Von Willebrand's Disease in the Bichon Frise: Managing a Condition With No Daily Symptoms

Von Willebrand factor is a blood protein that helps platelets stick together and start the clotting process at the site of an injury. A dog with reduced levels of this factor has a mild to moderate clotting delay, not an absence of clotting altogether, which is exactly why the condition can go unnoticed for years. Everyday bumps and scrapes that a normal dog clots quickly still happen and still stop bleeding in an affected dog, just somewhat more slowly, and that slower pace is easy to miss without something specifically testing the clotting system, like surgery or a significant wound.

Spay and neuter surgery, dental extractions, and any procedure involving a cut into tissue are the classic moments where von Willebrand's disease becomes obvious, because these create a bleeding challenge routine bumps do not. A nail trimmed slightly too short, normally a minor annoyance, can bleed for an unusually long time. Nosebleeds without an obvious cause, small bruises appearing without known trauma, or blood in urine or stool without other illness are the other patterns worth noticing at home, even though most affected dogs never show any of them until a specific triggering event occurs.

Because the condition is silent until tested, the practical management strategy is knowing about it before a bleeding challenge happens, not reacting after one starts. A simple blood test can measure von Willebrand factor levels or confirm the condition through genetic testing, and either result changes how a vet approaches any future surgery: adjusting technique, having blood products on standby, or simply building in extra recovery monitoring time. This is a planning problem, solved well in advance, not a crisis-management one.

If you think your Bichon has von willebrand's 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 von willebrand's disease it is often what separates a clear pattern from a guess.