
| Bull Terrier Facts It's Not Just Bull! Why Bullies are not Suitable for House holds with Young Children! |

| Bullies and young children...sound like a good combination? After all, Bullies are often referred to as three year olds in clown suits. Why wouldn't they be suitable for young children? In article one of Bull Terrier Facts, I talked about Bullie strength, the hucklebuck, their coming up on their back legs and knocking your block off, but none of these are the reason I feel Bullies are not suitable for homes with young children. The real reason is McDonald Happy Meals! How so? Bull Terriers will eat anything. Unfortunately, not much except for food will move through their digestive systems. It is unbelievable what a bull terrier will ingest, anything and everything goes into their guts. Once in, it is unlikely to come out, leading to emergency surgery or worse, DEATH! It is not that Bullies are the only breed which eats stuff. Rottweilers will also eat anything. My first American Champion Sanron’s Josie V.D. Hart had very colorful poop and she adored brown paper bags. But Rotties never seem to have any problem with what they eat. On the other hand Bull Terriers are known for their “zipper surgeries.” I have had one Mini and one Standard which had to be opened up to remove part of rubber ball and a whole stuffed toy. I am very careful to never allow my Bullies to play unsupervised; however, accidents happen. The whole stuffed toy was swallowed right in front of my eyes. Neither I nor the vet could believe he had gotten it down without choking to death which was why I didn’t wrestle him for it, because I feared if I did wrestle him he would have choked. The same male became ill recently. X-rays showed nothing unusual. Several days after having barium run through his system, he passed a length of rope coated in feces. It hadn’t shown up on the x- ray because it looked like stool. Where he found the rope is anyone’s guess. Another mini ate a wash rag, or so I thought. I tried to get him to vomit without success, even tried driving him around late at night on a winding country road to make him car sick. No go. Finally I decided I was mistaken. Two days later he vomited it up. How could a busy mother keep up with all those plastic toys and stuffed animals and everything else a small child needs to make his world complete? Surely many would find their way down a Bullie’s neck. And since Bullies are so stoic in the face of discomfort, they can be very ill before an owner even realizes something is wrong. No, bullies, and small children just don’t go together. Zipper surgery is not cheap, not to mention the agony of not knowing if a beloved pet is going to live or die. Think twice before bringing a Bull Terrier into your home if you have small children. |
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| Have further questions? E-mail us at Debra.Ball@eku.edu |