[Talei H]

Hi all,
I’m back, but thankfully, not because we’re experiencing a gulping episode! A few days following my last post, Lilo experienced yet another bout of the “gulps.” We were at our wit’s end, because these episodes had never before occurred so close together, and because we felt just absolutely helpless. It’s been about a month and a half now, and so far, she hasn’t been plagued by this mysterious ordeal since. I’m not certain that we’re out of the woods permanently just yet, but I think that I’ve finally begun to pinpoint some of her specific triggers, and just wanted to share these ideas with the rest of you in case you find they might be applicable to your pup(s) as well.

As I mentioned before, our Lilo (Corgi) is an extremely anxious dog, and always has been despite our relatively low-key lifestyle. I’ve begun to suspect that her gulping (and the gastrointestinal issues that accompany these instances) are in some way related to her anxiety. The last two episodes (back in April 7th when I last posted, and again a few days later) occurred following some high-stress situations. I would normally attribute these incidents to coincidence, but I began to think back to previous bouts of gulping over the last year or so. I recall that the majority of her gulping issues were preceded by a particularly stressful situation. For instance, we took her with us on an overnight stay back in February, and because we couldn’t bring her with us at all times, there were times where she’d need to stay in the hotel room. In hindsight, I suspect that our decision to bring her into an unfamiliar setting, crate her, and then immediately leave was not the smartest, but I had no idea it would have such a traumatic effect on her. We were only gone for an hour or so, and when we returned, I immediately noticed the dreaded gulping, and just overall extremely anxious behavior. As with all previous episodes, this one resolved itself in about 24 hours, but I felt guilty during the entire overnight stay. In April, when we began removing everything off the walls and packing in anticipation of moving, Lilo again began to display signs of anxiety and ultimately, gulping (along with everything else that comes along with it: licking the carpet, pacing, devouring grass, panting, etc.). A few days later, we were the victims of an unfortunate car break-in at our apartment complex, and my fiance was of course, extremely angered by this when he found out and Lilo picked up on this. I should mention, she is incredibly sensitive to our voices – if we speak in even a slightly perturbed or anxious tone, she bolts and hides and we often have to coax her back out. It’s very strange, but even when we’re having a normal or semi-serious chat about something, she mistakes it for us being upset, and hides. So naturally, when one of us is actually upset or stressed out about something, she freaks out. We try our best to be mindful of our tone when she’s around. It sounds silly, but we definitely don’t want to stress her out if we can help it. It’s a very agreeable household around here 😉 But in all seriousness, I’ve been able to link almost every gulping episode to a “high-stress” situation, and am about 90% sure stress is the culprit.

As for the remaining 10%, well, it could be any form of digestive upset. In the apartment complex we lived in previously, Lilo used to pick up all sorts of mysterious droppings and whatnot while we were out for a walk. Despite my efforts, she’s extremely quick, and if she wants something she’ll find a way to beat me to it. For example, goose/cat feces were a frequent occurrence, which may have caused significant digestive upset and acid reflux. Now that we’ve been in our new house, she has her own yard to frolic in, and of course we keep it very clean. Again, it may be a coincidence, but I think it’s worth taking into account. Also, when we do try to administer Pepcid or Maalox to combat the supposed acid reflux, it does nothing to help, and in fact makes the situation worse because it gives Lilo diarrhea the following day. This led me to question whether the gulping was indeed caused by acid reflux, or whether it was a coping mechanism of her anxiety, which I’ve read can be a symptom.

I’m a firm believer that you should ALWAYS consult your vet if you suspect anything may be seriously wrong with your beloved pet. We have done so on multiple occasions, but as the vets seemed to be convinced there weren’t any abnormal physical ailments affecting Lilo and causing her gulping/acid reflux, I’ve resorted to trying to pinpoint and connect these instances to emotional triggers. This is not to say that there isn’t an underlying cause buried deep down somewhere, but the overall inconsistency in their occurrence (anywhere from once a year to once a week) have me wondering if the cause is mental, not physical. She is incredibly healthy overall, and she eats high quality food. Regardless of the cause, vets do not seem to take this issue seriously, which is something that really bothers me. For those of you with extremely anxious dogs, this may be something to consider. I understand how awful it is for both human and dog to endure these episodes when they do happen, and the feeling of being helpless while your best friend ultimately suffers is indescribable. I hope these insights help!

