a most unpleasant one

[hunterridgefarm]

I've had dogs all of my life, and some have died from cancer. One of my closest friends is a Vet. She agrees with me that the incidence of cancer is on the rise. I think that the dog food industry is largely unregulated and that the food sources for the dog food manufacturers are probably laden with herbicides and pesticides that preclude their use in human food.

Very sorry about the loss of your companion and friend. It's always hard.

Arrow, I too am sorry to hear about your loss. It is amazing how close you can get to an animal. I had lads all my life and was always close to them. Now I have a Jack Russel that stays in the house and I really will hate to see the day when he is no longer with us.

thunderworks,
My Jack Russel looks identical to the one in your avatar.

 

[kthompson]

Arrow sorry about your Bubba, our Bubba was a Golden Retriever which was taken by cancer also. Not sure who mentioned the show on the Animal Planet but great shows on different breeds. Think the first show covered Golden Retriever and German Shepard two we had and had to think how accurate they were. Amazing to the health issues they bring up on those size breeds. Boy in my growing up dogs were not feed bought food and very little chemicals used on them (none in their food for much of it we raised) and 10 year old dog? Not hardly. If any of those mutts or hounds or bulldog lived past 5 I sure don't remember it. Snake bites, accidents and such. I am not too sure I really would want a dog if I thought it would live 25 years. They are too much of a family member to not worry about when I could not take care of them. There does come a point in life when such becomes important as we grow older ourself.

I read something a while back I wish I could quote and my telling it may not be PC correct here: but it related how a dog was one of the best examples of how God loves us regardless of how we treat him. I like the quote that also goes: I want to be the man my dog thinks I am.

 

[scgargoyle]

Sorry to hear about Bubba's passing. Our pets are family members, and it's always rough to lose one, but I think it's worth it for the good times and companionship you get. Better to have loved and lost, than not loved at all, as they say.

It's true that are pets are getting a lot more cancer and other formerly rare diseases, and I think we should look at it as the canary in the coal mine. If the environment is shortening their lives, well, we live in the same environment! I also wonder about things like flea repellents being harmful. My mother raises Flat-coated Retrievers, and the breed has become very prone to cancer. Many of them pass within 5 years. Nobody knows why.

 

[arrow]

Sorry to hear about Bubba's passing. Our pets are family members, and it's always rough to lose one, but I think it's worth it for the good times and companionship you get. Better to have loved and lost, than not loved at all, as they say.

It's true that are pets are getting a lot more cancer and other formerly rare diseases, and I think we should look at it as the canary in the coal mine. If the environment is shortening their lives, well, we live in the same environment! I also wonder about things like flea repellents being harmful. My mother raises Flat-coated Retrievers, and the breed has become very prone to cancer. Many of them pass within 5 years. Nobody knows why.

I think you are right in thinking that how long a pet lives at your house may be an indication of how the rest of the household is going to do barring any overt genetic family traits. As most probably know, they changed up the dog age comparison. The first 2 years of a dogs life are only given 4 years apiece and then the seven years thing kicks in as I recall. Not a single dog lived past 14 at my house. That would make them 92 in human years and Bubba was about 83. None of them used flea collars but every one of them was on heart worm meds or they would not have lasted as long as they did. Cancer in my opinion is an unnatural disease. I'm not sure we or any other living thing would get it if we were not living in such a poisoned world. My remaining boxer has a bad heart. He was not supposed to live past 6 months. That was 3 years ago. He is on Atenalol and baby aspirin but I'd like to see how he does with broccoli extract. The wife states his heart will kill him first but I'd still like to give this supplement to him just in case he begins beating his odds even more. Now they say he will not live past 5. If he reaches that I wonder what they'll say. Again thanks to all for the words of encouragement. Not much in life gets me to tearing up especially when I'm working the tractor. Creating the burial place with the fel always does however.

 

[whistlepig]

Sorry to hear of your loss. The larger dogs seem to have a shorter life span. We have had Doberman's for over thirty five years now. We have tried everything. Proper diet, supplements, exercise, (my wife takes the Dobies on a two mile run with the ATV every day). Nothing seems to help prolong their age. Most of ours have passed away around ten years of age. We do love our dogs. I have buried several. I know of no other chore so sad.

 

[arrow]

Sorry to hear of your loss. The larger dogs seem to have a shorter life span. We have had Doberman's for over thirty five years now. We have tried everything. Proper diet, supplements, exercise, (my wife takes the Dobies on a two mile run with the ATV every day). Nothing seems to help prolong their age. Most of ours have passed away around ten years of age. We do love our dogs. I have buried several. I know of no other chore so sad.

