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S. Greene reviews the findings from Glickman et al’s 2000 JAVMA article on bloat (ie.acute gastric dilation, torsion or volvus) in large and giant breed dogs.
"One of the more important findings was that there are significant differences between the "large breeds" studied (Akita, Bloodhound, Collie, Irish Setter, Rottweiler, Standard Poodle and Weimaraner) and the "giant breeds" studied (Great Dane, Irish Wolfhound, Newfoundland and Saint Bernard).
The results reported here apply to the “large breeds” only, eg, our Standard Poodles [and German Shepherd Dogs].
Factors That Make NO Difference
These measures, long been thought to reduce the risk of bloat, were found to have no effect:
Restricting exercise before or after eating
Restricting water intake before and/or after meals
Feeding two or more meals per day
Moistening dry kibble before feeding
Factors That DO Make A Difference
These four (4) factors ARE associated with an increased risk of bloat in large breed dogs:
Raising the food dish more than doubled the risk for bloat.
Speed of eating: Dogs rated by their owners as very fast eaters had a 38% increased risk of bloat.
Age: The study found that risk increased by 20% with each year of age. Owners should be more alert to early signs of bloat as their dogs grow older.
Family History: Having a first-degree relative (parent, sibling or offspring) that had bloated increased a dog’s risk by 63%.”
I need to read the original journal article since the working GSD community believes that restricting exercise before/after eating and controlling water intake are methods to minimize the risk of bloat.
The study was from 2000, so I wonder if there's been any follow-up to this? I am not about to feed Opal right before/after our runs (there's no harm in waiting, and it is very often emphasized not to feed near exercise!), but it seems worth looking into! If I find anything interesting I'll add it here. I'm not taking their word for it just yet.
Scientifically, it is very hard to prove a negative. So nobody can say with any credibility that some action or lack of it did or did not contribute to a result. So without seeing the study (and I am not motivated to pay to do so, because given the published conclusion I would probably not be too impressed by it ) I cannot deduce how those conclusions were reached.
Those of us who deal with real dogs know that we can get everything right and still it can happen - remember Emmabeth's deerhound?
Those of us experienced with animal husbandry know that it is never wise to feed immediately before or after exercise.
Bloat can happen with any dog - all we can do is take every common-sense care to reduce the likelihood.
Hey - remember when Big Science said that feeding from raised bowls was essential to prevent bloat?
The problem is of course that some folks will see these conclusions as 'truth' when they are mere hypothesis, and some dogs may bloat as a direct result.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog
I've never needed to pay to read the study which was carried out by Purdue University and is the best and biggest study we have so far afaik.
It was certainly widely available at the time.
When I started agility over 15 years ago almost no one fed their dogs before competing. Now a lot of people do and the incidence of bloat among those dogs does not seem to have increased.
Yes, any dog can get bloat but IME they are most likely to fall into the categories mentioned above and for the condition to occur late evening when there was no appreciable amount of food in the stomach and the dog had not been recently exercised, also a result of the same study.
There never was any good or even reasonable tried and tested evidence that I am aware of to support the pre 2000 beliefs that many people still cling to.
I don't believe scientific studies unconditionally but I do give more weight to the results of those that seem to have been fairly well designed to unproven traditional beliefs, even if they challenge what I believed to be true myself.
) I cannot deduce how those conclusions were reached.
