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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

MA Baby Boomers' Pets are Also Aging

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Monday, November 7, 2011   

BOSTON - Just like their human companions, the pets of baby boomers are living longer than ever. That means those companion animals are living long enough to experience some of the inflammatory and degenerative diseases that humans get.

Jen Holm, a veterinarian and chief medical officer at Angell Animal Medical Center, Boston, says the past four years have seen a 20 percent increase in the number of veterinary specialists to deal with issues that are more common as pets live longer.

"Pets, too, suffer from the chronic kidney failure, chronic heart disease, arthritis and other conditions that you usually associate with the elderly."

Due to better nutrition, vet care and more responsibility on the part of their human companions, pets are living longer, Holm explains. That also means there are now more older animals in shelters, and they can make excellent companions because they can live longer and are a known commodity, she adds. The average life expectancy for a dog is nearly 13 years, and it is 12 to 18 years for a cat.

There are now 21 specific areas of veterinary specialists to deal with this aging pet population, Holm says.

"Veterinary medicine has met that trend by increasing the number of specialists."

She points out that these treatment areas not only help pets live longer, but afford companion animals and their humans a much better quality of life.




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