Showing posts with label lifespan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifespan. Show all posts

Monday, 28 October 2024

Domestic cat benefits from being more social

The domestic cat is basically a solitary creature because they inherit their natural behaviours from their wildcat ancestor, the North African wildcat; a solitary wild animal. But domestic cats have adapted to life with humans and in doing so, as a by-product, become more sociable. I think it is fair to argue that the domestic cat is a sociable animal, almost diametrically opposed to their wildcat ancestor. Although, the domestic cat reverts to the wild not infrequently especially if allowed outside unsupervised. Instinctively the wildcat within emerges and they become a solitary animal.




The reason for this introduction is that "Being more social is associated with some tangible benefits." That's according to Professor Rob Salguero-Gomez, the lead author of a study published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B which found that "more social species live longer". Animals that naturally form cooperative, organised groups enjoyed a boost in longevity, according to The Times newspaper's report.

Alternatively, animal species that are naturally solitary such as tigers, reptiles and some fish tended to live shorter lives and reproduce during brief windows according to the same report.

There are pluses and minuses, however. The benefits of living in a society i.e. sociably is a sharing of resources and being better protected from predators and having support to raise offspring. But the downside is the increased chance of contracting a contagious disease. However, overall, social species "live longer, postpone maturity and are more likely to reproduce successfully."

It is interesting for me that the domestic cat is almost both a social creature and a solitary one at the same time. In multi-cat homes, for example, the domestic cat is forced to become social and accept a much reduced home range and overlapping home ranges in the presence of domestic cats in very close proximity all the time. This can, however, lead to stresses which can lead to fights which can on the face of it reduce longevity as can of course as mentioned contract contagious diseases which are more likely to be present in multi-cat homes.

Humans living alone are living a solitary life but I don't think this automatically reduces longevity. If it causes depression then that may reduce lifespan.

The point of the article is that it is likely that the domestic cat's lifespan has increased as they become more sociable because they are cared for more intimately by humans and because, lately, there's been a steep rise in the number of full-time indoor cats. A modern trend. This, in homes where there is more than one, will force sociability upon the domestic cat.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Thursday, 9 May 2024

Data on lifespan of over 11 million cats and dogs (Banfield Hospitals USA)



The information from this enormous study from Banfield Pet hospitals in the USA regarding the life expectancy for dogs and cats derived from clinical data, is very surprising to me. I've produced a little table below which summarises the data. There are two rather odd findings.

Firstly, the lifespan of cats is shorter than that of dogs according to this study which doesn't make sense to me. I have always thought that in general cats have longer lifespans than dogs but comparisons are hard to make due to different lifestyles. 

And secondly the lifespan of ideal weight cats is shorter than the lifespan of obese cats which certainly does not make sense in any shape or form.

I produce it here because the information is on the Internet and you can make what you will of it.

The study itself produces some very fine detailed information which you can read about by clicking on this link if you wish.

The advantages of this study is that the data set comprised 8.9 million dogs and 2.4 million cats which is more than 10 fold greater than the dataset used to generate life expectancy tables for Japanese dogs for example.

As I say above, I can't trust this information despite the enormous amount of information collected from this hospital chain.

They admit to limitations and "a degree of uncertainty of pet age for dogs and cats required as rescued animals or adopted from animal shelters and the inherent limitations of body condition scoring." My guess is that the info is unreliable 😒😢🙄 But maybe I am being too gung ho in saying that.

That would imply that a lot of the cats and dogs were adopted from animal rescue centres and these animals had non-specific ages. I assume that their ages were estimated but I don't know.

I have a better study on another page, on another website which shows that the Birman and the Burmese are the two cat breeds with the best life expectancies of the purebred cats. In both these cat breeds did better than random bred cats in terms of life expectancy but once again I find that information questionable.

And once again I am presenting it here because it might interest people despite my doubts.

It would seem that the one certainty which has been found in other studies is that female dogs and cats live longer than male cats and dogs and this is evident in the table below. I have another page on that topic on another associated website.

Companion animal  Life expectancy
 All dogs  12.69 years
 Mixed-breed dogs 12.71
 All cats  11.18
 Mixed-breed cats 11.12
 Female dogs  12.76
 Male dogs  12.63
 Female cats  11.68
 Male cats  10.72
 Obese dogs  11.71
 Overweight dogs  13.14
 Ideal weight dogs  13.18
Overweight cats 13.67
Obese cats 12.56
Ideal weight cats 12.18

Citation: Life expectancy tables for dogs and cats derived from clinical data.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2023.1082102

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Saturday, 13 April 2024

New anti-ageing drug for dogs works on hormone IGF-1

An enterprising woman who dropped out of Oxford University started a bold and interesting company called Loyal in San Francisco five years ago with the intention of creating drugs which extend the lifespan of dogs and perhaps then leading to achieving the same result for cats and even humans which would be the Holy Grail of medicine.

New anti-ageing drug for dogs works on hormone IGF-1
New anti-ageing drug for dogs works on hormone IGF-1. Image: MikeB


She has successfully tweaked the attention of investors and raised US$120 million to grow her business and take it forward. Her name is Celine Halioua.

The science behind her project concerns a hormone called IGF-1; a hormone which drives cell growth and big dogs grow quickly because that high levels of it. The levels remain high into adulthood. In general big dogs have shorter lifespans.

Her theory is that the hormone also fuels accelerated ageing of large dogs after they achieve maturity. It is my understanding that her drug will curb the activity of this hormone and thereby extend life by up to 10% of the dog's life which for a dog with a lifespan of 10 years would be one year.

The cost of the owner would be around US$50 a month. This would equate to around six thousand dollars over the dog's life to extend it by 10%. There is a question mark over whether people would want to spend that kind of money bearing in mind the cost of living crisis today.

The US Food And Drug Administration have reasonable expectations that Loyal's therapy for large dogs will be effective and therefore she hopes to bring it to the market in 2026.

It is called LOY-001 at the moment.

It is the first attempt to do this. She has built on the work of Dr. Cynthia Kenyon, as I understand it, who showed that it is possible to double the life of nematode worms by altering only one gene in the 1990s.

And late last year I wrote about another scientist with the same objective but using different techniques which you can read about by clicking on the link below if you wish.


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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

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