Elevated bowls

[Chymag]

I read in another post that the elevated bowls were not good, that they cause bloating? Just yesterday I was at obedience class with one of my dogs and there was a guy there talking to the trainer about some pups he(the trainer) had breed. The guys previous dog had died due to its stomach flipping. So of course we wanted to hear about this and the trainer explained what happened. we asked what can you do to prevent it, he said nothing really except some believed that eating off an elevated dish was something that could lessen the chance because the dog wasnt taking in so much air. There were a couple of other preventative measures as well but Im interested in hearing about theories on this elevated bowl. I feed both of my dogs this way. Thanks.

[Tenaj]

In recent studies done, it was found to increase bloat when the food bowl is elevated. They used to believe opposite until this last study. Smaller meals instead of one large meal a day also decreases the chance of blost.

[Anton]

I feed my dogs elevated--on top of a bucket that is about 16 inches tall. They are fed twice a day, morning and evening. Their kibble is wetted down with warm water. They are never fed before or after a play session (I use the swimming rule). http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif

My old Rottweiler, Anton, lived to be over 12 years old. Whether this feeding method had anything to do with it, I don't know, but it definitely didn't hurt him. http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/wink.gif

[Tenaj]

This does not harm all dogs. Keep in mind that the dogs you have are different and might be susceptible to bloat in their bloodline. Just because one dog didn't have problems dosen't mean another won't.......

[K9-man]

Elevation of the food bowl, restricting exercise after a meal and giving anti-gas medication actually increased animals potential to bloat by 66%!! Feeding 2 to 3 meals per day did lower a dogs chance to bloat. And one good thing for overweight dogs, they have a much lower chance of ever bloating than the underweight.
This is a result of a study done by Larry Glickman, V.M.D., Dr.PH at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine. It was a study of nearly 2000 dogs. The good news is that based upon a sample size of 151 Rottweilers, incidence of bloat in the Rottweiler is 1%. The breed was credited as having the lowest rate of the dogs screened. The highest rate of bloat was found in Great Danes with an incidence of 15.7% and Bloodhound with almost 10%. The study concluded that incidence of bloat does increase with the following:
Age of the dog
dogs with the largest chest depth ratios
dogs with the larger chest/width ratios
higher in females
higher in under weight dogs
most importantly, highest incidences were recorded in dogs with fearful temperaments, dogs that got upset easily.
Glickman labeled the Rottweiler as a happy, confident dog with little fear, resulting in the lowest incidence of bloat for the breeds surveyed. http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/biggrin.gif

[KatMc]

K9-Man,

that's a very interesting study. Definitely has good things to say about the Rotties http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/biggrin.gif

The curious thing is I lost my Shar-Pei to bloat. She was only 6 years old, fed 2x a day, healthy, active, not fearful (far from it), nothing that matches those indications other than being female, although she did have a deep chest.

That was one of the saddest days of my life, nothing I could do for her. The vet said there was a surgery available, that 'might' help, but she had not heard of many dogs surviving after that. The one's that survived the surgery developed other problems or died from heart failure. Of course she said all of that would depend on what other damage was done from her stomach turning.

Now I have started feeding my 2 on an elevated food stand, although it's only about 10" off the ground. Looks like it's back to reading. But I have to confess after having big dogs for the last 20 years, this is the first it happened, and they were always fed ground level.

Kathy

[K9-man]

Kathy,

The surgery your thinking about is called prophylactic gastropexy. The stomach is permanently fixed in place by attaching it to a fixed structure in the abdominal cavity like a rib or the body wall. This prevents the stomach from twisting. The dog can still bloat but it will not be life threatening because the stomach can’t twist. They recommend doing this for high-risk profile dogs (like my Great Dane, Scarlett) when they’re spayed. Of course I found out about this a couple months after she was spayed. She’s a smaller Great Dane (29 inches at the withers) and her father was a Rottweiler so these two factors decrease her odds of getting bloat somewhat but I’m still going to look in to it to see if she should have the surgery.

K9-man

[Elisha]

We had an 11 yr old Dobie that died of bloat over 10 years ago. He had an elevated food dish but he was fed only once a day and his food was not moistened. He went through the surgery but it was too much of a strain on his heart and died about 4 days later. The vet said it was common for Dobies and other deep chested dogs to get bloat. But now I am wondering if it was the elevated dish or the way he was fed, or the two combined. Because I currently feed my 8 month old girl two times a day (moistened) and her dish is elevated. Looks like I will also be doing some more reading about this issue and reconsider putting her dish back on the ground.