[Talei H]

Like so many of you, we’ve been dealing with infrequent episodes of what can only be described as “the gulps” in our 4.5 y/o Pembroke Welsh Corgi. The first time our Lilo experienced this awful ordeal, it occurred early in the morning before breakfast, and the severity of her symptoms sent me into a downright panic. I could tell she was beyond confused as well as to what was going on with her body, as if pleading with me to please help her. Believe me, I would have liked nothing more! She appeared to be swallowing/gulping very rapidly, almost in bursts, so my (very frightened) initial thought was that she had something lodged in her throat. I took her to the vet clinic as soon as they opened, but she did not display any symptoms once we were there. She is a highly anxious dog, and absolutely loathes going to the vet under any circumstances. After looking her over, the vet didn’t seem the least bit concerned, and when I tried to describe the symptoms, she looked at me as if I were out of my mind. Nevertheless, she attributed the behavior to allergens, and prescribed an antihistamine. I had a feeling seasonal allergies were not to blame, but seeing as the vet did not believe it to be anything serious (most likely because Lilo was suddently symptom free), I decided to give the antihistamine a try, and we left. Not surprisingly, this did not work, and Lilo’s “gulps” were worse than ever throughout the remainder of the day. I’m sure the stress and anxiety she experienced from our visit to the vet only aggravated things. She would, as most others have described, constantly pace around the room “vacuuming” our carpet and eating any type of debris she could find (dirt, dried up leaves, hair, etc), which she normally doesn’t do. The same applied when she’d be outside on a walk, “mowing the grass” if you will, which again, is very uncommon behavior for her. She became so fixated on this, that she wouldn’t look up when called and had no interest in playing ball, her absolute favorite past time. The next day, after a long night of worry and relatively no sleep, we decided to get a second opinion, and took her to a different veterinary clinic. This time around, the vet seemed much more thorough and concerned, regardless of the fact that again, Lilo wasn’t displaying any symptoms. She diagnosed it as acid reflux, and prescribed a medication equivalent to Pepto Bismol, which we were to add to Lilo’s food through a syringe. The next day, her symptoms cleared, and we were ecstatic!

Fast forward 8 months, and the “gulps” began again around this past December. They have been reoccurring off and on since then – sometimes once a week, or once every two weeks lasting 24-48 hours. The multiple vets we’ve seen have not seen a reason to conduct tests at this point, so we decided to take some other steps at home to see if we couldn’t pinpoint the underlying cause. Before today’s episode, Lilo was eating Blue Buffalo Life Protection, so we switched her to the grain-free, higher protein BB Wilderness version as an experiment to see if it’d help. We were overjoyed to have gone almost 2 months without an episode, and thought for sure that it must have just been a grain allergy that she’d suddenly developed for some reason. Unfortunately, I’ve jinxed our luck because today, we’re experiencing another horrible episode of the “gulps.” It seems that we still haven’t quite figured things out, and as I’m sure all you fellow dog lovers can attest to, it’s so so painful to watch her experience this. I try to comfort her as best I can, and not to let her pick up on how upset this makes me, but it’s always difficult because I care about her, and just want her to enjoy life and be comfortable, not panicked and miserable. Especially not so often…

Thank you all so much for the advice you’ve provided on this forum. We are considering taking a few of these ideas to our vet, and if absolutely possible, perhaps performing an endoscopy (with biopsies, as suggested above). We simply don’t want her to go through this anymore, and if it’s preventable/treatable, we want to do everything we can. I have not tried Gas-X or Pepcid complete, as I’m always a little hesitant to administer drugs that are not intended for dogs. But I’ve now heard from several sources (vets included) that it’s fine, and it seems many of you have had some success with them, so I will consider trying one of those OTC remedies before resorting to costly and invasive tests. If anything changes, I will certainly keep everyone posted!

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