Questionnaire! Please read.?

Question

I’m interested in the correlation between an animal’s (dog’s or cat’s) life expectancy and the amount of drugs (including anaesthetics, flea and worm treatments) it has been exposed to in its life.

I’d be grateful therefore to anyone who could answer the following questionnaire, regarding past pets only, or cats aged above 15 years old or dogs aged above 10 years (regardless of breed)

Please don’t include animals that have died from injuries (i.e animal attacks, being run over), animals whose fate was unknown to you or animals put to sleep for aggression or other non-health related causes. ‘Natural deaths’ only please! – this includes euthanasia for illnesses that would otherwise have resulted in death.

Feel free to email me your answers if you don’t want to post them here, or email me if you’re not clear about any of the questions.

If you have more than one animal that meets the above specifications, please answer the questions for each animal!

1) What breed was your cat/dog and what age did s/he live to?

2) What age was the animal when you first acquired him/her? (approx age is fine if you don’t know)

3) What was your animal’s cause of death?

4) Was your animal raised by its own mother until weaned, or was it hand-reared?

5) Did your animal have any lifelong conditions that you were aware of e.g diabetes, heart trouble, reoccurring viruses (such as cat flu, kennel cough)? Please specify.

6) At what age was this condition first diagnosed? (please specify if the condition was known to be present from birth)

7) Did the animal receive medication for this condition and if so, how frequently and for how many years?

8) Roughly how many sedations/anaesthetics did your animal receive throughout his/her life? (including the anaesthetic for neutering)

9) What vaccination protocol was your animal under:
a) First vaccinated in puppy/kittenhood, regular boosters given throughout lifespan
b) Received first vaccinations but none thereafter
c) Received first vaccinations and regular boosters for a few years, but stopped later on (choose this option even if vaccinations were restarted later in life)
d) First vaccinated in adult life
e) Never vaccinated
f) Other (please specify)

10) How frequently was your animal treated for fleas throughout his/her life? (if collars or injections were used as control, please specify and count each collar/injection as 1)

11) How frequently was your animal treated for worms throughout his/her life?

12) What diet was your animal fed throughout his/her life?
a) commercial petfood i.e those available in supermarkets like Pedigree Chum, Bakers, Whiskas, Meow Mix
b) pet food not generally available in supermarkets such as Science Diet
c) raw diet
d) table scraps
e) home-prepared food (please give details)
e) mixture of the above (please give details)


If your profile allows emails to be accepted I will assume you don’t mind me emailing you if I require further details for any of your answers. If you would prefer not to be emailed please write NO EMAIL after your answers.

Many thanks in advance for your time!

Answer 1

#1 1 cat lived to age 20
#2 Acquired him at the age of 1
#3 Died of old age
#4 Don't know if he was properly weaned
#5 No life long conditions
#6 & #7 N/A
#8 Twice (once for neuter and once for dental cleaning)
#9 Never vaccinated - was inside 24/7
*sub a-f N/A
#10 0 Times for fleas - never had fleas
#11 Twice for worms as a precaution
#12 Dry food
a) Meow Mix
b) Science Diet
c) N/A
d) Tuna as a treat
e) N/A
f) self explanatory

Answer 2

my animal was the age when it could leave it's mom when i got it i had a boy healer and a girl heeler they were about 16 to 17 when they died and that is in human years so and they were on pedagre dog food so they were getting death when they were about 15 no they did not get treated for it they were treated 4 worms about 3 times maybe so e-mail me back and let me know how i did ~k~

Answer 3

i dont have that kind of time