Health
How often should an older Bichon's heart be listened to?
At least annually, and twice a year from around eight. Auscultation is quick, inexpensive and the main way murmurs are found.
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Cardiac Disease in Bichon Frises: What to Monitor Across a Long Life
Quick answer
How often should an older Bichon's heart be listened to?
At least annually, and twice a year from around eight. Auscultation is quick, inexpensive and the main way murmurs are found.
Nothing about a Bichon's heart demands worry in its early years, but a stethoscope once a year and a count of sleeping breaths at home is a monitoring plan worth having in place before it matters.
Owners of Bichons in their second decade whose vet has mentioned a murmur, and owners who want to know which routine checks are actually worth doing rather than which ones sound thorough.
Important reminder
This guide is not medical advice. If your dog shows pain, sudden behavior change, or worsening symptoms, consult a licensed veterinarian.
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What this problem looks like
Cardiac disease in a small companion dog most often means a heart valve that has thickened and no longer seals, allowing blood to leak backward with each beat. The heart compensates for years, often silently, and only later does fluid begin to accumulate in the lungs. It is detected first as a murmur on a stethoscope, staged with imaging, and monitored at home by counting breaths while the dog sleeps.
Common triggers
- Advancing age, which is the dominant factor in acquired valve disease
- Small body size, since valve degeneration is proportionally more common in small breeds than large ones
- Dental and periodontal disease, which is documented in this breed and is worth controlling for general health
- Excess weight, which increases the workload the heart has to sustain
- Sustained high blood pressure, which can accompany other conditions in older dogs
Not documented as a Bichon Frise breed problem, but common across older small dogs as a population. Because this breed reaches fourteen or fifteen far more often than many, a proportion of Bichons will acquire a murmur in their senior years. Most of them will never progress to heart failure, which is a piece of context worth holding on to.
Why this happens
Breed factors
There is no cardiac entry on the Bichon Frise's documented health list, and the breed carries no known inherited heart condition. What it does carry is longevity, and longevity is the main risk factor for degenerative valve change in dogs. A second, indirect breed link runs through the mouth: dental disease is documented here, and while the relationship between periodontal disease and heart health in dogs is not a simple cause and effect, keeping a mouth healthy is sound general practice in a dog expected to live into its mid-teens.
Environment factors
The environment does not cause valve degeneration, but it determines how well a dog copes and how early problems are caught. A Bichon in an apartment, which suits this breed's five out of five apartment rating, may rarely be pushed hard enough for reduced stamina to be obvious, so decline can go unnoticed. Overfeeding a dog with an exercise requirement of two out of five produces excess weight that increases cardiac workload. And a household that skips annual checks removes the only routine that reliably detects a murmur before symptoms appear.
What you can do at home (once it is not an emergency)
When to talk to your vet
Contact your vet promptly for a new cough, particularly one that is worse at night or after lying down, for reduced stamina on familiar walks, for fainting, or for a sleeping respiratory rate that has risen above your dog's established baseline for more than a day or two. Go to an emergency clinic immediately for breathing that is fast and laboured at rest, an inability to settle or lie down at night combined with breathing effort, gums that look pale, grey or blue, coughing up pink froth, or collapse. Fluid accumulating in the lungs is a genuine emergency and it responds much better to treatment started early.
At home, alongside your vet's plan
- Establish your dog's normal sleeping respiratory rate now, while it is healthy, by counting breaths on several evenings and writing the numbers down.
- Keep a plain record of exercise tolerance: the walk your dog does comfortably, and any month in which that distance starts shrinking.
- Weigh monthly and keep your Bichon lean, since excess weight adds cardiac workload and masks early exercise intolerance.
- Maintain dental health with daily brushing, which is worth doing for its own sake in a breed with documented dental disease.
- Book annual examinations and move to twice yearly from around eight, so a murmur is found by a stethoscope rather than by a crisis.
More Bichon Frise health & behavior issues
- Bichon Frise and ARVC: Does This Heart Disease Apply?
- Bichon Frise Bloat (GDV): Myths, Feeding and What to Watch
- Bichon Frise Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM): The Silent Phase
- Bichon Frise GDV Risk: Feeding Habits That Actually Matter
- Bichon Frise Pancreatitis: The Fat Trigger and the Warning Signs
- IVDD in Bichon Frises: Risk, Signs and Back Protection
- IVDD Type I in Bichon Frises: The Emergency Explained
- Pancreatitis and Diabetes in Senior Bichon Frises
- Bichon Frise Allergic Reactions: Signs, Triggers, Action
- Bichon Frise Allergies: Itching, Ears and Real Management
- Bichon Frise and BOAS: Does the Breed Have Airway Syndrome?
