The effect of fasting on gastrointestinal motility in healthy dogs as assessed by sonography.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of fasting on gastrointestinal (GI) motility in healthy dogs, as detected by 2D ultrasound.

DESIGN: Prospective observational study.

SETTING: University Distributed Veterinary Learning Community.

ANIMALS: Ten healthy client-owned dogs.

INTERVENTIONS: Dogs were fasted 24 hours following regular feeding. After this first feeding and during the 24 hour fasting period, 2D ultrasound was performed to detect sonographically visible GI contractions of the stomach, duodenum, and jejunum/ileum at T = 30 minutes, 6 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours. Dogs were then fed a second meal after the 24-hour fast and ultrasound was repeated 30 minutes later (T = 24.5 h). Each site was scanned twice at each time point. Each scan lasted 3 minutes. The results were averaged and then divided by 3 to determine contractions per minute. One-way repeated measures ANOVA with post hoc Tukey's comparison test was used to detect statistical differences over time for each site examined.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The mean GI contraction rates in the stomach, duodenum, and jejunum/ileum at T12 and T24 were significantly lower than the GI contraction rates at T30, T3, T6, and T24.5 (P < 0.05). The mean GI contraction rates in the stomach, duodenum, and jejunum/ileum at T30, T3, T6, and T24.5 were not statistically different from each other.

CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study show that 2D sonography can be used to evaluate GI motility in dogs and that GI contraction rate decreases significantly in the stomach, duodenum, and jejunum/ileum after 12-24 hours of fasting.