Vet Says We Are Helping To Kill Our Animals.

[Lainey]

I remember dogs living to a ripe old age and the ones that died young were usually accidents. We had a blind lab who went 'funny' (stroke like symptoms) after having to be spayed at 15, my parents managed to keep her going for another year or so, before she was pts. Spaying wasnt done as a routine thing then, things would probably have been different if it had been done when she was young.

I do remember a lot of dogs outliving their teeth It was great being chased up the street by the neighbourhood evil dog once he had lost his teeth and tried to gum you to death

I can only recall 1 incidence of cancer it was an old dog- but that may have been a case of protecting the kids, cos back then no one even said 'cancer' it was known as 'the big c' in hushed tones.

 

i was born in 1971 if that helps

Edited May 30, 2008 by Lainey

[Shazzy]

Just skimed through the above but would like to say that none of my dogs are vacc's neither are the cats. They have all had their original boosters but none since. My eldest cat is now 18 has all her own teeth and is as fit as a fiddle. Kitty - who died 3 years ago was 22 and again had never been vaccd and just went to sleep and never woke up

 

My cats are all fed on either Whiskas, steamed fish and go-cat. They all have their teeth and the youngest is now 9.

 

The dogs - after a lot of soul searching and branded dried foods are now fed on Wholemeal biscuit, tinned tesco's premium dog food, raw mince occasionally, spag bol, veggies and bonios. Since going back to the "old way" that my Mum followed their poo is firm and consistent, we dont have skin allergies, their temperament is sound and Flynn has at last put on weight.

 

I have tried Burns, Science, James Wellbeloved and Nutro but they either leave it or their coats look dull. I am happy with my choice now - the dogs love it.

 

All the animals have raw garlic in their food twice a week to combat fleas -= and this seems to work and once a week have human codliver oil tablets on their food.

 

Saying all that above - the rabbit does have his Mixie injection once a year and he is now 6.

 

Off to hide

 

Ticks - if they get them are treated with nail varnish remover.

 

Edited to say - that perhaps dogs live longer now because a: they are not let out to roam as they did before and b: the standard of meat that they are fed be it tinned etc., or raw is better and more nutritious.

Edited May 30, 2008 by Shazzy

[reds]

Another thought about dogs living longer (honestly don't remember myself) maybe diagnostic techniques and insurance also have a part to play. Maybe the same proportion (or thereabouts) of dogs did have cancer as they do today but it wasn't diagnosed like it is these days?

[celeste]

Cycas, check out ORIJEN dry food for your cats, I've had my cat Polly on it for a while and she is thriving, they have their own web site and you can buy it from ZOOPLUS, I also have the dogs on it and they've never looked better, this food was a case of having to do my homework as it has an incredibly high protein level, and I certainly wasn't going to take the manufacturers word that such a high level was ok, luckily if you do a bit of googling there are a few research papers on protein levels and guess what, it's now reconned not to have the effects previously thought and my own experience is that it most certainly dosen't cause your dog to go off it's rocker, another benifit is that it contains no grains, they use veg instead.

[zico's mum]

Seriously though, do dogs actually live longer now? For some reason I seem to recall dogs when I was a child living long lives (way older than 10-11) but I have no idea if that's true in reality. Anyone know?[/color]

 

 

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The pet cemetary in Kensington Gardens where the last animal buried was in 1915 (first was 1880) has many dogs whose headstones say they were well into their teens,it really struck me when I visited it for an Open Day.

[EAD]

My lot are all fed on Burns kibbles with NatureMenu and raw chicken wings a few times per week and ive stopped treating them for fleas and only wormed them once since last summer. On the other side of it, Lily is soon gonna be starting desensitization vaccine injections again for her allergies, Benji is getting every pill under the sun as well as Metacam (he will be 18 in the new year) and Kyla is getting Previcox after cruciate surgery.

 

I try my best to keep them healthy, happy and painfree with whatever that takes.

[Kathyw]

I remember some very old dogs but 14/15 was the average age.

Most of these dogs would not have been vaccinated, rarely saw a vet and were fed on whatever was going, yet they seemed to thrive. Most common cause of death where I lived was being run over and there were not that many cars about when I was young.

 

Shazzy I found your post very interesting because just before that I was saying to Ray about the fact that all the cats I had in the past always lived beyond 16, my Benibeni was about 18/19 all were fed on Whiskas and once a week steamed fish.

But Twospussycat and Jimgy about 13/14 - both were fed on dry food.

I said that I was considering putting Kazzkitten on wet food because of the above - your post has made me decide to do just that.

 

This thread has given me so much to contemplate - so thank you all for contributing.

