# Life Expectancy



## blackviolet

For those of you with purebreds, how long have your dogs generally lived, and what did they die of?

I've always had mixed breeds, and they lived about 14-17 years. I've had one purbred (from a backyard breeder) that was rife with health problems, and didn't make it to 4 years old.

It seems I've seen many that have been lost around 12 years. Is this true? I wish I could post a poll.


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## Chris Wild

I've had one make it to 14 and another to almost 13, and another we lost at 10. Currently have one that will be 11 in Aug and another that will be 12 in Oct, and don't expect to lose either anytime soon. I have known a couple others that made it to 13-15, but those are unusual. I would say with GSDs 12 is around average.


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## Wolfiesmom

My purebred shepherd died in his sleep at age 12. That was 10 years ago. When I was a kid, we had a purebred Lab that died at age 14. It seems that they are living longer these days though.


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## blackviolet

Chris, what did your dogs die of, if I may ask?


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## onyx'girl

I was wondering about dogs that are anxious or have a high metabolism, their life spans are the same? You'd almost think the stress they live with would shorten their lives.
There is a beagle mix where I work and she has been on SD and Beneful thruout her life, she is so old looking for her age, it makes me wonder if her diet contributed to that, too! She is about 8 and looks double that, not overweight at all, maybe it is all the grey that has come in over the years.


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## Elaine

I've had two GSDs die at 12: one from severe arthritis from elbow dysplasia and the other from some sort of abdominal cancer. I had one GSD die at 10 from osteosarc and a greyhound at 12 from laryngeal paralysis. I had a mixed breed die at 15 from gastric reflux.


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## Chris Wild

blackviolet said:


> Chris, what did your dogs die of, if I may ask?


14yo had some sort of seizure or stroke and just died. Had been perfectly healthy up to that point.

The one who made it to almost 13 we PTS last fall. She could have kept going, but bad days were starting to outnumber the good. She had some back problems and also mammary cancer and just started going downhill.

The 10 yo we're really not sure. He got a small sore on his elbow on day when outside and within a day it was huge and the tissue was decaying. There was some sort of necrotizing toxin in there. It kept spreading and got infected, nothing the vet could come up with to do helped. Eventually the infection became systemic and he started running a high fever that was addling his brain, and with it getting worse and nothing helping we had to PTS. Don't know if whatever the toxin was was that strong, or if being older with a weaker immune system he just couldn't fight it despite all the drugs and topicals. Very strange. He was fine one day, and PTS for reasons unknown within a week. Vet suspected brown recluse spider bite, but we will never know for sure.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN

I think this chart is interesting on this page - going by weight:
Aging in dogs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have had one PB GSD who passed - at 11y9m from GI lymphoma. I got her when she was 8. She was a rescue but I had her pedigree - she was from a mother-son oops litter. She had an IgA deficiency, pyoderma, hypothyroid. She was wonderful though.

My GSD-Chow mix was at least 16. He weighed around 55# she was about 66#.


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## Baersmama

My first died at nine.... after a good day of play, she walked past me wagging her tail and a few minutes later had a seizure and died. My next passed away at 12. She had hip problems; but I think at the end it was some spinal disease. We lost our next one at only 20 months. He had congenital kidney problems - hit about 75 pounds, and his kidneys could not longer function enough to keep him alive... very tragic, and our vet said very rare. We now have two, ages are three and four. I have heard that 10-12 years is what is usual for a GSD.


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## LisaT

We've lost a lot of GSDs on this board at a young age too. Bloat takes some, cancer takes a lot. A couple pups were lost to distemper right after their distemper vaccinations too.


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## elisabeth_00117

I currently share my life with a 13.3 year old female. Beau currently has no major health issues and has never really had any health concerns in her life. She can still keep up and kick my 14 month old male's butt when he becomes too much for her.


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## Zarr

I lost my first GSD, a lovely girl she was...to Haemangiosarcoma(sp)...of the heart. It was sudden...she was fine, then 3 hours later dying in my arms...she was almost 8 years old. I expected her to live longer but having said that...I never in my wildest dreams thought she would die of cancer of the heart I would like to think 10+ years old is good for a Shepherd, but some vets say 8 is a good age! I was certainly not prepared to part with my girl at 8...just days before she passed, I was telling myself that I would have another couple of years yet with my girl. Just never know I spose.


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## JakodaCD OA

I;ve lost 4 now((( and it never ever leave your mind.

