Veterinary Vertex
Veterinary Vertex is a weekly podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the clinical and research discoveries published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) and the American Journal of Veterinary Research (AJVR). Tune in to learn about cutting-edge veterinary research and gain in-depth insights you won’t find anywhere else. Come away with knowledge you can put to use in your own practice – along with a healthy dose of inspiration to remind you what you love about veterinary medicine.
Veterinary Vertex
Debunking Myths About Dog Longevity
Have you ever wondered if dogs are truly living shorter lives nowadays? Join us on Veterinary Vertex® as we welcome Dr. Courtney Sexton, who challenges this alarming notion with a recent JAVMA article. Contrary to popular media claims, Courtney reveals that household companion dogs' lifespans have generally increased over the past 40 years. We emphasize the need for standardized methods to capture and report mortality data, drawing insights from the Dog Aging Project and Courtney's evolutionary research background. This evidence-based discussion aims to reassure pet owners about their dogs’ longevity and debunk unfounded fears.
Beyond debunking myths, we explore the essential steps to improve the accuracy of dog lifespan reporting and enhance their end-of-life care. We also highlight the importance of preventative care and understanding multimorbidity in elderly dogs, stressing how specific traits can impact lifespan and quality of life. Finally, we underscore the critical need for client education to ensure that geriatric pets receive the best possible care throughout their lives. Don't miss this insightful conversation that sheds light on the way we think about dog aging.
JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.24.01.0068
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You're listening to Veterinary Vertex, a podcast of the AVMA Journals. In this episode, we chat about how we can achieve more accurate reporting of average dog lifespan with our guest, Courtney Sexton.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Veterinary Vertex. I'm Editor-in-Chief Lisa Fortier, and I'm joined by Associate Editor Sarah Wright. Today, we have Courtney joining us. Hey, Courtney, thanks so much for being here with us today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be on the show and for your interest in the paper.
Speaker 1:All right, let's dive right in, Courtney. Your Jafma article discusses accurate reporting of average dog lifespans. Please share with our listeners the background on this study, Sure yeah.
Speaker 3:So some may be familiar with the fact that in recent years there have been a lot of popular media reports claiming that companion dogs are actually living shorter lives than they used to, which obviously is cause for alarm for those of us who love our dogs. But given the many advances in veterinary care and diagnostics, these you know closer familial relationships that we have with companion dogs today and the improved understanding overall of their cognition and behavior, it just didn't. Those reports didn't quite seem to add up. They didn't make sense to us. So we've decided to take a closer look at the literature that is out there to ensure that our opinion aligned with the available evidence.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's super important and we were talking earlier, before the podcast started that this article has also received a lot of attention on social media, so hopefully it's reaching a wider audience and people can take this information back to their clinics to help better inform their dog owners. Yeah, I hope so. So what are some of the important take-home messages from this JAFMA article?
Speaker 3:Well, as it turns out, the trend that we're seeing in studies using available data on dog mortality from around the world indicate that over the last at least 40 years, the average household companion dog's lifespan appears actually to be higher today than in the mid-1980s, and has kind of, for the most part, progressively followed a trend up, which is a good thing. So it seems to be that dogs are living longer, and while we're really glad to see this, the fact that this basic understanding of their life history is still a complicated question is really problematic, and that was why we really wanted to write the paper. We don't have a standardized method for capturing and reporting mortality data, and so that's kind of where the big next step is going to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is super important. You hear from several friends that it is so traumatic to lose your beloved pet that it's quite common They'll say oh, you know, goldens are dying younger, there's more earlier deaths. So this is this is really important for breeds and for to put some of that panic, I think, to rest. So thank you for this really great contribution.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course, and you know, obviously there are specific factors that we need to look out for and size and breed and weight and you know, and there are things that influence lifespan on the whole. But in terms of that average, yes, I think it is really important to know that that they're we're doing okay by our dogs.
Speaker 2:I like what you said about. You know there's a lot in the media, but then let's go see what the evidence is and what I mean other than you know. Oh, that doesn't quite add up with your own opinion or what you were seeing. What sparked your interest in actually looking at this as a research project?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I work with the dog aging project, so we think a lot about dog lifespan on a regular basis. But also my personal research background is in the evolutionary history of dogs and humans, our two species. So not having a clear understanding of where, how and why some dogs outlive others today seemed like a significant gap in that history from my evolutionary perspective, especially when we consider that many of the factors affecting dogs' lifespans are also affecting people and aging in people, and so that kind of is where my train of thought goes most days these days, and also, you know, I just want my dog to live forever.
