What Is She Doing?

[Guest FordRacingRon]

So we wake up and everything is fine. I walk Leia, she has her customary double poop then we go home. My DW and myself take off on our walk and come home an hour later. We take Leia out for her daily brush and start to do her nails and it seems like she is having the hiccups. Then the hiccups turn into dry heaves. It looks like she may have (and this is gross, but many of US have done this) thrown up in her mouth and re-swallowed it. Now I must add when we go out in the AM (this was before the walk) she likes to eat grass and over the last couple of weeks has thrown it up and I figured she had a combo hiccup-grass problem . So I feed her breakfast and it goes away, so I asume something was stuck in her throat like a piece of grass and that flushed it down (BTW I do try to stop her form eating this stuff and there are no chemicals whatsoever on my weeds). She lies down and all is good. 2 hours later I get up, she follows me outside and starts going through the same gyrations. Seems like hiccups combined with dry heaves. Its like a gag reflex that kicks in. She tried to eat grass again and I stopped her.

 

Her stomach isn't swollen or tender, she is sleeping normally now, oh yeah,,she drank a lot of water after our morning walk too. So does she have gas or what the heck is going on???? She seems perfectly fine,,hungry as alwys,,but has this deal going on.

[gryhndsr4us]

Could it be reverse sneezing, greyhounds do this? I was told sometimes rubbing under their throat helps. It does help with Gypsy.

[Guest FordRacingRon]

Could it be reverse sneezing, greyhounds do this? I was told sometimes rubbing under their throat helps. It does help with Gypsy.

 

No, she reverse sneezes all the time. My fear was of course the dreaded bloat, but she seems to be better now, no idea what was going on.

She just had a poo and there was a major clump of grass in it. I suspect she has been sneaking more grass then I had thought and that was what got to her so we are going to watch out for her grass intake and stop it .

[Guest HersheysMom]

Oh my goodness, this EXACT same thing happened to Hershey 4 or 5 nights ago. And we've had him eight years and it's the first time he'd done it. It was like a gagging, like you are describing...making noises that sound like hiccups and swallowing repeatedly with no break for maybe a minute or so, then off and on more like human hiccups...I was checking him for bloat & so on b/c he had a dry heave or two afterwards....then about a half hour later he threw up a ton of grass. He's eaten grass and thrown it up before, but the hiccuping was new. At 2AM, we were looking his symptoms up online (once I concluded it was not bloat) and it really did sound like he had dog hiccups.

 

So she's doing okay now, though? Hershey only did this one night and I haven't heard him do it since.

 

It's so funny you are posting this now because I do think it's unusual...it's not reverse sneezing, it's totally different, but very hard to describe. For Hershey it did look and sound like human hiccups with the exception that at first they came several in a row with no breaks in between so it also appeared he was having some breathing difficulty. If you ever mention it to your vet and get an answer as to if Leia had hiccups, please post again!

[Guest Scouts_mom]

I'm thinking that this may just be what I call "Tia's spring grass binges". My Tia loves grass and particularly the new tender spring grass. She eats all she can get her teeth on. Usually it causes no problems, but sometimes it seems like it gets stuck in her throat and makes her gag--dogs were not designed to be cows after all. Sometimes when this happens she just gags and hiccups and it is gone. Other times she actually vomits up a wad of grass. It doesn't seem to bother her at all, but I am not too thrilled.

[Finnsliz]

My Wink has just started her "seasonal" hacking. She has done this every spring. I am guessing that it is some allergen that is aggravating her throat she hacks and gags, then it's over.

[Guest FordRacingRon]

It did stop yesterday afternoon but it was wierd. Ones's first thought is bloat because the one symptom of dry hacking with no results,,but none of the other symptoms were present,,,,and I think the "B" word stikes fear in all of our hearts. Now reflecting on it I really think it may have been grass stuck in her thorat and she was stuck between her gag reflex and trying to heave and hiccuping. Like SCOUTS MOM,,I try to tell Leia she is a DOG not a COW but it won't sink in. Leia has to go to the vet this week for a rabies shot, I will ask the vet if he has heard of this but I truly believe the key is to convince Leia not to graze.

[Finnsliz]

If that is what you think it is try giving her a piece of bread. It may help push and foreign matter down her throat.