Jake 13, stroke
Kodi 10, spondylosis
Sami 13 pts bad days outweighing good
Dodge 13 complications from anaplasmosis /neuro


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## kess&ellie

I lost Traverse at age 9 due to bone cancer. I only had a month from when it was diagnosed to when he passed.

We just lost Kessler at age 11 1/2 years to dm. We knew our time with him was limited but it's still very, very hard.


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## Isabella

So far bloat doesn't seem to be a common cause of death in this post.
Does anyone have experience with this? Is it true you only have a few hours to save the dog after you notice the symptoms? What is the success rate if they have the operation?


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## arycrest

Isabella said:


> So far bloat doesn't seem to be a common cause of death in this post.
> Does anyone have experience with this? Is it true you only have a few hours to save the dog after you notice the symptoms? What is the success rate if they have the operation?


Bloat w/torsion is an immediate life and death emergency ... get to the vet or ER as soon as possible!!!

I don't know the stats regarding the surgery, I only know that I've had three Hooligans bloat w/torsion and all three survived emergency surgery. One lost his spleen, one lost 1/3 of his stomach but they all had uneventful recovery periods. I don't know if this is important or not, but all three were males and all three were 9 years old when they bloated.


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## arycrest

*Tasha* - 10 years/10 months - PTS - DM

*Tex* - 12 years/10 months - PTS - sudden and complete system shutdown - numerous health problems requiring massive amounts of Pred for his last 5 years

*Echo* - 9 years/11 months - died naturally - hemangiosarcoma of the heart

*Yukon* - 10 years/5 months - PTS - polymyositis

*JR* - 13 years/3 months - PTS - cauda equina

*Too* - 12 years/6 months - died naturally - massive multi-organ hemorrhage (may have been due to Deramaxx)
*
Niki* - 7 years/7 months - PTS - osteosarcoma

*Ringer* - 12 years/11 months - PTS - multi-problems including hemangiosarcoma of the heart

*Kelly* - 12 years/6 months - PTS - mult-problems including hemangiosarcoma of the heart, liver and gallblader problems

*Honey* - 13 years/9 months - PTS - cauda equina plus had a high fever, cause unknown, leaving her in a coma and was not expected to live thru the night

*NOTE: *My other Bridge Kids - Andy (Cocker - 16 - "old age"), Abbey (OES - 16 - "multi problems") and Bo (mutt - 10 to 13 - hemangiosarcoma of the spleen) - were not GSDs.


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## JudynRich

My list is long too: 
Brownie 17 (my childhood pet) a mix
Coco 14 (Brownie's buddy) Cockapoo 
Rinnie 14 Aust. Shep
Buffy 14 Cocker
Susie 12 GSD (cancer)
Koko 18 toy poodle

My nephew and his wife adopted a retired Army dog, a Belgium Mal-he is currently 16!


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## kiya

In the last 17 years:
Cheyenne GSD 9 - a tumor next to his heart burst, put him in cardiac arrest, never sick a day in his life miss him so bad
Chazzy GSD rescue PTS 10 - she had a list of health issues, Degenerative Myelopathy crippled her


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## lylol

My 12 year old is still with us (though he had a spleen with numerous tumors removed abut 3 years ago... he would have been gone at nearly 10 if we hadnt done the surgery.. we did not test or treat for cancer at that time so consider ourselves lucky). His hearing is poor, a bit of dementia (luckily our little Boston who grew up with him keeps an eye on him), back end weakened but once a day he will still shuffle down the dirt road with us to smell the smells. I had thought we would lose him any day in the last year. He is a great old guy.


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## Trina

Axel was just shy of his 10th birthday when we had to put him down. It was some sort of cancer, but it happened so quickly and so many years ago that I do not remember the exact type of cancer. Just one morning, he didn't climb up into bed with us like he always did, then when he went outside to pee, it was totally red. Took him to the vet right away, but prognosis was dismal, so took him to another vet for second opinion, but she only concurred with our regular vet. We put him down that afternoon.

Klaus had just turned nine years old when he died. Don't know why, I woke up at 3 in the morning because I heard him struggling to breathe. He died in my arms twenty minutes later en route to the e-vet. He had a tough battle with ehrlichiosis the previous year, and after that, sometimes he would go off his food for a couple of days, but he had gained his weight back and seemed okay.


