A member of the health committee
recently reminded me that writing about older Bichons is the
opposite version of puppy care. Ample provision has been made for
educating puppy owners in their care but not so much about tending
to our senior animals. The age of sixteen used to be the norm for
Bichons, with a few surviving beyond to reach their seventeenth or
eighteenth birthdays. These were the exceptions to a general rule.
In an early survey, the average life expectancy was just over
14 years but most breeders would have said that a well bred Bichon
could and should exceed that age by several years with good care.
The purpose of this article is to help your Bichon reach that
ripe old age and possibly to extend it to as much as twenty years if
the dog has “good genes” as well as good care.
We do know that some Bichons live beyond age twenty from responses
to our question on line “Have you owned a Bichon that lived 19 years
or longer? “. We have heard of one that was age 23 but never
received confirmation of date of birth. To successfully achieve long
life begins very early and is the result of good care for a
lifetime. As in humans, we can say that every dog has at least
one fatal illness – stated another way, each one will eventually die
if for no other reason than his body just gives out. Let’s talk
about how to make that later rather than sooner.
Some personal experiences
This article will be about my
personal experiences. You will have to take it or leave it on that
basis but I have raised from birth (or shortly after) more than 20
Bichons. I have lost most of my Bichons at age 15 years to age 19
years but – sadly - there have been those that died earlier.
One had an aggressive breast cancer and she was a bitch who came in
season close to three times a year. As with human mammary carcinoma,
hormones fed her cancer and she did not get spayed as early as she
should have been, to my regret. Another much loved little boy had a
large lipoma that was scheduled for removal. Somehow the lipoma
developed an infection that began to drain the week he was due for
surgery. That infection apparently reached his heart muscle and he
eventually died of heart disease. One young male living with my
son’s family may have been poisoned. He died quickly of liver
failure without a definitive diagnosis. These are the heart breakers
and I still feel very sad when I think of losing them at such a
young age.
There are the success stories, another bitch also had mammary cancer
and had two surgeries about two years apart. The second cancer
surgery was followed within two weeks by a third surgery to scrape
away all remaining breast tissue to prevent recurrence of the
cancer. That year we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the
emergency veterinary clinic where I was told she must have
metastatic liver cancer. She had back to back surgeries two weeks
before and made a great recovery and now she had cancer? My own
veterinarian and I disagreed with the diagnosis and we were correct.
Our determination was that her liver was stressed from anesthesias,
antibiotics and quite likely the final straw was the use of a pain
medication that had just come on the market. I now forbid anyone
with one of my dogs to use that medication. But my little girl had
another two years of health and lived to age 16 ½ , eventually dying
of liver failure that probably stemmed from that damaging illness.
The most unlikely “success” story was my bitch that began to show
signs of cognitive dysfunction (senility in human terms) at age 15.
My vet and I chose to try the new drug Anipryl (actually the old
drug selegiline, assigned a new name by the drug company) when it
came on the market when she was almost 18. It did improve her life
for that remaining year. At age 19 years, one week, she had a grand
mal seizure. At that age, her heart was beating strongly and
efficiently but a seizure indicated a major problem and she was
euthanized. I am happy to say that her son who is approaching age 19
is alert and has no signs of cognitive dysfunction, though he
clearly looks like an old dog at this point in his life. He is
active, eats well and has overcome an extended sinus infection in
recent months. Those good genes have kept him going!
Foods and drugs
Now that I have done what writers
are not supposed to do, that is to write about my own animals, I
will share some of the things that I have learned from these and my
other Bichons. You may be surprised to read that some of what I have
NOT done may be more important than what I did.
My dogs are fed a high quality kibble, with the maximum amount of
food given in a day limited to a total of one cup. That
includes any bits of kibble that I may use for training. They rarely
get treats and those treats that they receive are minimal in size. I
would say less than a tablespoon in a day, if that much. Others feed
homemade diets successfully and I will not disagree with them on
using those diets but they require careful weighing and measuring
and most pet owners are not willing to do food preparation that
carefully. But I am adamant that the dogs receive little in the way
of treats and will pitch a fit if any of the dogs I have sold comes
to visit and is F-A-T!!! The dog should not be so thin that you can
lay your fingers between his ribs nor should those ribs be covered
in fat so that you cannot palpate them.
Overweight dogs will likely develop orthopedic problems, have
pancreatic disease, may be more susceptible to diabetes – the list
goes on. If your dog is fat, today is the time to start cutting back
on his food intake, whether he is two years old or approaching
twenty! One way to reduce the weight is exercise but my own adult
dogs are rarely walked for any distance. They are all active (fat
dogs will NOT be active) in the house. Anyone who has seen a Bichon
blitz knows they make their own exercise. However a dog that is
crated for hours needs some activity to make up for those restricted
hours of his day.
