Dog episode of pacing, licking floor, hiccuping/swallowing

[FishChipsAndBeans]

My dog has a long soft palate and seasonal allergies, so I'm used to her occasionally reverse sneezing, and allergy-related symptoms.

She has just spent around 10-15 minutes madly pacing, frantically licking the floor, while hiccuping/swallowing. I couldn't distract her from this at all. Around halfway through she stopped and hacked like she was going to vomit, but nothing came up. This is new for her - I've not seen her do this mad licking before.

She's settled down now and seems fine again. I've felt her stomach and it doesn't feel distended. She's only had on-lead walks today and I've not noticed her picking anything up, apart from a couple of twigs which I told her to drop and she did do straight away. She's eaten and drank normally today.

I phoned the vet's, described what had happened and asked whether I should be worried/come in to see someone, or just monitor seeing as it only lasted 10/15 mins and she's ok now. They were non-committal and just said I can either monitor it or make an appointment if I was worried.

I've googled it, but have only found anecdotal stories - mostly I found that the frantic licking of the floors seems to be due to the dog feeling nauseous and the equivalent of them trying to find grass to eat. But I also came across bloat, which is why I mentioned her stomach not being distended.

I suspect it's more likely something as simple as nausea, or it's to do with her long soft palate being irritated. But if it's something else then I'm conscious of ignoring it as so many things I take her to the vet for end up being down to allergies or her palate.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

Hi doggie people. I posted similarly last year about my 2yo rescue bitch. We have now had 5 episodes and each of the first 4 were met with no ideas and I felt I was suspected of paranoia or just making it up. However after the last event I saw another vet who, although no concrete thoughts, at least takes me seriously. I too read about bloat being potentially fatal but we think it is a milder form of colic, albeit still quite painful for the dog. I had held her still and massaged her stomach for a while and it seemed to calm her. Then I was rewarded with an enormous burp! I went through this procedure 3 times and after about three hours she grew a bit quieter, although still gulping every so often and frequently changing her lying down position. Without exception these events have kicked off late at night and suggestions so far have been to give a much smaller amount for her second meal in the evening, and I am administering canine pre- and pro-biotic tablets to regulate gut flora. I have also given a small syringe of Gaviscon at the onset of an attack but can't say whether or not this helped.
This is a frightening thing which at very least, contributes to a sleepless night, so I am hoping the new measures might work. My vet has asked me to make a video on myy phone, if it happens again, so that she can study and discuss with colleagues.
If any of the dogs previously mentioned are now cured, I'd be grateful to see details.
Best wishes. Marilyn

Oh, sorry forgot to say my vet said a half tablet of Buscopan can be used to relax muscles.
Marilyn

I just got off the phone with my Vet. My girl has a condition called PICA and because of it I am used to the Peroxide trick. So Everytime she does the pacing, gulping, licking floor & bed etc thing I immediately go to Peroxide as I assume she ate something she should not have. Last weekend was the first time nothing suspicious came up however a TON of weeds did. The crazy thing is, the peroxide trick helped her tremendously. About an hour after the episode, after she had completely emptied her tummy the gulping etc. stops and the next morning she is back to new! The following is our plan going forward: Metronidazole twice a day for about 10 days then once a day as a maintenance. Antacids twice a day every day ,and Pepto tabs as needed. I am curious is any of the other dogs that exhibits this type of behavior has PICA?

My dod has been doing this on and off for the last couple weeks. Its not every day, but it's been happening on occasion in the evenings about an hour after he eats.