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## blackviolet

It's so sad. No amount of time is enough! But definitely not ten years or less, I would never expect to lose them so soon! I've been very lucky for the most part with my dogs. I'm sure Sugar wasn't a purebred GSD, but she was an active, healthy 16 when she started having seizures. We kept them under control for the most part, and she was still a happy girl until she suddenly died at 17. Her liver and kidneys were failing.  

I hope for all of my old dogs to be active and healthy at that age.


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## OTSteve

Our Staark lived to be 11. He passed in Nov 2013 (almost a year ago), from internal bleeding. I had left very early that day to travel to Cleveland via Dallas. He was sleeping when I left. Wife facetimed me while I was in the Dallas airport. He was almost comatose.

Porsche, his older sister is 13 years, 9 months and we're considering amputating her right rear leg, likely due to one cancer....


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## Magwart

I lost one to hemangio at 12, and one to osteosarcoma at 12. I lost a Doberman many years ago to the "sudden death gene" (DCM) that is all too common in that breed...she died of heart failure at just 7.

What's spooky about this old thread is how prevalent hemangio is. Aside from all the known cases listed here, many of the deaths described with internal bleeding and burst tumors sound like classic hemangio. 

I keep reading half of all dogs over age 10 will die of cancer, but I can't help but wonder if it's far more than half in this breed.


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## charger

We lost our last one Zeus to Lupus, or it may have been from the predisone used to control the Lupus.


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## Susan_GSD_mom

In nearly 50 years of owning GSDs and wolf shepherds, the oldest was a female wolf shepherd who died in her sleep at 14.5 yrs. The youngest was a high-drive DDR GSD who died of bloat and complications at 5 years. I have had dogs pass away at all ages in between, a few in their sleep, many euthanized for various fatal health issues.

Susan


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## Hineni7

Selah - GSD, 15 died on birthday, heart just gave out. She was exceptionally healthy and spry even around 12yrs of age. An old injury bothered her and caused her to gain more weight then she could handle. 

Hineni - GSD, (Lord I miss that boy so much, been 4yrs and feels like yesterday sometimes) was 10 going on 11. He had a sudden twist and the vets sent me down to a large town for surgery (they were quite heartless about his suffering) and he died in the backseat of my truck while I drove him... Otherwise, he was still extremely active, and healthy up to that day. 

Dunamis gsd, 8, stroke or brain tumor. Same thing, absolutely fine until suddenly, he can't move his hidden, a few hours later his front end, then his jaw locks, and he can't sit up on his brisket, etc... Tried to put, but vet couldn't get there in time. Otherwise was healthy. 

Hoshiah - GSD /husky /wolf 14 hit by a truck... 

Mizpah - GSD/mix 151/2, tumor, had to PTS. 

Man I hate reliving those losses....


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## shepherdmom

Of my PB shepherds one passed from tick disease/seizures while she was still really young 3-4? One was put down at 9 from DM and the most recent one was put down at 13, we put him down because his arthritis in his spine was so bad and he was in a lot of pain despite all the meds.


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## DEddy

I have an acquaintance in York, SC who has had three GSDs living to be 20, 21, 22. They live on a 63 acre farm with rolling, grass hills and lots of trees. She fed them canned dog food mixed into kibble. Environment and love.


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## Mister C

Maddie (GSD): lost her a month shy of her 16th birthday. We PTS due to complications from severe HD, arthritis and, finally, vestibular syndrome.

Schmoe (flat coat retriever): 12.5 yrs. Heart failure. She was a family dog that we were finally able to call our own around 10 yrs old. After she went blind at 11 (macular degeneration) it was difficult to exercise her properly.


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## JoanieGSD

25 years ago as a child my family had 4 white GSDs that all lived until 13-15. they lived outside on a large farm, slept in a barn, ate crap kibble, were vaccinated every several years as opposed to every year, did not get heartworm, wore tick/flea collars and hunted a lot of their own raw food b/c they could. They were extremely well loved and followed us kids everywhere and accompanied us on our long distance horseback rides..they were in excellent shape and could run for miles well into old age. They all die peacefully in their sleep. 

As an adult I have had to put one down at 9 from Lymes Disease complications
And am living with an 8 year old and a 7 year old. 

I keep reading studies by vets/pet food companies that the life expectancy of dogs is getting higher but according to this forum and my own personal experience I see more and more dogs dying younger of cancers/seizures/tick diseases/arthritis issues....


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