Speaker 2:So that's fair, what a great angle you talked to. Sarah asked you earlier what are some of the take home messages. But always when we do go looking after the evidence, there's something that surprises you. What were some of the one or two of the most surprising articles or surprising findings from the article?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think my biggest surprise was the inconsistency of the data. I can't say that I or we in our lab were surprised much by the findings. As I mentioned, we had that hunch when we were looking into it that dogs today are living longer than they were 40, 50, 60 years ago. Our society has changed a lot. But yeah, I think perhaps what did surprise us was that inconsistency in reporting mortality data and the methods that are used across different studies for analyzing those numbers. It's pretty wild. They're just all over the map.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it doesn't surprise you, right, like you, just if your dog passes away, you don't call Right, there's no like census. You don't call the doctor and say I lost my animal. So yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:Especially when we're looking at those who are perhaps dying of older age. So if they were, if we're looking at the higher end of the lifespan, you know most people are dealing with that in private or with their family veterinarian, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:What are the next steps in this research and dog lifespan?
Speaker 3:Well, definitely. First of all, our sort of call to action for the veterinary community in general is to try to come together and develop and then implement a more standardized system for reporting. So, just as you're saying, if someone does bring a dog to their vet, either for euthanasia or end-of-life care in another way, what is the form that the veterinarian is able to fill out? Where does that go? Where does all of that information get centralized? And this is something that I think we really need to be working together as a community on, so that we can really fully grasp what a dog's lifespan could be and what it should look like. Right, because those are potentially two different things. And then, from there, you know, we really want to use that information to continue investigations into improving their quality of life across life stages, because, again, that's going to look different.
Speaker 3:But then also back to that kind of point that we're, our species, are not so dissimilar. So how and why they age, and how this may be similar to how and why we do yeah, really great translational work from a breeding perspective. We really need to understand, um, what traits were perpetuating in dogs. Um, that may be limiting their quality of life and or lifespan? Um, because we do. We do have research that you know from, from the data we do have. We do know that, you know, brachycephalic dogs, for example, tend to live shorter lives than their counterparts with longer noses. So there are certain specific traits that we need to look at as well.
Speaker 2:Well, good luck trying to convince those Frenchie owners to buy a different breed.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness, I saw. Yeah. Well, that's a whole other tunnel, we don't need to go down.
Speaker 2:That's a whole nother topic, Courtney. Artificial intelligence is everywhere permeated in our lives and hard to keep up with, but do you see a role for AI in this area of research?
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. And I mean this is, this is me as a LADEE, like it's terrible. I'm still one of those who's like afraid of AI. But no, AI and machine learning can definitely be used to help us collect that mortality data from EMRs, for example, electronic medical record systems, especially if using NLPs, and then this could just help us generally create a larger and more comprehensive data set.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of where I like how you earlier delineated how lifespan and quality of life are different. When I was in small practice, I always tell my clients that age is a number, not a disease, so it was important to when making medical decisions for your pets, absolutely, absolutely, and that's really you know.
Speaker 3:I think that the term healthspan gets thrown around a lot and maybe is used in different ways, is used in different ways, but I think the key is, yeah, how do we extend those, those years that are of high quality for our dogs, and and but again, like what should our expectations around that be Right?
Speaker 1:Exactly. And for those of you just joining us, we're discussing how we can achieve more accurate reporting of average dog lifespan with our guest, courtney Sexton. So now, courtney, a little bit about you. How did your training prepare you to write this article?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm trained as both a researcher and a writer, ironically, so I've been working with an amazing team. Again, I think I mentioned my background is evolutionary anthropology and evolutionary biology, so looking specifically at canine and human behavior, but I've been working with a really amazing team of veterinary medicine researchers who are focused on studying quality of life, longevity and multimorbidity in dogs, and some of those researchers are part of the Dog Aging Project.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think we actually are scheduling a few podcast episodes with some members of your group as well in the future. So, listeners, stay tuned. If you want to learn more about dog aging, that's great. So, courtney, this next set of questions is going to be very important for our listeners. The first one is what is one piece of information the veterinarian should know about dog lifespans?
