Gastrointestinal transit time is faster in Beagle dogs compared to cats. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • OBJECTIVE: To characterize gastrointestinal transit times (GITTs) and pH in dogs, and to compare to data recently described for cats. ANIMALS: 7 healthy, colony-housed Beagles. PROCEDURES: The GITTs and pH were measured using a continuous pH monitoring system. For the first period (prefeeding), food was withheld for 20 hours followed by pH capsule administration. Five hours after capsule administration, dogs were offered 75% of their historical daily caloric intake for 1 hour. For the second period (postfeeding), food was withheld for 24 hours. Dogs were allowed 1 hour to eat, followed by capsule administration. Both periods were repeated 3 times. The GITTs and pH were compared to published feline data. RESULTS: The mean SD transit times in dogs for the pre- and postfeeding periods, respectively, were esophageal, 3 5 minutes and 13 37 minutes; gastric, 31 60 minutes and 829 249 minutes; and intestinal, 795 444 minutes and 830 368 minutes. The mean SD gastrointestinal pH in dogs for the pre- and postfeeding periods, respectively, were esophageal, 6.6 0.6 and 5.7 1.0; gastric, 3.0 1.4 and 1.8 0.3; intestinal, 7.9 0.3 and 7.7 0.6; first-hour small intestinal, 7.6 0.5 and 7.1 0.4; and last-hour large intestinal, 7.9 0.6 and 7.7 1.0. The first-hour small intestinal pH and total transit times varied between dogs and cats depending on feed period (P = .002 and P = .04, respectively). Post hoc analysis revealed significantly shorter total transit times in dogs prefeeding (P = .005; mean SD for cats, 2,441 1,359 minutes; for dogs, 828 439 minutes) and postfeeding (P = .03; mean SD for cats, 3,009 1,220 minutes; for dogs, 1,671 513 minutes). Total transit time for dogs was also shorter pre- versus postfeeding (P = .003). CLINICAL RELEVANCE: GITT is faster in Beagles compared to cats, but gastrointestinal pH are similar when fed the same diet.

published proceedings

  • J Am Vet Med Assoc

altmetric score

  • 1.6

author list (cited authors)

  • Tolbert, M. K., Telles, N. J., Simon, B. T., Scallan, E. M., Price, J. M., Gould, E. N., ... Kathrani, A.

citation count

  • 1

complete list of authors

  • Tolbert, M Katherine||Telles, Naila J||Simon, Bradley T||Scallan, Elizabeth M||Price, Joshua M||Gould, Emily N||Papich, Mark G||Lidbury, Jonathan A||Steiner, Jörg M||Kathrani, Aarti

publication date

  • September 2022