Hi All,
I’m new here but my issue isn’t. I have a 7 1/2 year old female Miniature Pinscher that has been dealing with these episodes for years. I was originally told it was a bronchial issue caused by unknown allergens in or around my house. I was also told that there was a post nasal drip, which caused the swallowing, the nausea was due to the swallowing of the saliva, the coughing was an irritation in the throat from the allergen etc. I would give her Benadryl which never has helped. Peanut butter, to calm the hacking or dry biscuits to help with nausea but they continued…and I went on for years thinking I at least had some idea of what was happening. Now I’m feeling a little lost because I think it is all wrong.
Pepper has two types of episodes, the first is the hard swallow, hours of running outside to eat grass, followed by a retching cough (the cough looks and sounds like kennel cough) and loud burps. If she whines, it almost does sound like she has a sore throat. In these episodes, she may or may not also experience reverse sneezes that seem to go on forever. Most episodes happen late at night and last anywhere from a few hours to 24 hours, except for the last three.
The 2nd type of episode, which I have only seen 3 or 4 times in the last few years, looks like a facial seizure, there’s rapid licking, swallowing and gulping which is very fast for a few minutes and then this crazy run to the backyard to eat grass. then the hard swallowing for a bit and then it eventually subsides and she’s fine. This episode happened most recently about a month ago while we were sitting on the floor playing.
A week ago she had an episode with the hard swallowing and it was the first time that she started to bite at the carpet. (i posted the video on IG… and provided the link below…note I’m not looking for followers, just want to show what I’m experiencing…)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTw6LZSgtmn/?taken-by=wendyclaypool
The carpet biting was new so I posted the video since no one I know had experienced any of the same things I was dealing with. I started to feel alone and crazy (because they were happening mostly at night and I was the only one seeing them). Once I posted the video people started bringing up the possibility of acid reflux which I started researching, which led me here.
We had a really bad episode this past weekend which prompted me to make another vet appointment and now I’m wondering if it’s worth it. I will go and she will show no symptoms because as I’m typing this, she’s running around like everything is normal once again. I would like to find out if I can safely give her pepcid but I don’t want to self-diagnose. My goal is just to make sure she is comfortable and to save her from the stress. Just feeling like I’m back at square one.