- Bichon Frise Breathing Noise: BOAS, Reverse Sneezing or What?
- Bichon Frise Separation Anxiety: Why This Breed Struggles
- Bichon Frise Skin Allergies: The Breed's Top Health Issue
- Bichon Frise Skin Infections: Where They Actually Form
Cardiac Disease in other breeds
- Jack Russell Terrier Cardiac Disease: Signs & What to Do
- Labradoodle Cardiac Disease: Signs, Causes & What to Do
- Maltese Cardiac Disease: Signs, Causes & What to Do
- Miniature Schnauzer Cardiac Disease: Signs & What to Do
- Poodle Cardiac Disease: Signs, Causes & What to Do
- Rottweiler Cardiac Disease: Signs, Causes & What to Do
- Standard Schnauzer Cardiac Disease: Signs & What to Do
- Yorkshire Terrier Cardiac Disease: Signs & What to Do
- Akita Cardiac Disease: A Screening-First Overview
- American Pit Bull Terrier Cardiac Disease: Signs
See all Bichon Frise health problems, which breeds are prone to cardiac disease, or the full Bichon Frise breed guide for temperament, exercise needs and ownership costs.
What to expect, and how you know it is working
Valve disease is slow. Many dogs carry a murmur for three, four or more years with no change in how they live. Where the heart does begin to enlarge, monitoring intervals shorten and treatment may begin, and that treatment is generally lifelong once started. Where fluid has accumulated, improvement after treatment is usually rapid, within a day or two, but it marks a change in the management plan rather than a resolution.
Success is a Bichon Frise whose murmur was found at a routine appointment rather than at an emergency, whose owner has a written baseline breathing rate and checks it, and whose heart is monitored at sensible intervals without the household living in fear of it. For many dogs, success looks like reaching fifteen with a murmur that never needed a single tablet.
What It Means When a Vet Hears a Murmur
A murmur is turbulence. Blood that should move smoothly through the heart is instead swirling, usually because a valve is not closing cleanly, and the stethoscope picks that up as a whooshing sound between the normal beats.
Murmurs are graded on a scale, roughly from barely detectable to loud enough to feel through the chest wall. Owners hear a grade and assume it maps onto severity of illness. It does not, at least not reliably. A soft murmur can accompany significant change and a loud one can sit in a dog that feels entirely well for years.
What the murmur does is prompt the next question, which is whether the heart has started to change shape in response. That is answered by imaging, not by listening. A chest radiograph shows heart size, and an ultrasound scan shows the valves and chambers directly.
This matters because there is a real difference between a dog with a murmur and a dog with heart disease that is affecting it. Many older small dogs live out their lives in the first category. Finding out which one your Bichon is in is the entire point of the investigation, and it usually leads to reassurance and a monitoring interval rather than to treatment.
The Home Measurement That Beats Watching for Symptoms
Resting respiratory rate is the most useful thing an owner can measure at home, and almost nobody is told about it. It is free, it takes thirty seconds, and it detects fluid accumulating in the lungs earlier than waiting for a cough does.
- Wait until your Bichon is genuinely asleep, not just lying still, because a dozing dog breathes differently from a sleeping one.
- Count each rise of the chest for thirty seconds and double it. One rise and fall is one breath.
- Do this on several normal evenings first to establish your own dog's baseline, since individuals differ.
- Record the number. A note on the phone or a kitchen calendar is enough, and the trend is what matters rather than any single reading.
- Once a baseline exists, check a few times a week for a dog with a known murmur. A sustained rise above the established normal, particularly a rate consistently in the thirties or above while asleep, is a reason to contact your vet promptly.
- Take the numbers to the appointment. A record of the previous three weeks is far more informative than a single count in a busy waiting room.
What to do next about cardiac disease in Bichons
If you think your Bichon has cardiac disease, the plan is three steps: write down what you have seen and when it started, book a veterinary appointment rather than waiting for the next flare, and take video of the behaviour or symptom before you go — the thing you are worried about rarely happens in the consulting room. Screening in the parents covers skin allergies, patellar luxation, bladder stones.
