How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Camilla Krogsrud — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:04:13 GMT

I recently treated a 27 year old cat with the most amazing teeth! The owner was a lovely old lady and informed the cat could be even older as she was adult when she was rescued.

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Sarah Wheeler — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:50:49 GMT

Last summer I TB tested a 24 year old cow! The BCMS refused to register her calf without a DNA test becasue they didn't believe a 24 year old cow could reproduce. Which she did, of course.

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Ian Mostyn — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:25:04 GMT

The oldest ones that I trust from a reliable owner are a 21 year old Jack Russell and a 23 year old cat. Just had a 21 year old cat die yesterday from renal failure. Had a few people claim more but don't believe them. My oldest patients have been a 49 year plus parrot (wild caught and the owner got her when he was 18, now a pensioner) and a tortoise who must be about 80 give or take 10 years.

Ian

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

sarah mason — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:46:33 GMT

My general impression in practice is that many owners add at least a couple of years on to the age of the animal which is recorded on the computer....especially if it hasnt been seen for a while...my parents are convinced their cat is over 20 while I know for a fact she is is not more than 15 because they got it the exact same year I got my 15 year old cat (after I left home!)

Then you have the client who while her dog was collapsed on my consult room floor bleeding into his abdomen, made the nurse change the dob on the consent form from 199x to 199y before she would sign it...........

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Stephen Ashman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:53:22 GMT

Perhaps now more animals are microchipped (as youngsters) and thus have a known implant date and the individual can be identified we may have a more accurate age. Or at least more accurate lifespan-since-microchipping.

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:57:31 GMT

As far as cats go, we ran the same hunt for Britain's oldest pets in 2002, and found Fluff, a 31 year old from Gosport. Was a while ago now, and I can't remember how we verified age, but seem to remember is wasn't possible for it to be as conclusive as KC records.

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

sophia guymer — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:30:36 GMT

Can't really recall, I do remember we had an extremely old (20+) dog come in once, perfectly healthy apart from some minor problem, and I daren't really touch it!

Still, reason for my post, It does make me chuckle listening to all the ages, I am sure some of them are accurate but I have seen first hand how these things can go: My dad and a little dog I took home from uni during my studies (one of the experimental dogs we had), he was seven when we got him, 17 when he died. But according to my dad he was over 20, at some point otto seemed to gain a year every 6 months! Now, as the dog and my dad were in holland, me in england, otto's vet probably thought or was told, the dog was 20! (ok, computers etc keep track, but they are only as accurate as the start age)

Sophia

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Laurence Webb — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:17:02 GMT

Not long after I qualified I went out on a house visit to put to sleep a 26 year old moggie. It felt a bit immoral to do it, as the cat was older than me by 3 years

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

scarlet — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:27:59 GMT

i had a 26 yr old cat patient (well it was a patient till i finally put it to sleep at 26) it had had renal problems from the age of 14 (this was early 80's ) and lived on laurabolin and b12 injections for the next 12 yrs according to the notes when i took the case over!!!!!!. oldest dog was 22.

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:46:03 GMT

As I'm still in training I'm in the same boat as Arlo! I have heard stories of dogs as old as 21 years being treated. It depends on varying factors: life style, nutrition and care.

It seems that there are many owners out there who think their dogs are actually older than they think, I have a friend who is convinced that their dog is 25 yrs old, is there any genuine, tried and tested way of knowing?

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:37:45 GMT

Not being a vet, I can't claim to have treated anything much, other than my own athlete's foot.

But I do know something about old cats and dogs. In a previous life as marketing consultant to Novartis Animal Health, I held a competition to find the oldest pets in Britain, to promote the life extending benefits of Fortekor.

The winner in 1998 was Shimna Goldfinch (aka Fred), a 26-year-old papillion (KC club records) owned by Diane Mooney.

A big moment for me. I'd got the story lined up for the Daily Mail. In the early hours of the morning it was due to run, I headed off to Leicester Square to grab an early edition. My heart sank. Front page was the Clinton / Lewinsky story, which I was sure would have blown my story. But whaddyaknow. The whole of page 3 was taken up with: IS THIS BRITAIN'S OLDEST DOG? I think the only time in the newspaper's history that one old dog (Clinton) had been pushed off page 3 by another.

Incidentally, at the time, the oldest dog I could find that had ever lived in the UK was Taffy (27 years, 313 days).

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

jd2008 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:51:05 GMT

The oldest dog I've treated was a 25 year old border collie. Owner had had it from puppyhood until I euth'd it and gave me no reason to doubt the age.

I've known a few 22 year old cats.

Re: How old is the oldest dog and cat that you've treated

Clive Ansell — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:02:48 GMT

From memory, the oldest I have treated is a 21 year old dog and a 22 year old cat, although I am not sure if the ages are genuine?

The Glenturret distillery near Crieff in Scotland are reported to have had a cat, Towser, who made it to almost 24. She was alledged to have caught 28,899 mice in her life too, so not sure of accuracy???????? :-)