An issue that cannot be ignored is the importance of life long
dental hygiene. Dirty teeth, infected gums and poor dental care will
leave your dog susceptible to systemic infections that may settle in
the muscles of the heart, the kidney, the liver or in the blood
stream to be transported throughout the body.
My experience has taught me that steroids can be killers. Don’t
misunderstand me because I have given prednisone to some of my dogs
as per veterinary prescription when they have needed it for a
specific reason. The major use of prednisone is to treat allergies
but I prefer to manage any mild allergies in other ways. For the dog
that is severely allergic, consultation with specialists may be the
answer but your dog will have a better life if you can maintain him
or her without excessive steroid use. It can be wonderful used
correctly but can destroy the immune system if used without regard
to long term effects. Through our interactive work with pet owners
around the world, we read too often of problems that may have
started with using quick fix medications.
And that topic leads to discussion of preventives. If you read any
other article on this web site, then read The Wise Use of
Preventive Medications. I have avoided most of these products
though I do consider heartworm preventive to be essential in
virtually the entire USA now. In some parts of the country, it may
still be possible to stop it during winter months but that is not so
in most states. As to preventing fleas and ticks, a properly groomed
Bichon will not have a flea in residence long enough to produce more
fleas and using preventives is both the lazy way and the harmful
way. I acknowledge that there are places where fleas are so bad that
milder forms of preventives may have to be used but not the products
that include everything but a vitamin compound!
As to heartworm preventive, I stop those at age 15 on the theory
that most Bichons have only another one or two years anyway and it
would probably take that long for the heartworm to kill them. I do
this also with the knowledge that my older dogs are only outside –
and briefly – for bathroom purposes. This is one of those topics you
must discuss with your own veterinarian and make your own decision.
But remember that most of my dogs live to between 17 ½ and 19 years
now that I have stopped the preventive at age 15. If any have had
heartworm, it has not been apparent and annual heartworm testing
will answer that question for you. Again I stress that in the
tropical parts of our country, it may be necessary to continue this
particular preventive because of year round presence of mosquitoes.
Vaccines
Now we need to talk about vaccines,
which can be a sticky topic. Vaccines work by stimulating antibody
formation. You might say they create a “mini-version” of the disease
in the body and thus act as a stress on the immune system. We now
realize that the body needs a rest between boosters and that
immunity does not simply fade away in a year. Research is ongoing to
determine the frequency of booster shots but the current
recommendation says that you can safely wait three years between
boosters. Blood titers can be run to ascertain the level of immunity
before giving unwarranted booster shots. Your vet will explain how
they work.
State laws make rabies boosters a legal requirement, with frequency
dependant on the state you live in. Rabies is considered the most
damaging vaccine by both breeders and veterinarians but it is also
the one canine disease that can kill humans if contracted. There is
good news in that current research may help establish a better time
frame for rabies boosters. Support for that research is important to
anyone who has or intends to have a pet dog because we need to know
just how long the current vaccines are effective in preventing
disease. While there is a titer test for rabies, it is considered to
be unreliable.
So what do I do with my dogs in terms of vaccines? I am not
necessarily following current regulations but I do talk to my
veterinarians about each dog and the likelihood that the vaccine in
question will be good or will be damaging to him/her. I have stopped
boosters by age 15, just as I stop the heartworm preventive, after
consulting with my vet and based on research. And I keep my dogs at
home or close to me when I (rarely) take them to visit family or
friends. In other words, they are not likely to be exposed to the
diseases that vaccines cover. You will need to have a long talk with
your own vet to decide when you had best stop any boosters and you
must also be sure that you understand how to protect your pet from
exposure to disease. Boarding kennels may have requirements that
will make you think carefully about in home care as opposed to
boarding when you have to be away. Any dog with potentially fatal
disease near end of life would certainly not benefit from boosters
that may lessen his ability to recover.
Old age and when
to expect it
When does old age begin and what
conditions should you be on the lookout for in your older Bichons?
Bichons are probably middle aged around 10 years. According to some
experienced dog breeders and owners, there seems to be a time around
age 10 when metabolic disease may be diagnosed or heart murmurs
found. This is a period when laboratories suggest having “a
geriatric panel” run on your dog. These panels will usually include
blood chemistry, possibly thyroid panel and certainly a complete
urinalysis. The idea is to get a baseline record of blood and urine
values and to catch as early as possible the signs of approaching
disease of old age. If the panel proves to be within normal limits,
you may not need to repeat it for a couple of years. If signs of
disease appear, you then have a base line for comparison. Money well
spent and costing possibly as low as $60 but may be higher in more
expensive communities.
