Question: How long do you wait before/after feeding to walk your dog?

[Miabella]

Our usual morning routine is a 1.5 mile brisk leash walk as soon as we get up (6 am). There is no running, jumping, or rough-housing, just a steady walk at a good pace. She does not even break into a pant from this, and I usually feed within 10 minutes of arriving home after the walk.

In the evenings, I usually feed right when I get home, around 5:15 pm. We don't go out for our evening exercise and training until around 7:30, so that's a good 2 hours of digestion time.

[groupieindenial]

I would also think that feeding smaller quantities more often would help prevent bloat, and digest faster, and utilize more nutrients too. Excess food in a single feeding will be excreted, not utilized. For example, if you can feed 3x/day instead of 1 or 2 big meals. Dog's metabolisms are fast, and require supplied energy more frequently than we humans. If it is proven that humans do better eating smaller meals more frequently, then I would assume this to be more important with dogs. I've been feeding only 2x daily lately, but it looks like a lot of food, but I've been missing making it home for lunch to feed him then. I'd like to have him back on 3x/day. It just seems like a lot less to gulp down. I've also noticed when he eats larger portion meals, that he drinks a heck of a lot more water afterwards.

I wait about an 1 hour after he's eaten before walks. If it hasn't been a long time before last feeding, then I'll try to walk him first. He definately does not eat before we go out to play frisbee.

[laurlitt]

Having just lost my Blaise to bloat 6 days ago this topic has a lot of interest to me. Unfortunately I am just as confused an unsure as everyone else as to what causes bloat or how to prevent it.

I have some literature that says to have the dog rest 1 hour before feeding and 2 hours after feeding before exercising, although I don't think a calm walk would be an issue.

The morning of Blaise's last day I fed the 2 males out in their kennels. They had a small slab of pork necks. Blaise has always been a slow eater and I never worried about him b/c he was so through (sp?) with his eating. I looked out the window and noticed that he was done well before Hannibal and commented to my husband that Blaise finally finished before the other dogs... I wonder if this is what caused his bloat later in the day. He was placed in his crate for the day while we were at work so he wasn't active at all and I have no idea how much water he consumed that morning. So in our case, exercise/activity had little if anything to do w/ the bloat.

Maddie works herself up into a frenzy when it's feeding time and if she's eating around the other dogs she gobbles her food a lot faster. We try to keep her isolated in her crate when it's feeding time so she'll be calmer.

Our dogs in general are always resting after they eat.

[groupieindenial]

Originally Posted by laurlitt

Having just lost my Blaise to bloat 6 days ago this topic has a lot of interest to me. Unfortunately I am just as confused an unsure as everyone else as to what causes bloat or how to prevent it.

I was in disbelief when I read that thread. Bloat CAN be very dangerous, not just a condition and visit to the vets. I've always been concerned, but more of the stomach twisting (or is that what bloat is?), rather than bloating itself. I'm sorry your loss is an eye opener for the rest of us. Your strong just being on this board still discussing this.

[2rotties2luv]

For those who are concerned about bloat, here are two recent studies, one done at Purdue, the other at Tufts.

Here's the link to the article for the bloat study at Tufts:

http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proce...=824&O=Generic

Another study was done at Purdue. Here's the link to the abstract of the study:

http://www.vet.purdue.edu/epi/dietrisk.htm

Here's the complete article (click on "Manual Download"):

http://www.jaaha.org/cgi/reprint/40/3/192

They did not find a link between exercise and bloat, but I still use common sense as far as exercise and feeding. My biggest surprise was the finding that soaking kibble which uses citric acid as a preservative is a cause of bloat. Canidae recently changed from using ascorbic acid to using citric acid as a preservative. Since I feed Canidae, I no longer soak the kibble in warm water.

[BostonRott]

Ok, I'll be the dissenting voice. I have never paid attention to when I feed vs. exercise.

If a dog is actively panting HARD, then they don't get fed right then. I've fed right before training, and fed right after training (agility).

I've heard the stories about exericse and bloat, but when I think exercise, I think of running free in the woods, agility, protection work, herding......something that really gets the dog's HR and RR up. Walking, tracking, obedience.......not anything I would even think of in terms of relation to time of meal.

When I'm trialing, the girls get Peak Performance II (pre-digested amino acids and buffers) to help them recover faster between runs, especially on hot days (helps keep electrolytes in balance too!). I try to feed it 20min after they work their first run, so as not to pull blood from hot muscles, but it doesn't always work out that way.

When training for the AD, I frequently allowed the dogs to come in and drink when we got back, and when we ran the AD (Bort and Froli), they were given water on their breaks. No problems.

[SigTau66]

I generally have followed the 1 hr before and after feeding for exercising Kalil. But, as some have said, they don't consider a leisurely walk as exercise that could induce bloat (if exercise even does) and I have taken Kalil on walks almost immediatley after eating in the evening.

If you can accomodate the 1hr before and after feeding, I see no reason not to be that cautious with your dog becase you can never know.

[RottieMom51503]

I have a question that goes along with this as well.I like to be outside alot and have recently starting gardening and making flower beds out back. Daphne and Bear are always outside with me. I bought a large bucket (i think it is a mop bucket but I use it as an outside water bucket) and I usually fill it up with water when we go outside. I buy boxes of the great value water from Walmart, put those in the fridg and I usually put two to three gallon jugs in their bucket. They never do the same thing. One day as soon as I put it down the have a race to see who can drink more, then sometimes afterwards they play and sometimes they just lay around. The next time the might hardly touch the water then the next time they play first and then drink. My question is, is this alright or would it be better while they are playing to give them Ice Chips while they are having a cooling down period?

[BostonRott]

I would not worry about dogs drinking water when they are playing. They need to stay hydrated.