Maybe your dog gobbles down his food so fast that he acts like he’s starving to death. Although the show he puts on at mealtime may seem amusing at times, it is nothing to laugh at. It can be deadly serious.
If it seems like your dog is eating his food faster than necessary and is behaving obsessively, it is up to you to figure out what’s going on and if his behavior could be harmful to him or even others.
Why Eating Fast is Harmful to a Dog
There are a few reasons why you should be concerned with the speed at which your dog eats. In addition to health issues, this type of eating behavior is often associated with greed.
Greedy behavior can lead to being aggressive if another pet or person gets nearby the dog while he’s eating. If you have children or other animals in the house the dog that gobbles down its food can perceive others as competing for the food, which can create a dangerous situation very quickly.
Furthermore, when a dog does not chew its food thoroughly, eating fast can lead to gagging or choking. Worse yet, the dog ends up swallowing so much air that it vomits or develops a condition commonly referred to as bloat, which could be life threatening.
Why Bloat is Dangerous to a Dog
Bloat is an emergency medical condition that affects some dogs more than others, usually the larger breeds. Next to death rates for cancer, bloat is the second most common cause of death in dogs. Experts do not really know what causes bloat.
However, especially at risk are deep-chest breeds that have extra room in the abdomen and chest cavity. Dogs that display nervous personalities also seem to be more prone to bloat.
This condition is also known as GDV (gastric dilatation-volvulus), twisted stomach, or stomach/gastric torsion. Whenever a dog eats too fast, gulping his food causes him to take in excessive air along with fluid and food, filling his stomach which causes swelling, or dilatation, of the stomach cavity.
As the stomach swells, it tends to twist around on its axis, causing a volvulus, or obstruction, thus the term “gastric dilatation-volvulus.” When the stomach enlarges and twists around the axis of the digestive tract, it is no longer possible for anything to move through the stomach to the intestines.
If bloat occurs as a result of eating too fast and a veterinarian does not see the dog almost immediately, this extreme condition can cause blood poisoning and peritonitis, which will lead to the dog dying of toxic shock.
When the volvulus becomes too large, gas distension occurs, and the esophagus closes off, preventing the dog from belching or vomiting thereby relieving himself of the gas distension. Twisted stomach in combination with gas distension can cause hypotension – or low blood pressure.
A decreased return of blood to the heart and loss of blood supply of the stomach also results. In addition, the liver loses its ability to remove toxins and absorbed bacteria from the blood, which results in toxic shock, a deadly condition.
Cause of Greedy Behavior in a Dog
For most dogs that eat fast their greedy behavior began when they were puppies. A victim of his litter mates and the adult dogs around him, mealtime became a competition to consume enough food before it was completely gone.
The competition may have even started while the dog was a nursing pup. Unfortunately, being greedy becomes a pattern of behavior that is continued into adulthood, especially if there are other animals in his new home.
Of course, underlying medical conditions can also lead to this type of behavior. Your dog might be infected with parasites that affect the body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Another possibility is that the food is not nutritional enough and is leaving the dog feeling ravenous.
How to Prevent Bloat
Eliminating some of your dog’s risk factors for bloat can reduce his chances of dying of the deadly condition. Following are some suggested remedies.
- feed smaller meals more often
- do not allow exercise immediately after a meal
- incorporate canned or moist food into the diet
- prevent his drinking large amounts of water all at once
- try to alleviate his overall stress
If you own a dog at high risk for bloat, another preventive measure that can keep him from developing bloat, although risky itself because it is invasive surgery, is a gastropexy. Of course, your veterinarian can tell you whether this preventive procedure is a good idea or not for your dog.
Specially Designed Slow-feed Solutions
Researchers have also found that lowering a dog’s food and water bowls may prevent bloat. There are several bowls designed for this purpose that can be found online at websites like Pampered Paw Gifts. Of course, no one can guarantee that a particular bowl will prevent bloat, but they will definitely help slow down fast eaters.
- Interactive Feeder – A Green Interactive Feeder is a great one-size-feeds-all solution for dogs susceptible to bloat. It stimulates your dog’s curiosity while problem solving and encouraging slow eating. Designed to look like grass yet be stylish, your dog will work his brain instead of his jaw to move the food around to get it out. This bowl will slow your dog’s eating down to a healthy pace while it works his brain.
- Slo-Bowl Slow-Feed Dog Bowl – This bowl is designed to help your dog eat naturally by slowing down mealtime. Since dogs descended from wolves that scavenged for their food, the natural way for a dog to eat is to force them to eat their food slowly. Therefore, the bowl is designed to make a game out of foraging for food through a maze of valleys and ridges in the dish.
Visit Pampered Paw Gifts.com to Find Dog Food Bowls for Fast Eaters!