Speaker 3:First one is what is one piece of information the veterinarian should know about dog lifespans? Yeah, I think this is something we hit on right in the beginning. The most important thing is that that lifespan is it's not decreasing. So it's really going to be critical to practice routine care around, or to structure routine care around, preventative medicine and to really be providing owners with information about why that kind of care is all the more important given the potential for the longevity that we're seeing right. So things like dental care people don't really see a value of doing dentals in older dogs, but they could be telling us things that we need to know. Continued vaccinations, of course, keeping up with things Again, I think that as caretakers, I think some of us go in one direction and some go in the other and maybe we tend to say, oh, they're just older, those are just signs of aging, it's fine, I'm not going to address it, Whereas then the other half of people are like every single thing is an emergency, right.
Speaker 3:So there's some balance there. But definitely just keeping up with that preventative care and thinking about you know, questions about multimorbidity, how that affects lifespan, how multiple diagnoses can shorten that lifespan, and so to be, as a practitioner. Keeping that in mind, when you're seeing a dog come in with multi-morbidities okay, what might that look like for the outcome for them?
Speaker 1:I think there's a lot we can do for client education for our geriatric patients. Oftentimes I always hear like my dog's 14. I'm not going to continue to do routine vaccinations or anything because they're just old, which I always hate. Hearing that.
Speaker 3:Like I hope someone still takes care of you when you're old Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely yeah, so hopefully we can change that in the future.
Speaker 3:Definitely, especially again, like if we have kind of a better understanding of you know, there's no guarantee for any dog or any person what their lifespan is going to be. But if we have a better understanding of it, then we can say, oh yeah, like these are the things we need to continue paying attention to for the duration.
Speaker 1:Very well said. So, on the other side of the relationship, what's one thing the public should consider around dog lifespans?
Speaker 3:oh goodness, um. Well, that probably kind of leads right into it, right? I mean, just as I said, just like as in people, injuries, diseases, um, genetic disorders a whole host of factors can impact dogs lifespans, um. But if we as their caretakers are mindful of providing them with safe environments, comfortable environments and keeping current on that preventative care, they can live really relatively long, happy, healthy lives. Yeah, so I think the I think the important part is is just listening to your dog, right In many ways, because unfortunately they're never going to live, you know, as long as we want them to, but we'll keep them around as long as we can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you again, courtney. A lot of good information in there for both veterinarians and and their owners. As we wind down, courtney, a little bit more even of a personal question what is the oldest or the most interesting item on your desk or in your desk drawer?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I had to do some digging for this one, literally in my desk drawer. But I have this really cool nut, super smooth and has just a perfect little thumb indent into it, and it's a tree nut that I found on the sidewalk in downtown DC, on K Street, many years ago when I was working for a wildlife conservation organization, and we don't see a lot of these large hardwoods with these tree nets around anymore and it just struck me and it's something I've always kept and it's kind of been a worry stone for me. My thumb fits in it quite perfectly and, yeah, I like trees.
Speaker 2:When you picked it up, that's exactly what I thought. I'm like oh, that looks like an old worry stone.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly, and I had thought it was a stone when I first picked it up. That's exactly what I thought. I'm like, oh, that looks like an old worry stone. Yes, exactly, and I I had thought it was a stone when I first picked it up. And then it's it's much more lightweight and you can tell it's the tree nut.
Speaker 1:Very cool. That is the first of that actually that you've had on the podcast. It's really yeah, I guess people like, for example, like oncologists, like they might have like calipers to measure lymph nodes or something.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Just thank you so much again, courtney, for being here today, and we just really appreciate you contributing your manuscript to JAVMA.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I appreciate you. Thank you for doing the work that you do, getting the information out there. You know like we need publications. We need people to be able to have access to it.
Speaker 1:That's why we do what we do, right, so thank you Exactly, and we really hope, too, that the podcast is able to disseminate the information, too, to a larger audience as well Absolutely so to our listeners. You can read Courtney's article in print, javma or using your favorite search engine. I'm Sarah Wright with Lisa Fortier. We want to thank each of you for joining us on this episode of the Veterinary Vertex podcast. We love sharing cutting-edge veterinary research with you, and we want to hear from you. Be sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you listen to.