Longevity and mortality of cats attending primary care veterinary practices in England

Abstract

Enhanced knowledge on longevity and mortality in cats should support improved breeding, husbandry, clinical care and disease prevention strategies. The VetCompass research database of primary-care veterinary practice data offers an extensive resource of clinical health information on companion animals in the UK. This study aimed to characterise longevity and mortality in cats and to identify important demographic risk factors for compromised longevity. Crossbred cats were hypothesised to live longer than purebred cats. 3Descriptive statistics were used to characterise the deceased cats. Multivariable linear regression methods investigated risk factor association with longevity in cats that died at or after 5 years of age.From 118,016 cats attending 90 practices in England, 4,009 cats with confirmed deaths were randomly selected for detailed study. Demographic characterisation showed that 3,660 (91.7%) were crossbred, 2,009 (50.7%) were female and 2,599 (64.8%) were neutered. The most frequently attributed causes of mortality in cats of all ages were trauma (12.2%), renal disorder (12.1%), non-specific illness (11.2%), neoplasia (10.8%) and mass lesion disorders (10.2%). Overall, the median longevity was 14.0 years (IQR 9.0-17.0; range 0.0-26.7). Crossbred cats had a higher median longevity than purebred cats (median (IQR) 14.0 years (9.1-17.0) versus 12.5 years (6.1-16.4), P < 0.001) but individual purebred cat breeds varied substantially in longevity. In cats dying at or after 5 years (n = 3,360), being crossbred, lower bodyweight, neutered and non-insured were associated with increased longevity. This study described longevity in cats and identified important causes of mortality and breed-related associations with compromised longevity.

Causes of death of domestic cats in a veterinary hospital of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais state: a retrospective study

“…This tendency is also observed in other countries, as verified in the study by O'Neill et al (2014), in which the survival of half-breed cats in England was testified to be higher than in those of pure breed. These findings differ from those here reported, since there were higher death rates of half-breed cats (68.10%).…”

“…In England a study that presents data on longevity and causes of death of cats has been conducted (O'NEILL et al, 2014). However, in Brazil only causes of dog death have been well reported (BENTUBO et al, 2007;FIGHERA et al, 2008;GRIGALEVICIUS et al, 2015), while few studies have addressed this issue on cats and still have demonstrated controversies.…”

Risk factors for road traffic accidents in cats up to age 12 months that were registered between 2010 and 2013 with the UK pet cat cohort (‘Bristol Cats’)

“…It would be beneficial, in future, to assess the risk factors for RTAs at all ages. This would better enable risk factors to be linked with different age groups and would also provide the opportunity to support previous research, which suggests that younger cats are more at risk of an RTA (Rochlitz 2003a, O'Neill and others 2015). …”

“…The age of 12 months was chosen for the outcome measure as previous studies have shown younger cats to be more at risk (Rochlitz 2003a, O'Neill and others 2015). In addition to this, at the time the study was conducted all cats in the BC study had reached 12 months of age.…”

Diagnosis and investigation of chronic kidney disease in cats

“…IT is estimated that chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects around 30 per cent of cats that are over 12 years of age (Lulich and others 1992), and a recent UK study of 3309 cats treated at first-opinion veterinary practices (O'Neill and others 2015) identified it as the second most common cause of death in cats of five years and older, accounting for 12.1 per cent of cats (trauma was the most common cause, accounting for 12.2 per cent of cats).…”