Dog years

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cjhills
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Dog years

Post by cjhills » Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:32 am

With all the new dog food info ,Vet care, shots and supposedly better genetics has the long term health and longevity of our dogs increased over the years? Except for a few individuals, about ten to twelve years seems to be the max. Same as it was many years ago, when dogs lived on table scraps and what they could find on there own.
I realize they didn't travel as much so they weren't exposed to as many diseases but it does seem like it hasn't changed much
Are we giving our dogs immunizations they don't need and that are probably not good for the dogs . Your thoughts. Cj

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Ralph Ford
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Re: Dog years

Post by Ralph Ford » Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:51 am

I would speculate that on an average, dogs are more overweight today compared to the old days, therefore cancelling out the positive aspects of modern technology. Even in bird dogs, most I see are overweight.

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SHNOOL
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Re: Dog years

Post by SHNOOL » Sun Apr 15, 2012 7:05 am

Ralph Ford wrote:I would speculate that on an average, dogs are more overweight today compared to the old days, therefore cancelling out the positive aspects of modern technology. Even in bird dogs, most I see are overweight.
Amen, I'll second that. We have a healthy spry, 12 yo, and he's just now showing his age with arthritis.

My prior 2 dogs were 15 and 11. Nope, I don't like too much weight on a dog... now if I could only apply this to me.
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Re: Dog years

Post by BigShooter » Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:06 am

Have breeding, environment, nutrition, medical care etc. eliminated all of the damaged genes in the pool that seem to have, on average lead to a predisposition to terminal diseases within a certain age span?

First of all it's clear virtually all mammals are programmed to age. Canine life spans are short so an average improvement of say 2 months or more is not insignificant but how closely has improvement been measured? When we talk about average life span we have to include all of the repaired orthopaedic issues (broken bones, ligament repairs, etc.). Next to answer the question you almost have to break it down into components and evaluate each one. Most often the comparison is to other animals & humans in particular. We are generally unwilling or unable to spend the same kind of dollars on extreme measures for a canine that we are willing to spend on humans. This category could include things like pacemakers, joint replacements, early cancer detection followed by surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, organ transplants, etc. Canines generally seems to be less prone to systemic bacterial infections so we're not treating strep throat in dogs. However, I suspect antibiotic treatment for significant skin breakage and tissue penetration injuries is saving some canines from early death by systemic infection. Few dogs die from rabies anymore. More dogs are now saved from poisonous injuries.

One might be inclined to think only about the dogs that reach old age without significant treatable injury or disease. The math equation though requires us to consider the life span of all live births.

From a breeding perspective there's too much uncontrolled breading in the general population to eliminate all predisposition to diseases like cancer for instance.

Then there's the quality of life issue. Many of us value extending a family member's life much more than we value extending the life of an animal that can no longer work & has a poor quality of life. So while we may be able to extend a canine's life we choose not to.

Improvement in treatments that save or extend life through vet medical treatment have clearly occurred. Advances in removing or repairing all damaged genes from the overall gene pool, a lot less progress. Improvements in mass production of adequate feed, clearly but changing a canine's ability to absorb adequate nutrients from food consumed - little if at all.

I'd say through veterinary medicine we've clearly increased the average life span of live births.
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cjhills
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Re: Dog years

Post by cjhills » Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:22 am

What!!!!!!

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birddogger
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Re: Dog years

Post by birddogger » Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:27 am

cjhills wrote:What!!!!!!
Made sense to me. :D

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Ralph Ford
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Re: Dog years

Post by Ralph Ford » Sun Apr 15, 2012 5:16 pm

birddogger wrote:
cjhills wrote:What!!!!!!
Made sense to me. :D

Charlie
You must have pulled an all-nighter also then!! :D

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birddogger
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Re: Dog years

Post by birddogger » Sun Apr 15, 2012 5:41 pm

Ralph Ford wrote:
birddogger wrote:
cjhills wrote:What!!!!!!
Made sense to me. :D

Charlie
You must have pulled an all-nighter also then!! :D
As a matter of fact, I did. But I don't think that has anything to do with it. :lol:

Charlie
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Ralph Ford
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Re: Dog years

Post by Ralph Ford » Sun Apr 15, 2012 8:14 pm

Charlie[/quote]

You must have pulled an all-nighter also then!! :D[/quote]
As a matter of fact, I did. But I don't think that has anything to do with it. :lol:

Charlie[/quote]

I've heard stories about you 'Land of Lincoln' boys. :P

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