There was recently some news in the Guinness Book of World Records with the World’s Oldest Dog; his name is Bobi, he’s from Portugal, and guess what? He just celebrated his 31st Birthday! With all of that recent news, a lot of people have probably mustered up some questions about life expectancy in dogs, maybe even their own pets.
Banfield Pet Hospital, out in Vancouver, WA, is giving some very important information out there on the life expectancy of our pets. It’s definitely stuff that we should all be aware of!
How is the World’s Oldest Dog, Bobi, helping to raise awareness on different life expectancy topics all about dogs? Stay tuned to find out just that!
Banfield Pet Hospital recently partnered up with Royal Canin in order to get some stats on dogs’ and cats’ life expectancy since information on that can get pretty scarce as opposed to tracking humans.
Simply put, according to this research study, the average life expectancy at birth was 12.69 years for dogs and 11.18 years for cats. One of the most important things to keep in mind in order to help extend your pet’s life expectancy is regular vet care, regular check ups, and of course, the right meds whenever needed. You’ll only be helping your pets and yourself in the long run!
Knowing this sort of info will also be helpful to all sorts of veterinary staff out there. Because of this, they may know better courses of treatment to offer, as well as more about a pup’s aging body and what to do at certain stages of their lives/declines.
Also from the study, from 2013 – 2018 life expectancies actually went up in average. Females, in both cats and dogs were found to have longer life expectancies: 12.76 years/12.63 years for dogs and 11.68 years/10.72 years for cats. Mixed breed dogs were also slightly longer; in addition, as far as purebred pups go, their life expectancy tends to increase as their body sizes as adults were decreasing.
Of course the weight of your pet also has a ton to do with their life expectancy. In some dogs with certain levels of obesity or overweightness, it could be the difference of two whole years!
Overall, when it comes to your pet’s life expectancy, the overall best course of action is to just know them, know their bodies, and listen to your own intuition when it comes to taking them into the vet. It’s always better to be safe rather than sorry and in the long-run, you’ll only be adding years onto their lives and memories onto theirs.
That’s a wrap on our analysis of a dogs’ and cats’ life expectancy thanks to Bobi, the current 31 year-old World’s Oldest Dog! What do you make of all of this? Let’s chat down in the comments section down below! What’s one thing you’ve learned from your personal vet about topics as such? As always…….Woof, Woof!