[vonny]

I remember some very old dogs but 14/15 was the average age.

Most of these dogs would not have been vaccinated, rarely saw a vet and were fed on whatever was going, yet they seemed to thrive.

 

Our family dog lived until she was 18,was kept in the kitchen and fed on Pal and Winalot.I was born in 1955 so she would of died in 1973.

My Oh's dog died in 2006 she was fed on tinned meat and biscuit all her life and she was 17 and a half.Odey the Oh's dog only saw the Vet about 6 times in her whole life.

[mooandboo]

I remember some very old dogs but 14/15 was the average age.

Most of these dogs would not have been vaccinated, rarely saw a vet and were fed on whatever was going, yet they seemed to thrive. Most common cause of death where I lived was being run over and there were not that many cars about when I was young.

 

Shazzy I found your post very interesting because just before that I was saying to Ray about the fact that all the cats I had in the past always lived beyond 16, my Benibeni was about 18/19 all were fed on Whiskas and once a week steamed fish.

But Twospussycat and Jimgy about 13/14 - both were fed on dry food.

I said that I was considering putting Kazzkitten on wet food because of the above - your post has made me decide to do just that.

 

This thread has given me so much to contemplate - so thank you all for contributing.

Jimmycat was fed on dry food for most of her life and died aged 20. She was vaccinated once, wormed occasionally and never saw a vet for illness until she got cat flu aged 18.

[Houndwoman]

It all makes perfect sense to me

We try and keep all of our animals as chemical free as possible.

 

Many drugs just deal with the sympoms of disease and not the cause.

 

We use a lot of herbs and use a homeopathic vet as well as our conventional one.

 

We do not vaccinate or use chemicals to deflea or worm and they are on an additive free diet.

 

If we have to use drugs when nothing else is appropriate then we will as we would not allow any of our animals to suffer because of our principals. Where we can though we will take the alternative route.

[merledogs]

The pet cemetary in Kensington Gardens where the last animal buried was in 1915 (first was 1880) has many dogs whose headstones say they were well into their teens,it really struck me when I visited it for an Open Day.

I would imagine that the pets buried in there would be from well to do families so would have been fed scraps of the best quality food from their table. Poorer people would not have been able to afford to bury their pets in a cemetary or feed them as good a diet, although I have no idea how or whether that would have affected their length of life in those days.

[estweyn]

Well I am really old walk with a limp and suffer from occassional dementia---------------

 

But I remember my dogs and my mums living till they were 13 -14. Lady the labrador 14+, Berry the Labrador 13+, Gina the GSD 13+

 

 

More recently I lost Rudi male gsd at 7 due to a brain tumour about 15 years ago, George died aged 9 with stomach torsion approx 6 years ago, Megan died 3 years ago aged 7 (dont even go there so many things) Shadow aged 10 this year after years of EPI and at the moment I only have Josh and he is 4, just praying his liver is not damaged from the recent Hepatitis, but feel very down this morning because his antibiotics stopped yesterday and yes the diahorrea is back this morning.

[celeste]

I only have Josh and he is 4, just praying his liver is not damaged from the recent Hepatitis, but feel very down this morning because his antibiotics stopped yesterday and yes the diahorrea is back this morning.

 

, Have you looked into using Milk Thistle to support his liver ?

[Shazzy]

Well I am really old walk with a limp and suffer from occassional dementia---------------

 

But I remember my dogs and my mums living till they were 13 -14. Lady the labrador 14+, Berry the Labrador 13+, Gina the GSD 13+

 

 

More recently I lost Rudi male gsd at 7 due to a brain tumour about 15 years ago, George died aged 9 with stomach torsion approx 6 years ago, Megan died 3 years ago aged 7 (dont even go there so many things) Shadow aged 10 this year after years of EPI and at the moment I only have Josh and he is 4, just praying his liver is not damaged from the recent Hepatitis, but feel very down this morning because his antibiotics stopped yesterday and yes the diahorrea is back this morning.

 

 

 

Could you try mixing arrowroot in with some chicken and rice - this sometimes helps with diahorrea

[ReikiAnge]

I suspect we could all think of dogs who had lived long lives a fair time ago and again in recent times. I met a couple recently who had a lab lived to 17, which is an amazing age for a lab and I don't think that was very long ago. Someone else met a 17 year old lab recently. I knew a golden retriever who lived to 16 after being fed on complete food.

 

I am also sure I remember dogs living long healthy lives when I was much younger. It's difficult to know either way without seeing a long term, thorough study, I just seem to recall dogs living at least as long when I was growing up, although that wasn't *that* long ago I guess, comparitively, honest