The digestive system includes the: • Mouth • Teeth • Salivary Glands • Esophagus and Stomach • Small Intestine • Large Intestine • Pancreas • Liver and Gall Bladder The digestive system absorbs and digests food and eliminates solid wastes from the body. Mouth A dog’s digestive process starts in the stomach. This differs materially from humans. We use our teeth to grind our food and moisten it with saliva containing digestive enzymes, in particular amylase to aid the digestion of starches and lipase to digest fats. It is estimated that in humans 30% of starch digestion takes place in the mouth and that 60-70% is digested within half an hour. The digestive process in humans is well and truly underway by the time the food hits the stomach. Teeth The structure and layout of your dog’s teeth are designed to cope with the type of foods that dogs naturally seek out and have evolved to eat over millennia. This is why dogs have large canine teeth to bite, grip and tear up food, and chew and break down meat and bones. Adult dogs have around 42 teeth in total, compared to 32 for adult humans. Esophagus and Stomach The esophagus: When your dog swallows their food, it passes through the esophagus, or gullet. Strong muscles along the length of the esophagus help to push the food down into the stomach, as part of the chewing process. The stomach: When food reaches the stomach, the real process of dog digestion begins. Your dog’s stomach contains acid which is 100 times stronger than in humans. This unfolds the proteins and activates the enzyme pepsinogen to release amino acids. The acid also softens bone matter Small Intestine When your dog’s stomach has broken their food down sufficiently enough to allow it to enter the next stage of the digestive process, the resulting mushy liquid passes through into the small intestine. This is where your dog’s body absorbs the nutrients that they need from their food, leaving the remaining waste products to be expelled from the body. Large Intestine and Anus Any food that isn’t used by the body and absorbed in the small intestine passes right through the large intestine, which consists of a long, muscular tube. This is the final stage of the digestive process, which allows your dog to pass stools to eliminate waste products from the body. Pancreas Sends enzymes to further break down protein, helps regulate blood sugar Liver The liver is crucial in this process, as this is where the nutrients from the food are metabolized. This means that by the time your pooch’s food reaches the large intestine, most of the useful compounds have already been absorbed into their body. Anything without nutritional value, or that cannot be broken down and digested, is pushed through the large intestines where any remaining water in the food is absorbed into the body. The waste is then formed into a stool.
