Which diseases dogs get as they get older depends largely on how big they are. Researchers now have a suspicion as to why this could be.
From
Tina Baier
As people grow old, they increasingly experience health problems. It’s the same with dogs. But exactly which diseases the animals get obviously depends heavily on their body size. A team led by Yunbi Nam from the University of Washington in Seattle came to this conclusion. by surveying the owners of more than 27,000 dogs from various U.S. states about illnesses that occurred in their animals. The dogs belonged to 238 different breeds. The scientists deliberately did not break down the diseases by race because they wanted to focus on the connection between disease and body size.