[nagdu] Fw: A Registry Explores Dog Deaths by Breed.

[Ed Meskys]

Subject: A Registry Explores Dog Deaths by Breed.


A Registry Explores Dog Deaths by Breed.
NY Times Tuesday, 2011_04_26
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR. Most dog owners and veterinarians know that small dogs 
live
longer than large ones, but until now there has been no thorough systematic
examination
of breed-related causes of death.
Now, a group of researchers has reviewed more than 74,000 cases of canine 
death
recorded
from 1984 to 2004 in the Veterinary Medicine Database, a registry 
established by
the National Cancer Institute that receives reports from 27 veterinary 
teaching
hospitals
in North America.
The analysis, published in the March/April issue of The Journal of 
Veterinary
Internal
Medicine, found that the most common cause of death varies considerably from
breed
to breed and by age.
Golden retrievers and boxers had the highest rates of cancer, the leading 
cause
of
canine death over all. In several toy breeds -- Chihuahua, Pekingese,
Pomeranians
and toy poodles -- cancer was much less common. For them, the leading cause 
of
death
was trauma.
Diseases of the nervous system were the most common cause of death in older
dogs,
while gastrointestinal disease affected dogs of all ages equally. Death from
diseases
of the musculoskeletal system was common in larger breeds, but the big dogs
suffered
less from neurological and endocrine ailments.
The authors acknowledge that the study is retrospective and subject to 
errors of
classification of breed and disease. Still, a co-author, Kate E. Creevy, an
assistant
professor of veterinary internal medicine at the University of Georgia, said
that
knowing what kinds of diseases a breed is prone to is helpful. We can use 
that
information
to avoid disease rather than treat it.
PHOTO: For Pekingese and several other toy breeds, the leading cause of 
death is
trauma, records show. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC ISSELEE) .