What the vet visit should produce is a diagnosis and a written plan, not just reassurance: what is being ruled out, what the monitoring interval is, and which signs mean you come back sooner. Ask what the treatment costs across a year rather than per visit, because that is the number that decides whether you are managing this condition or reacting to it.
Between appointments, keep a short log — dates, what you saw, what changed. It is the single most useful thing an owner brings to a follow-up, and for cardiac disease it is often what separates a clear pattern from a guess.
Three Weeks of Numbers on a Kitchen Calendar
Bertie was twelve and had carried a soft murmur for three years without ever needing treatment. His owner, Nadia, had been shown how to count his breathing while he slept at the appointment where the murmur was first graded, and she wrote a number on the kitchen calendar most Sundays. His usual figure was eighteen. One Sunday it was twenty-six. The following Wednesday it was thirty-one, and Bertie had started shifting position repeatedly during the night. He was not coughing. He ate his dinner. By every ordinary measure he seemed himself, and without the calendar Nadia would have waited. She phoned instead. Radiographs that afternoon showed early fluid in the lungs, treatment was started the same day, and Bertie was comfortable within forty-eight hours. His vet's comment was that the numbers on a calendar had bought them several days, and in fluid accumulation several days is a great deal.
Key takeaway: Counting sleeping breaths costs nothing and detects heart failure days before a dog looks unwell, which is exactly when treatment works best.
Frequently asked questions
Is heart disease common in Bichon Frises?
It is not among the health issues documented for the breed. Degenerative valve disease is nonetheless the most frequent acquired heart problem across small dogs generally, and a breed living fourteen to fifteen years has plenty of time in the age range where it appears. Annual listening is the sensible response, not preemptive worry.
My vet found a murmur but says no treatment is needed. Is that right?
Very often, yes. Treatment for valve disease is started at a specific stage, based on whether the heart has enlarged, not simply because a murmur exists. Starting medication too early has no proven benefit. Ask what the monitoring interval should be and what signs would change the plan.
What is the first sign of heart failure at home?
A rising resting respiratory rate usually precedes obvious symptoms. After that, owners typically notice a soft cough, particularly at night or after lying down, reduced stamina on walks, and a dog that is restless and cannot settle comfortably. Any of these in a dog with a known murmur deserves a prompt call.
Does coughing always mean heart disease?
No, and in small dogs it frequently does not. Airway irritation, windpipe problems and infections all cause coughing. A honking cough triggered by excitement points elsewhere than the heart. The pattern, the timing and what else is happening determine the answer, which is why the examination matters.
Should my Bichon see a cardiologist?
Referral is worthwhile when a murmur needs staging accurately, when the diagnosis is unclear, or when treatment decisions depend on precise chamber measurements. Many stable dogs are managed perfectly well in general practice with periodic rechecks. Ask your vet what a referral would change about the plan.
Can I still exercise a Bichon with a heart murmur?
In most cases yes, and staying active supports overall health. The guidance is to let your dog set the pace, keep exercise regular rather than occasional, and avoid pushing through obvious tiredness or heat. This breed's modest exercise requirement of two out of five makes that easy to accommodate.
Quick answers
View more answersHealth
What is a normal sleeping breathing rate?
Most healthy dogs sit comfortably below twenty-five to thirty breaths per minute asleep. Establish your own dog's baseline rather than relying on an average.
Health
Does a murmur mean my dog is ill?
Not necessarily. Many older small dogs carry a murmur for years without it affecting them. Imaging determines whether the heart has actually changed.
Health
Which symptom needs a same-day call?
Laboured or fast breathing at rest, a sudden inability to settle at night, or blue-tinged gums. Those suggest fluid in the lungs.
Costs
How expensive is cardiac monitoring?
Listening is included in a consultation. Radiographs are moderate and a specialist ultrasound is a larger one-off cost, usually repeated only periodically.
Related DogBreedCompass guides
- Bichon Frise cardiomyopathy – Heart muscle disease is a distinct category from the valve disease discussed here.
- Bichon Frise and ARVC – Collapse episodes have a specific differential worth reading separately.
- Bichon Frise exercise intolerance – Reduced stamina is often the first thing owners notice and has several causes.
- Bichon Frise cost of ownership – Ongoing cardiac medication and rechecks are a meaningful senior budget line.
- Bichon Frise breed guide – The breed profile lists lifespan and the health issues actually documented.
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