Has anyone figured out what it is?? He already eats human grade dog food (Honest Kitchen)...my bf and I don't know what to do about it other than have him wait it out. We may get an elevated dog food bowl to see if that helps...but it still doesn't explain WHY this is happening...:(

Hello again. Hate to tempt Fate but... Since my post on 12 Jan about how I had started treating my girl, Jewel, we've had no new episodes. I'm continuing with probiotic tablet crushed into morning food after first walk. She's a modest, sometimes reluctant eater but I make sure she's not completely empty. Before that, on waking, she gets just couple small biscuits and this is repeated when we go up to bed. I read that bringing up bile, that vivid yellow stuff, is due to excess stomach acid with nothing to digest, and the biccy thing has worked 100% for that. No more nasty stains on the carpet! A second meal is given early evening around 6. Perhaps the secret is little bits of food spread through the day, although more difficult with my other girl, Leah, who has ever-hopeful Labrador genes. Hope this is a comfort as also counter-productive if our dogs feel us getting anxious over it.
Best wishes and here's hoping we and our dogs don't get prevented from taking precious walks outside.
Marilyn

@salowskyk I'm the original poster on this thread (frequent name changer). My dog had lots of tests at an animal hospital and the only thing found was chronic inflammation throughout her digestive tract. Cause unknown. The animal hospital didn't really have a solution, apart from steroids and omeprazole. I wanted to avoid lifelong medication as a solution as my dog was still very young I felt to be on long-term steroids.

I switched her food to Butternut Box, and then to Different Dog (just to avoid the lentils really that Butternut Box use), and I fed her from a slow feeder bowl. I keep her meal sizes quite small, so she's not getting a big influx of food at once to digest, and avoid dry food/biscuits as whenever she had those I could hear her stomach gurgling loudly.

But what really did the trick and has stopped the episodes altogether is giving her a daily pre- and pro-biotic (YoDigest by Lintbells). I was doing a lot of reading about nutrition at the time, in particular gut bacteria (for myself) and found out that a poor gut microbiome in humans can lead to chronic inflammation, and that having a good, diverse gut microbiome can reduce that inflammation. So I figured that if that happens in humans, then it likely happens in dogs, and I started giving her the YuDigest. We've had well over a year now since she had an attack, so I'm hopeful that this is what she needed all along.

YuDigest, not YoDigest!

Mine are probiotic support tabs from Supplement Tree who offered the most reasonable price. Same result, anyway. After all these posts we appear to have a solution. Hope your dog continues to improve, Fran.

I have an 8yr old boxer that I have been dealing with this very mind boggling mystery for her entire life. I too have searched the internet, taken her to the vet...ran tests, tried antacids, different diets, everything. Problem was, the. Episodes kept happening. Not very often at all when she was young. But as she got older, they happened more frequent. Well fast forward to this year. They started happening day after day and they would last an hour or more. I finally took her to the best ER vet in town on day 2. I couldn’t take it. They came out and told me without doing the 3-4,000 MRI they felt that it was a good chance it was between two things. A brain tumor or epilepsy. But they were leaning towards epilepsy bc of her physical exam and how long she has been having the same type of “episode” that they referred to as focal seizures. They started her on meds and she stopped having them. Two months went by and she had another one. 💔 So now we see if is a dosage thing or if maybe it is a brain tumor 💔💔🐾 ugh.

I know a dog with this, initially thought to be gastric reflux but was in fact a form of epilepsy- managed v well on barbiturates I think with steroids for acute episodes. Keep a diary.

That’s great to hear! Bc I’m starting to reallllly worry. Can you find out what they have their dog on for me? I’d love to take the information back to my vet and see what his thoughts are. Thanks for your input.

Brand name is Luminal in Spain, but it’s just phenobarbital, taken every day. He also has Primperan for when he starts to show signs, and we give him 2 to 4 tablets up to every 6 hours for 3 days in a bad episode.

He’s a large breed (hovawart) and hasn’t had a bad episode since January this year! (I’m his dog sitter, known him since he was a growing embryo!)

Thank you! We are going to start that but have to ween her off of her anxiety meds first. I appreciate you. I certainly hope that helps and it isn’t my worst fear (brain tumor). She is a boxer and I know how common they are in boxers.

I hope it helps too, it would be great to hear how she does 💕 lots of love