[LisaB]

So weird!!! This just happened for the first time with Spicy on Friday, too!!! It only lasted for about two minutes; while she was doing it I was trying to describe it to myself (in case I had to describe it later to a vet)...very difficult. Hiccupy, gaggy, but nothing too extreme and nothing coming up/out. She only seemed mildly distressed. It seemed most like the allergen-induced phlegmy-ness that I get this time of year. She hasn't done it since.

[Guest kick]

This started yesterday about 2 pm with my grey. About every 40 mins. she was having a bout of these symptons. I immediately let her outside and she would "devour" grass. Around 5 pm (dinner time) she was looking for her food. She had a very healthy appetite. Around 7 pm started up again - about every 40 mins. Search on GT and got her some Tagament. Gave her 1/2 pill - she was good for about 5 hours - next bout at 2:30 am less severe but still looking for grass. Gave her the second 1/2 of the tagament. Up again at 5 am. took her for a "poo" walk. She had a bowel movement containing grass. Still searching for grass to eat (the quest). No Big D but I'm cooking up some rice & chicken for her. I've been searching this forum and reading about bloat. If it was bloat she would not be able to have a bowel movement, correct. She is not whining.

 

Called this morning to take her into the vet. She JUST threw up two big clumps of grass.....

 

 

 

Symptoms:

hard swallowing

dry retching

dry gagging

cycling about ever 40 mins

devouring grass

still has an appetite

stretching/playbow postion

no big D

not a lot of stomach gurrgling

 

 

Putting this out here for futher searches by GTers and additional feedback

 

[Guest kick]

This started yesterday about 2 pm with my grey. About every 40 mins. she was having a bout of these symptons. I immediately let her outside and she would "devour" grass. Around 5 pm (dinner time) she was looking for her food. She had a very healthy appetite. Around 7 pm started up again - about every 40 mins. Search on GT and got her some Tagament. Gave her 1/2 pill - she was good for about 5 hours - next bout at 2:30 am less severe but still looking for grass. Gave her the second 1/2 of the tagament. Up again at 5 am. took her for a "poo" walk. She had a bowel movement containing grass. Still searching for grass to eat (the quest). No Big D but I'm cooking up some rice & chicken for her. I've been searching this forum and reading about bloat. If it was bloat she would not be able to have a bowel movement, correct. She is not whining.

 

Called this morning to take her into the vet. She JUST threw up two big clumps of grass.....

 

 

 

Symptoms:

hard swallowing

dry retching

dry gagging

cycling about ever 40 mins

devouring grass

still has an appetite

stretching/playbow postion

no big D

not a lot of stomach gurrgling

 

 

Putting this out here for futher searches by GTers and additional feedback

 

12 noon all seems to be better now once she threw up the grass.

[Guest MZH]

I tend to muzzle our dogs when they go in the yard because if not, they eat too much grass and do what Leia is doing. I let them nibble a little but only a few nibbles. Otherwise I'm cleaning up barf at 4 AM. Yep, they do the hard swallowing and retching first before they in the middle of the night. Nothing like waking up to that sound! Ugh!!

 

Marcia in SC

[Guest Snazzy_Chloe]

Geez let the dog eat the grass - even if they eat a lot and barf it up - they feel better when they are done. Why do we have to be so protective of our dogs -- these dogs know what grass is good for them and they eat it when they want to---it cleans out both ends of their system. That is unless you are going to work and leaving the dog in charge of your new white carpet. This is just nature and dogs instincts - at work.

[Guest MZH]

You clearly haven't had a sick dog be clogged up for 3 days because of grass eating; when you have you might think a little differently about this. It also is very hard on their guts if they pick the wrong grass. No, they don't all instinctively know what's good for them and what isn't.

 

PS. I have hardwood and tile floors so it's not the white shag carpet.

 

I said I let them nibble, not gorge. Geez back!

 

Marcia in SC

[crazygang]

My greyhound eats the fine fresh young shoots of grass this aids his digestion.

 

But when he eats the older thicker coarser grass he's obviously trying to make himself vomit

(sometimes it comes out behind to put it politely). It's just dogs doing what they would in the wild.

 

I always keep Kaogel off my vet on hand and spoon feed him some, rub his tummy and put the fan on him to cool him as he pants a lot.....this seems to help.