What are the diseases of old age? Certainly the metabolic conditions
are present in a percentage of Bichons. Based on reports coming in
to our health committee, diabetes and Cushings are both on the rise.
Pancreatitis can be either acute or chronic and you should learn the
signs. Heart disease will begin in middle age and any of these
may start at a younger age. Kidney diseases and liver diseases
can begin in younger dogs but are often a cause of death in an older
dog. In order to diagnose a problem early, you will want to run the
blood and urine tests because early treatment is the way to keep
your beloved pet with you for a long time! You will find articles on
all of these in the index because we want you to become familiar
with the signs and the ways to treat any that are diagnosed. The
research has been done for you but only you can watch your pet to
know if the signs of disease are present. And then you MUST see your
veterinarian to obtain his or her help in restoring or at least
maintaining quality of life for as long as possible.
How will my old
dog behave?
Inevitably your dog will start to
show his or her age. You will see less activity, longer periods of
sleep, possibly patterned pacing that will be a sign of early
cognitive dysfunction. Appetite may change but Bichons are more
likely to overeat than to undereat unless they are sick. Weight gain
or weight loss can always be a sign of some change in the body. The
hair coat may be less thick or have a dull cast as your Bichon
approaches old age. Unless the diet has changed, this may not be an
issue until the last year or two but it is certainly a sign of a
less healthy dog. We have not talked about vision but there is a
need to always monitor your Bichon for changes in vision. The
slightly bluish change in color may be a normal change but
cloudiness, discharge and other changes are not normal and are
addressed in articles on eye diseases. Hearing loss is fairly common
in older dogs but total deafness is not. Both the blind and the deaf
dog are able to live contented lives with proper maintenance.
It is important to avoid dramatic changes in furniture arrangement
when you have an older dog around though a move to a new house is
not necessarily going to disturb a contented dog all that much. It
is just easier on them if they have things as they normally have
been. A good bed is essential, one that is not high and that has
good support so now is the time to toss out the old beds and invest
in a new one that is comfy, supportive and close to the floor
because stiff old bones are not wanting to climb to find rest. In
cold climates, a warm sweater or coat may help if you keep the
temperature down or for trips outside. My dogs don’t wear them but
they don’t stay outside very long either. And I keep a couple of
soft towels on their beds so that they kind of hunker down when they
want to. I like the beds with sides that help cut off any drafts.
Stiffness is common but limping is not! Moaning may be an indication
of discomfort unless you have one that is a moaner all her life, as
one of mine was. Snoring may or may not indicate a problem, again
depending on whether this has been a normal occurrence. In other
words, don’t worry about those things that have always happened but
watch for any change in habit, whatever it may be. I see some of my
dogs become “jumpy”, as if being touched is annoying or maybe even
uncomfortable. Every Bichon we ever owned liked to sleep under the
furniture but I would worry about one that wanted to hide. A nervous
reaction to sudden light can mean an eye problem, such as glaucoma
or iritis.
The obvious signs of serious illness at any age are seizures,
bleeding, pain, (vocalizing in any way that is not usual may
indicate pain), discharge, difficulty in urinating or bowel
elimination, excessive drinking or urination, vomiting, diarrhea,
change in color of urine or stool; all of these are things to watch
for. If you wonder if something is wrong, don’t contact us and ask
our opinion – SEE YOUR VETERINARIAN! It will be worth the cost of
the visit to know for certain, whether you get a good report or a
bad one! But we have made every effort to educate you so that you do
understand and maybe these words about how life is for older dogs
will be of some help as well.
On a final note, there does come a time when you have to make a
decision in continuing to support a life that is painful or to
kindly release your beloved pet from that final illness. I have had
some dogs live to the end and die in my arms. I have more often
known when there has been enough sickness and that it was best to
hold him or her close and to allow a kindly veterinarian to end the
suffering. Neither is a good way to say goodbye. I recently lost a
17 ½ year old to kidney failure after only two days of illness. She
slipped into a semi-comatose state so I held her most of the
afternoon and then we went to the clinic. While I mourn her loss, I
also know that she had 17 years and 6 months of a happy life and was
smiling at me just two days before I said goodbye. That was a
wonderful gift to both of us because I know she had not suffered. I
still expect to hear her little sing song moan in the middle of the
night – as I had been hearing it for the past 17 years! And I know
she is romping somewhere with all those others that went before her
and who have taught me so much about Bichons and their health. Maybe
their stories will help you in caring for your Bichon(s).
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