[Ryan K]

Hi Laura!
My dog has been off and on with his hacking Since that initial posting. My vet and I are both inclined to think the cause of his discomfort and hacking is reflux. I actually had a few months Problem free after my cousin mentioned I had way too many plug in air fresheners (the bath and body works wallflowers) in my outlets. I didn’t realize I had one in every room. She said that caused her coworkers cat to be violently ill. When I removed them my dog was literally problem free for three months before “relapsing” about two two months ago. I did test out the wallflowers again though when he had had a few days of no symptoms and it almost instantly flared him up so I believe there is an element of respiratory distress from those fragrances but I also believe it’s a lot to do with what he eats. I have had him on Science Diet Low fat ID and that seems to help. When he gets a flare up of his ravenous licking I give him a half of a Pepcid and omeprozole (at different times during the day). I notice when he gets into a licking fit the most relief he seems to get is honestly letting him go bonkers eating grass outside until he feels better. This usually takes about 25 minutes of him ravenously gulping them down but then he calms down. Sometimes feeding him toast helps too. It’s something in his stomach and keeping it full seems to help. I think he gets reflux from his grazing habits. He doesn’t fill his stomach up with big meals so the acid builds up and overflows. That is my guess and my vet’s too. I should note that I haven’t had any extensive testing done on him…simply bloodwork and physicals. Sadly, he slipped a disc again a month ago and has been on confined bed rest which has been so hard. He hates it. But, he is walking which is great. It’s very scary to see him in pain like that from his back. The pain meds are also an insane trigger for his stomach being upset. I hope this update gives you some insight. Thanks for the link! I am bookmarking it now to read when I get back home! 😀