Normal Emptying Time of the Stomach of the Dog

Abstract

In the course of experimental work on the effect of anoxemia on the emptying time of the stomach of the dog a good deal of control data was obtained. It was felt that these data might be of interest and use to other workers, especially as there appears to be a considerable difference of opinion as to the time it takes the stomach of a dog to empty.

Dogs varying in weight from 5 to 10 kilos were used in these experiments. They were fed approximately the same time each day. The experimental meal consisted of 40 gm. of hamburger steak, 10 gm. of dried ground bread and 50 cc. of milk; 15 gm. of barium sulphate were added so that the stomach contents could be seen with the x-rays. The animals ate this meal with relish. Immediately afterward they were put into a large steel respiratory chamber so that they would be protected from extraneous influences. The chamber was kept well ventilated by means of an air pump of large capacity. It was necessary, of course, to remove the animals from the chamber in order to examine them fluoroscopically. This procedure took from 5 to 15 minutes, so that an experimental error of a plus or minus 15 minutes was allowed.

Summary. Twenty-five dogs were used; a total of 200 tests was run. The average emptying time of the stomach of the dogs was 6.59 hours; the mean was 6.54 hours. The average for the tests was 6.61 hours and the mean 6.62. The extremes for the emptying time were 5.42 hours and 8.07 hours.

It was interesting to observe that the normal emptying time of the stomach for an individual dog was remarkably uniform from day to day. It: was necessary, of course, to keep all the factors quite constant. As a matter of fact the extremes for the 25 dogs as before mentioned were 5.42 hours and 8.07 hours—a variation of only 2.65 hours. No correlation was noticed as to size or breed.

The results reported in this paper are higher than those obtained by Ivy 1 and by Thomas. 2 The former reports the normal emptying time of the stomach in 5 dogs as varying from 4 hours and 25 minutes to 5 hours and 17 minutes. He used a meal of 125 gm. of Swift's Silver Fox Food and 100 cc. of milk. Thomas states that a dog fed about 300 gm. of dog biscuit and a pint of milk would probably empty in somewhere around 3 hours. Both of these authors used a different type of meal from the one reported in this paper and this probably accounts for the difference in results. The experimental meal we used proved very successful in our work and we can recommend it highly; it is fairly well balanced; the dogs ate it with relish and small dogs subsisted solely on it.

Conclusions. The normal emptying time of the stomach was determined on 25 dogs under carefully controlled conditions. The meal consisted of 40 gm. of hamburger steak, 10 gm. of dried ground bread and 50 cc. of milk; barium sulphate was added (15 gm.). A total of 200 tests were made. The average emptying time of the stomach of the dogs was 6.59 hours; the average for the tests was 6.61 hours. The variations were between 5.42 and 8.07 hours. It was found that the emptying time of the stomach for an individual dog was strikingly uniform from day to day.