Research finds female neutered dogs live the longest

Scientists at a US human longevity research team and VetCompass have published their work entitled “Do female dogs age differently than male dogs?” in The Journals of Gerontology. It is a study of the differences in longevity of male and female, neutered and un-neutered domestic dogs. They examined records of around 81,000 deaths at 24 veterinary teaching hospitals in the US, and an independent data set of 5,095 deaths from UK practices from the VetCompass project. Their research found that neutered dogs live longer, and female neutered dogs live the longest.

VetCompass head Dan O’Neill said: “At first, females seemed to outlive males. But this is an illusion. Male and female dogs differ in their proportions that are neutered. Our data also showed a huge difference in lifespan between neutered and un-neutered animals. So, when we take the differing neutering levels into account between males and females, the sex difference disappears. It’s neutering that’s associated with the lifespan difference, not the sex itself. Neutering – especially in females – is associated with substantially longer lifespan and females are more likely to be neutered than males in the UK. We saw the same results from US referral data and UK first opinion data. When it comes to longevity, the main driver is neutering. Instead of saying females live longer than males, we should be scrapping that because there’s limited evidence for it now. Instead, we should be saying neutered dogs live longer than entire dogs.”