Of course I'm reading upon this stuff now. Interested to hear what diets you tried. One vet faction sems to think it is the amount of carbs in a K9's diet that gives them cancer with grains and corn being major culprits. They think a raw meat diet with celery, broccoli and carrots is what you should feed a dog and no more veges per feeding than they would find in the intestinal tract of grazing animals which is totally beyond me on how that gets figured out. That might take care of the food end but the other stuff such as heart worm meds come into play. My wife states few dogs in the N.E. survive more than 6-7 years w/out heart worm meds. We're caught between a rock and a hard place so far.

 

[E_Sanborn]

... for our pet boxer of almost 13 years..

I appreciate your burden. My beloved Boxer, 'Muggsy', my companion growing up, lived for 13 years. He died of cancerous growths on the skin.

This was in Africa, where I lived with my parents, in a very simple life. Muggsy ate a hand-made mix of breads and local meats all his life, and never saw any processed foods. I know it's anecdotal, but take some comfort that there wasn't anything you should have done differently with his diet. I understood at the time that this was a fairly common cause of death for this breed, and that 13 was on the upper end of the scale of lifespan for a dog of 80lb.

 

[arrow]

Muggsy lived a very long time for such a large boxer. It sounds he died of mast cell tumors which are rampart in boxers. These grow just under the skin. My boxer had 5 of these removed, the last being about 2 years ago. My wife states she sees many problems with the raw meat and vege diet some of her clients put their dogs on. Much has to do with bacteria. I think processed foods that have simple carbs such as sugars, potatoes, corn etc, do a job on a canine in much the same way they do to us so in my mind, it may be wise for our pals to avoid dog foods with this kind of stuff. . This takes some experimentation. As I stated before, I do not see cancer as a "natural" death factor what so ever. I could be wrong of course, but I think this is one disease that is induced and I am really surprised that we are not told of various findings of these long term experiments. What's it going on close to 40 years since the "war on cancer" commenced? Maybe there's too much money in it not to be informed.

Kthompson, If there was ever a more desirable wish of "being the man my dog thinks I am" , I wouldn't know what it may be. That quote kind of says it all.

 

[BrentD]

I sometimes wonder if maybe cancer is just a natural self-destruct mechanism built into every living thing. Consider prostate cancer... My dad had surgery for that about 3 years ago. At the time his doctor told him that he was convinced that if a man lives long enough he will eventually develop prostate cancer.

I know there are a lot of natural and man-made triggers that can increase cancer risks, but I think cancer is in all of our genes. The more times our cells divide the more likely it is that the DNA in a cell will be corrupted. All it takes is for the right section of the DNA to be changed and then it's like a computer running a program than jumps into an infinite loop.

Anyway, just some random thoughts. My condolences on the loss of your pet. I've lost several pets over the years and it never seems to get any easier.

 

[tatra805]

Sorry for your loss. Wish you a lot of strenght.

Seen my share of cancer with both the 4 and 2 legged family members.
Never easy.

Regarding dog food and what is best i am neutral. Our first newfoundland dog was given all the best and additives etc etc. He died at 8 from a heart attack. I blame a very intensive showring carreer being the cause.

Our next and my parents current newfoundland dogs are eating a regular dry food with some pasta and raw meat portions and their last females were resp 14 and 15 when they died.

My bullmastiff died at 26 months because of a tumor on his thymus. We never knew just found him sleeping on his carpet. My hardest moment till now handing him over to the state veterinar for autopsy (we suspected poisoning) knowing he would never be buried at his home.

The GF has a small obsession about animal food and we are actually looking into the BARF system ourselves at the moment. (raw feeding yada yada)

Having read some things about it i would once again come to my typical conclusion that common sense finds a middle way. (and the fact that a pro in anything has no time to write books or websites so you are fully allowed to question the writers of those )

I go with the natural habitat thing. I am sure feeding a rabit raw meat will kill it in short time as much as i believe a dog is not to be fed hay.

I also believe that individuals are different and therefore have different needs. We are not feeding our 3 dogs the same. A Fox Terrier (small hunting), Italian Spinon (pointer) and a English Mastiff (sleeping,.. euh guarding dog) are quite different.

Good luck with the search and let your guts decide when it all comes to a endless discussion. Been there done that. Dogs happy.