Gagging?

[SierraMtnBrits]

My 2 year old Brittany bitch has been gagging in the mornings now for almost a week. It is not constant. I took her into the vet Friday morning because I started getting concerned. She's eating, drinking, pooping all normally. She doesn't gag or cough when out running, just in the morning when I let her out of her crate. Vet thinks highly unlikely that it's kennel cough because she's been vaccinated, and has not been in contact with any other dogs except my other dog in over a month. She is a house dog, doesn't go outside unless its to exercise or to hunt. The other possibility is that she may have gotten something out of the trash like floss or an ear plug. I know for a fact she ate a foam earplug because I found one in her poop. :roll: She can not get into the kitchen trash. The vet could not get her to gag even when pushing on her neck or throat. They observed her all day, she did not gag at all, and could not see anything in her throat when looking down it. The vet did send her home with antibiotics and cough meds in case it was kennel cough, it has not improved. She has thrown up twice now from gagging, once yesterday morning, and once this morning. Other than that, she is acting perfectly fine, any ideas?

[dog dr]

find a vet with an endoscope

[snowicreek]

find a vet with an endoscope

DITTO

[Sharon]

Gagging is an interesting subject. I have a Jack Russell who has gagged and horked up something a couple times a week for 12 years. I decided that gagging was a "dog thing" and haven't worried about it.
That's not to say you shouldn't worry. Only you can know if your dog is in trouble.

[SierraMtnBrits]

What ever it was, she's better now....

[Dave Quindt]

Any chance this started roughly about the same time you started running the furnance for the season?

[SierraMtnBrits]

Yes it was about the time we started running the heater.

[Dave Quindt]

Yes it was about the time we started running the heater.

I suppose you're curious about why I asked that question, huh?

Last year in late October, my then-10 y.o. GSP came down with some weird coughing/gagging episodes. Started with a slight cough in the morning, but as we got into November, over a few days got considerably worse. I'd come home from work one night to find the dog looking worn out, and coughing 1-2 times a minute with some gagging as well. Wasn't sure what to make of it, but once she got fed and turned loose in the bark yard it went away. The next evening I came home to find her looking pretty awful; coughing almost constantly and looking just plain exhausted.

So....., off to the vet we went. By the time I got to the vet the cough/gagging was gone. Her heart rate was pretty elevated, but my vet couldn't find anything else. Best guess was some kind of reaction to something. Got sent home with some Prednisone with the instructions to administer if the cough comes back.

The next night I get home and the coughing has gotten worse and the gagging/hacking was increased. Onto the Pred she went, and the symptoms went away.

My vet and I speculated that it was something caused by the furnace kicking in; but were not sure. Offered me all sorts of diagnostic options, but I decided to wait it out, to see if the symptoms returned. She was on Pred for only a few days.

Forward to this fall; when I turned the furnace on for the first few days I started to hear a little coughing and wheezing, and she started to look kinda worn down. Threw her on Pred for a couple of days and the symptoms went away.

Can't tell you if that is what's going on in your case, but it sounds very familiar.

FYI,
Dave

[SierraMtnBrits]

Thanks Dave,
That could have been what was going on. She does have allergies, so maybe since the heater only ran at night and she would only gag in the morning after being inside all night with the heater on, it aggrevated them. Since then, we have had the ducts cleaned, and no more gagging. Could very well be!