Choking On Food - Coughing Up Blood?

[Guest Nekos_Mommy]

Neko's insurance starts in 8 DAYS! and this dog has given me heart attacks left right and center waiting for it. He eats incredibly fast, and has a habit of choking on his food. Yesterday morning, he was eating his food really fast as always, and started to choke, and it sounded like it was in his trachea, as he couldnt breathe. He coughed up the kibble, and it was covered in blood. Not much, just enough to coat the kibble piece. He then went on eating (as if it didnt hurt him).

 

Tonight he ate (we have been putting his food in toys so he has to eat slower) and after eating the kibble, we noticed blood on the side of his face (probably from his tongue lucking his lips after dinner). It seems as if the hard kibble pieces irritated whatever he did to himself yesterday. We have decided to try grinding up his kibble in the blender and soaking it to make it soupy, as this may help let his throat heal up.

 

If my insurance waiting period was over he would be at the vets tonight no doubt about it, and if he bleeds with breakfast we are going to the vets anyways, but i was just curious if anyone has a similar story or has run into this before.

[Guest Nekos_Mommy]

His vitals are all completely normal, HR, temp, CRT, RR, MM, everything! (If that changes he will go straight to the E-vet.

 

Just wanted to hear if people have had similar things happen

Edited December 6, 2012 by Nekos_Mommy

[a_daerr]

Sounds like he irritated his esophagus while eating... how much blood was it? Was it bright red, or darker? If eating appears to be painful or uncomfortable or if he refuses food, then I would take him to the vet. In the meantime, I would just add warm water to the food to soften it, as opposed to the kibble milkshake. Make sure he has lots of water available as well.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Next meal time, I'd take a close look (if he'll let you) at his tongue, especially along the sides. It's just possible he bit his tongue or the sides of his mouth during his choking fit (or even that biting his tongue caused the choking), and he might be opening that up again as he eats. It that's the case, it'll be much less alarming.

 

My boy once had a bloody hole in the side of his face, which I was about to blame on his sister (they'd just had a squabble)...until I realized the hole was bigger on the inside of his mouth than on the outside.

 

Yeah. He did it to himself.

[Guest Nekos_Mommy]

Thanks for the advice about the tongue! It was a small amount of darker red blood. Ever since then he has had a couple of moments where he breathes funny as if hes sucking back snot.

 

I'll keep an eye on it!

[KF_in_Georgia]

Do his teeth look okay? Any chance he's broken a tooth, and it's doing the damage? (For instance, has he chewed on a hard toy--something he doesn't swallow--and left blood behind?)

[Guest Nekos_Mommy]

His teeth are fine, i inspect and brush them every night. there was no sign of blood or anything until the choking incident.

[Sambuca]

Thanks for the advice about the tongue! It was a small amount of darker red blood. Ever since then he has had a couple of moments where he breathes funny as if hes sucking back snot.

 

I'll keep an eye on it!

 

that sounds like a reverse sneeze. Nothing to be alarmed at if thats what it was. Look it up on youtube.

If he's continuously hacking up food even with toys dispersing the food slowly, it could be more serious, but it's normal for the new guys to eat too fast and throw up. I find that lots of water mixed in helps a lot.

[macoduck]

If you take him to the vet now, could this issue then become a pre-existing condition and thus be voided by his new insurance?

I am not advocating waiting for treatment over a medical necessity.

Can you begin feeding him very small quantities of soaked kibble, then stop and swab around his mouth with a gauze pad to look for blood -taking care that he won't try to eat the gauze pad, of course.

Normally reverse sneezing isn't a cause for concern but I would worry about the blood.

[a_daerr]

If it's darker or partially dried blood, that might be something different. Blood from irritation or injury to the throat would be a brighter red. My vote is for a vet visit. Ducky is right also- insurance is pretty strict about "pre-existing" conditions.

[greyhead]

You might want to have Neko tested for worms, even if any previous fecal was negative. You do get a false negative if the worms aren't shedding eggs when the test is run. You might want to read up on hooks; they are not something one wants to take casually.

 

Our first grey had hookworms for 9 months before the third fecal found them. Meanwhile, they had spread to the lungs, and he did that rapid cough-up-and-swallow-immediately thing that sounds so much like a reverse sneeze but itsn't. He also bit at his sides, though further back then in your photo, because hooks have teeth and bite. Thus he would also sometimes suddenly jump in the air for no apparent reason, as if he had been bitten. (I reported all this to the vets, but my state didn't have hookworm back then, so they weren't familiar with it and how it distinguishes behaviorally from other kinds of worms.) Though I haven't heard of it before, I'd guess hooks could be biting and drawing a little blood in the stomach that's showing up on the food when he coughs it up.