is a diet trial using a prescription food that doesn’t have the proteins in it that commonly cause allergies in dogs,” Gentry said. “We feed that diet exclusively for somewhere between six and 12 weeks while we address the infections. If you do that and they’re still getting new infections, then you know the food isn’t the problem.”

While completing the diet trial, Chispa’s skin infections were treated with topical antiseptic medications and shampoos. At the end of the trial, her allergy symptoms were better, but not resolved, leading her veterinarians to conclude that she was allergic to both a protein in her food and environmental allergens.

As a result, Chispa was put on a new routine of medicated baths, medications for environmental allergies, and special food that slowly improved her allergy symptoms. She will most likely continue to have flare-ups occasionally, but the Texas A&M dermatology team is there to help adjust her treatments or provide care whenever she needs it.  

“Sometimes, something changes in the food or the environment and you see these ups and downs, but our goal as dermatologists is to catch these problems when they’re early and then make adjustments to the pet’s therapy,” Gentry said. “I suspect that Chispa will still need chronic care to keep her skin and ears normal. But her owners and I love this dog and are happy that she’s generally moving in the right direction.”

An Unfortunate Predisposition

Although Chispa’s ear infections were largely because of her allergies, she was also predisposed because of her breed. Brachycephalic, or short-skulled, breeds like pugs have narrow ear canals that taper at the bottom, making it easier for bacteria to become trapped inside and break through the ear drum to the middle ear cavity.

“Brachycephalic breeds can also often have a syndrome called middle ear effusion (MEE),” Gentry said. “When their Eustachian tube gets closed, either from a respiratory infection or from just anatomical differences that we see in these smush-faced dogs, the normal, small amounts of fluid that your middle ear makes can’t exit; they just build up over time.”

This fluid build-up can press on nerves that control an individual’s ability to move their pupils, blink, hold their head straight and feel their face, resulting in a constant feeling of dizziness and nausea.

While Chispa was lucky that her suspected infection could be resolved through medication, many brachycephalic dogs that develop MEE with clinical signs or a serious middle or inner ear infection end up needing ear canal surgery at some point in their lives. Surgery can have additional risks in these breeds because they are more likely to develop anesthesia complications from their reduced airway. 

“If you have a pug, French bulldog, English bulldog, Boston terrier, or any other smush-faced dog, any sign of an ear infection should prompt you to seek a veterinarian as soon as possible,” Gentry said. “In these breeds, their middle ear is very close to their inner ear and brain, and we don’t want any infection to spread.”

Fortunately for Chispa, her owners and veterinary team are dedicated to managing her skin and ear infections and keeping the pug as comfortable as possible. Thanks to her new restricted diet, Chispa had the added benefit of losing a few pounds, improving her recovery from her spine surgery. 

“When we came to Texas A&M, we were confident that we could get everything resolved in one spot without having to go to different specialists and different places,” Schulte said. “Chispa had a cast of people looking after her and everybody seemed to really like her. Now, she’s doing great. If she wants to chase the garbage truck, she’ll take off like a stallion, with no issues whatsoever.”

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For more information about the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, please visit our website at vetmed.tamu.edu or join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216

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