My Dog Lived To Be .......

 My parent's first dog, Leo (Collie/GSD mix--80lbs) lived to be 17 (!!!) eating Purina Dog Chow.  He had no health problems his entire life except a heart murmer he was obviously born with...he died from it (sudden death) in his sleep a few months after his 17th birthday.  He was not even terrribly arthritic at his old age, but my parents said he was on joint supplements starting at age 8 per vet recommendation. 

Prissy, my first dog that was all mine, lived to be 20 (almost 21 -- the vet said she was 6 months when I got her and had already HAD a litter) so it's a conservative calculation.  She's the one who had pancreatitis when she was 3 (and forever after she was prone to it) so I homecooked for her for the rest of her life.

http://www.critturs.com/prissy.html

 My Foxy the Mostlie Sheltie  lived to be just one month shy of 19.  Very long lived for a sheltie/corgi mix.

http://www.critturs.com/images/foxygktw1.jpg

Ms. Socks was amazing -- we took her at 10 1/2 nearly dead of heartworm (the heart and lungs were literally in horrible shape - huge holes in the lungs, heart grossly enlarged) -- and she lived to be 16 1/2

http://www.critturs.com/images/PICT0017socks.jpg

Since Prissy I have home-cooked for them all.  Socks lived with cancer (urethra/kidney) for the last 3 years of her life and I was able to slow it way down with a cancer diet. 

 My grandma had a standard sized poodle that lived till the age of 16. He was on a mix of canned and dry pedigree or purina. He was eating,drinking, and going potty just fine at the age of 16. He was blind and deaf. He got cancer in the mouth so my grandma finally knew it was time to let him go. She also had a bottle raised cat for 17 years that was feed canned and dry purina cat food. The cat died peacefully in her sleep one night.

Right now my grandma has a 14 year old pom that she feeds canned food. 

Heineken, the Husky/GSD we had before Mick lived to be 17.  He ate Pedigree for awhile (a little different than the Pedigree on the shelves now).  The last few years of his life he ate Gaines Cycle 4.  He died in his sleep.  Mick was 15 1/2 when we had to have him pts last July.  Except for about 3 years, he ate Purina foods his entire life.  Started out on Puppy Chow, then Kibbles N Chunks, then ONE and, finally, Pro Plan.  The times he wasn't eating Purina, he was on Canidae, Nature's Variety and Natural Balance, but did better on the Pro Plan. 

Our cat is 17 1/2.  If I feed her any other dry food other than Purina, she throws up almost daily. 

  A few years ago I knew someone who fed her 16 year old female GSD Bil-Jac. Her dog was doing well at that time; fairly active. Don't know if the dog is still alive now.

  My aunt had a dog named Spot who lived to be 19 and was still chasing cars at 12. He was a feisty, mid-sized mix of many breeds and was fed table scraps and canned food; Strongheart. This was in the 50's and there weren't many commercial foods available. He rarely saw a vet.

   We had a cat live to be 18; his name was Ralph and he never saw a stranger. He was mostly fed Meow Mix until he was diagnosed with kidney disease at 16; then he was fed a Rx Eukanuba formula. He did very well on it and had a good quality of life until his last 2 weeks.

 Fish N Dog; great idea for a thread.
 

 My dog as a kid lived to 16+  a high energy lab/ dalmatian mix.  I have no recollection of her ever needing to go the vet for anything.  She got a can of alpo and not sure if any other dog food.  Of course all four of us kids shared whatever we were eating with her we also ran her ragged so she was thin!

My sisters lhasa apso lived to be just over 20, he passed a few months ago, he was fed Pedigree and he was always healthy and didn't have any major problems until the very end.

My Rocky's breeder is on her fourth generation  - previous generations routinely make it to between 16 and 17, with no health problems - and pulling a full load of farm work until their last year or so, usually.  They eat farm scraps (raw) supplemented with medium-grade feed store brand food.  She's been a long time friend, and I remember one of the first conversations I had with her several years ago when we first met.  We were discussing raw feeding.  "Raw feeding!" she laughed, "That's nothing new - I've been doing it for thirty years!"

     Some of the oldest dogs I know of are my great Aunt's GSDs. She bred them up until the late 70s/early 80s & I know they ate primarily leftovers, maybe supplemented with grocery store food after the 60s. The last few dogs she owned were fed leftovers/Science Diet. Average age of her dogs were between 15-17. 
     A good breeder friend now has a 17yr old Beagle, still alive & kicking. I have to say that's the oldest I've ever heard of for the breed. She's been fed Innova exclusively for msot of her life.
     My first cat lived to be 16 on canned Purina up until he was 10, then raw a few years later. My mother's cat was 20 when she died, fed grocery store dry food, primarily Deli Cat. I will say that even though my mom's cat lived four more years than Fritz, my cat had the better quality of life BY FAR. He was lean, healthy and well tempered until the last few weeks before his death ...

 These stories are so good....  It so nice to hear the love for the old timers.   It's so not fair that dogs don't have human life spans.... 

My dad's dog from his younger years lived to be 21 or 22. He was a Golden Retriever-looking dog (he was a mutt, though). He was put down when he started to become aggressive towards youngsters.

He ate the family's leftovers, plus the raw scraps from butchering farm animals, as well as mice & other small animals (he was a working farm dog).

Our lab mix, Jesse, lived to be 18 and 1/2.  She was in great shape most of that time - she really enjoyed a very high quality of life.  And she did not eat a quality diet her entire life - there was a fair amount of Alpo in her past!  But she had been eating California Natural and Eagle Pack foods for the last few years. 

She was (and we were) so lucky in terms of her joint/bone health.  When she was about 16, she had a pretty drastic health scare and the e-vets were utterly astonished at her age relative to her physical condition.  They said there was barely a hit of any arthritis in x-rays and all the vets there said she was the oldest Lab type dog they had ever treated!  Imagine if they knew she was with us another 2.5 years!

My husband's aunt's dog lived to be 22!  He was a collie mix, a farm dog, that was fed table scraps.  He probably ate other things being on a farm.

My last cairn lived to 14.  We fed him Purina Dog Chow and Science Diet later.  We did not know any better. 

My last dog of childhood lived to 14.  He was a rat terrier who was fed table scraps and Purina Dog Chow.

My parents' cat was 19 and died last year.  She was fed Purina Cat Chow.

I remember my dad's hunting beagles.  One of us would bring a huge bowl of Dog Chow or something of simliar quality out for them.  And, they would also eat whatever canned food or table scraps or bread they were offered.  I'm not sure exactly how old they were when they passed but I was a teenager. 

My dad is convinced that any health problem Willow gets is because I'm feeding her like a person, keeping her inside too much and just generally not letting her live like a dog should, LOL.