Animals (specially mammals) mostly have the same digestive system like human.
As human needs to be in fasting prior to anesthesia, animals need too.
It depends on the species for some with higher metabolic rates it could produce avoidable complications such as catabolic changes, body temperature maintenance, and dehydration e.g. mouse. For other such as ruminants it will not make any difference as their digestion chamber rumen will never be emptied. For monogastrics it will depend on what they have been eating and how long it takes to digest it e.g. pigs and dogs. I have never starved ruminants, rodents or lagomorphs, dogs and cats for 8 hr after a digestible meal and water withdrawal one hour before premed. For other species use the above principles e.g. snakes, birds, fish, etc. Hope this helps
David
It also depends why .... if it is due to concerns about vomiting while under anaesthesia, there is no point withholding food from species that cannot vomit (e.g. rats and mice).
An interesting point/discussion. What is the opinion on horses then, who cannot vomit and withholding of food could actually lead to further complications - to be weighed up against fear of compaction I guess, which have been overriding in the past... is that justified....?
Complication of vomiting and aspiration is the risk related to anesthesia. Moreover gastrointestinal motility is slow to return after anesthesia. However in case of small and light weight animals there is risk of hypoglycemia so that needs to be monitored and due to this their time of fasting is usually shorter.
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