Howdy y'all!

I have a question on longevity. Have you noticed any difference in your dogs living longer when they're fed raw as opposed to when they're fed kibble? Or hasn't it made any difference? I know that most of my family's animals lived to a ripe old age, 15+ for our dogs back home in Australia (fed both raw & kibble), but a lot of people I've talked to here in America say that they see 10-12 yrs for their animals. Any opinions?

I had a lab/catahoula(sp?) that was an outside dog(very hot summers and sometimes very cold winters) that ate crappy old roy equivalent dog food and she lived to be about 16. Wonder what she would have made it to had I not vaccinated as often, fed at least a better food(Purina would have been better), and kept her inside.

R.I.P.-I should have done better.

 Quote: michael_wise

I had a lab/catahoula(sp?)

R.I.P.-I should have done better.

Dude, don't feel bad, you do only the best you know at the time. I know if I had to do it over again with my dog, who I know adored me & I thought the world of her, I would chastise her less and say "What a CLEVER Dog! Such a GOOD Dog!" more. I think it's the same with children; that's why grandparents can get your children to listen to them. They're so lucky to say "I should have done better and NOW I CAN." Those of us with dogs must rely on our relationship with our next dog...

Life is a learning process. None of us can go back and correct past mistakes or ignorance. What we can do is learn from them and try and help others to not make the same ones. That last one can be difficult and frustrating, can't it?

Btw, my book's in storage and I could be wrong, but I believe that Kymythy Schultze's Newf lived about 15 years on a raw diet, which is one of the reasons that she became a believer in a properly balanced raw diet for dogs and cats.

 Quote: michael_wise

I had a lab/catahoula(sp?) that was an outside dog(very hot summers and sometimes very cold winters) that ate crappy old roy equivalent dog food and she lived to be about 16. Wonder what she would have made it to had I not vaccinated as often, fed at least a better food(Purina would have been better), and kept her inside.

R.I.P.-I should have done better.

Our beloved female shepherd lived to be 14. She was an indoor dog and had a job she loved--she was in my classroom almost every day. She helped out with motivation in P.E. She listened to kids read and did gentle crowd control during assemblies. She had a staff ID and picture in the year book. The junior high kids loved her.

We fed Nutro kibble and she had ALL the "recommeded" vaccines and boosters. I too wonder if it would have been different with a raw diet (as we feed now) and without the shots...I miss that dog every day.

What did the rest of you with past dogs feed and how old did they get? I guess the question should be what were they like in the last years of their lives? My mom had 2 lhasas that lived to be over 15(also kibble and overly vaccinated) too, but now looking back on it they did have some minor to severe health problems throughout their lives. So Eva, to better answer your question, I have had 3 dogs live to 15 and over on kibble, but all had some kind of physical or allergic problem all their lives.

Also, my wife has a 12 yr. old dalmatian. She has horrible skin that has stumped every vet we've seen, but my dog is switching to raw soon, and as soon as my wife see's the results that I know he'll get from it she will be more easily pursueded to change her dogs diet too.

 Quote: michael_wise

What did the rest of you with past dogs feed and how old did they get?

My last dog was a female GSD who also got "all the recommended innoculations" and ate kibble the first 9 years of her life. She had chronic skin allergies (hot spots, itchy paws, itchies in general), ear infections (some variety of yeastie beasties) and was chronically about 10% overweight no matter how much I cut down on her food. When she was 9 I switched her to raw food. Her allergies got better, but did not disappear. I'd say there was perhaps a 25% improvement. However, the extra pounds just melted away and for the last 2 years she was at a steady, ideal weight. Her teeth cleaned up on their own - no more tartar. She got more energetic and I was actually able to increase the amount of exercise she could do. But when she was 11, she started limping one day and 2 days later broke her leg jumping in my car to go to the vet. She turned out to have rather advanced bone cancer, so I put her down. The vet did run a series of tests while diagnosing what was wrong, and said aside from the cancer she was in incredibly good health. My current dog is 11 months old and has been on a raw diet since I got him at 3 months. The vet can't stop gushing about how healthy he (the dog, not the vet) is, how clean his teeth are, how ideal his weight is, etc.

