For example, when I was a kid, our neighbor's Standard Poodle Billy was 21 and went for a walk every day. Our cats lived to be 22 and 23. The party line of conventional veterinary medicine is something like: "Thanks to modeern medicine, our pets are living longer and healthier lives than ever before!" And yet, on the ground, this is not true.
At a conference last summer, a vet from California began her lecture by saying, "As you all know, we're dealing with animals that have a ten-year life span." And we know that giant breed dogs (Great Pyrenees, Bernese Mountain Dogs, mastiffs, St. Bernards) are seniors with three feet in the grave by the time they're six. Cats are senior citizens by seven or eight.
In my little home experiment with natural care and feeding, here's how it's going: Tonka, who is 13 now and a 97 lb Malamute mix, is now officially off the chart. He still goes for a walk every day and does a happy dance at feeding time, although the dance is more sedate than it used to be. Tootsie, who is 14 years and 22 lbs, can still jump up on the dining room table and gets into everything she possibly can. Yesterday she ran away, ate lots of compost, and swam in the swamp. Ariel, at 8 years and 17 lbs, is a child in comparison. I hope she never grows old. When the other two are gone, I'll adopt a big goofy black dog and another snarky little terrier, just to keep Ariel on her toes!
I found this chart very interesting thanks for posting it, also the info. about the little dog with CA of the anal sac.
ReplyDeleteI have tried to keep our dogs as healthy as possible to live as long as possible without extensive painful unreasonable intervention to try & extend their lives beyond what is compassionate. My Mum taught me well by example.
I am disturbed at the number & frequency of "necessary" vaccinations here in the US. Our little Aussie Terrier is on a 3 year cycle, of a minimum of vaccinations. What do you consider the absolute necessities for protection vaccination wise?
For protection purposes, the vaccines that they get at 4-6 months of age are likely all they need to be protected for life. Want to be sure? Run an antibody titer to that specific disease to make sure antibodies are present. Having said that, you need to be aware that antibodies are only one part of the immune system. Unfortunately they're the only part we can measure. I think the presence of any antibodies at all indicates that the pet is protected from disease.
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