I have one cat on a raw diet, and he also gets gushed over by the vet. My other cat won't eat anything except kibble and raw liver, and does not get gushed over.

Although you'll probably see an improvement in your wife's 12 year old dalmatian, it may not be a magic cure-all. As with my old girl, perhaps the problems are by now so systemic that a good raw diet can only alleviate, not eliminate them. But I think the dog would appreciate any relief and improvement in health.

Hope this helps (but remember, this is not a statistically valid sample!)

My last dog (Austrailian Shepherd/Husky cross, big guy, about 80 lbs) lived to 15 years.
I had him at the vets about 6 months before I had to put him down, he had been ill for a few days, listless (turned out he had ate a dead mouse outside, and the mouse still had some traces of poison in it. My vet ran some blood tests etc on him and said that for his age, his heart, kidney's etc were in great shape. Unfortunately, his arthritis got to the point where he could no longer walk well (needed help going up stairs, couldn't walk in the snow if it was high, would whine sometimes while he was walking) and he just started to go downhill. Yes, I tried everything, meds, herbal treatments etc etc...but by the time i had heard of glucosimine, his arthritis was already pretty far gone. He started to withdraw and spent almost all of his time in the kitchen. Since his quality of life wasn't good anymore, and he was in pain that I couldn't ease medically, I decided to put him down.
He was fed kibble, not purina, but a good quality food, well as good as I could afford at the time.
So my question, I guess, would be for people that have had senior dogs that were fed raw diets, was arthritis ever an issue for them???

Our female GSD that lived to be 14 was fed Nutro kibble and had ALL the vaccines and boosters. I did not know as much then as I do know--thanks to this site and the great people who post on the board.

She had some non-malignant lumps we had removed when she was 9. She looked like a patch-work guilt as she recovered completely. She was slowing down a little her last year, but she was doing everything she had ever done and loving it. How she loved to eat, but was never a heavy dog. She lived in the now and carried no baggage. Everyday was a new day. She was a happy girl and had no issues.

She was fine until one Saturday, she refused water and food, even scrambled eggs- her favorite. The next day, Sunday, she was very sick. We took her to an emergency clinic and they found a large tumor in her chest. She could barely hold her head up and was in obvious misery. They gave her a shot and some pain meds to make her comfortable. We took her home. The shot/pills helped. I sat up with her all night. Early Monday everyone--grandkids, friends-- came to say good-by. Our regular vet came to our home and we let her go. She is under a tree in our back-yard.

It is so painful to write this. Did I make that awful decision too quick? Were there alternatives? I could not stand to see her suffer. I wish I had known then what I know now about diet and shots. We would have done things so differently. We have switched our 11 year old male to raw. He will never have another shot, unless I am convinced it is absolutely necessary. We have not had arthritis problems with any of our dogs so far. But have lost 2 to cancer.

 Quote: Ruth Counter

It is so painful to write this. Did I make that awful decision too quick? Were there alternatives? I could not stand to see her suffer. I wish I had known then what I know now about diet and shots. We would have done things so differently. We have switched our 11 year old male to raw. He will never have another shot, unless I am convinced it is absolutely necessary. We have not had arthritis problems with any of our dogs so far. But have lost 2 to cancer.

I had the same thoughts go through my head when I had to put Tazz down, was i doing the right thing? Was there something i was missing? I asked the vet give me some Rimadyl (I know, I know but i was desperate). The vet didn't want me to use it, so i bought some online to try, even though i knew the ramifications) And that did work, for a bit, then even that didn't help his pain. It just seemed horrible to have to put him down for something so trivial as Arthritis.
I wish i could just get over my initial hesitation in starting my new guy on Raw....