[kitley2001]

Ginny was extending her throat forward, and I thought choking. The vet said she was not choking, she was having trouble swallowing. He did an xray to see if something was caught in her throat. It was negative. He wanted to put her out but noticed in the xray, that she had a belly full of grass. When the problem began, she was outside for about 15 minutes, and when I let her in, I noticed she was not herself. She ran in the living room and started mowing down on my plants. She has never done that before, and then she wanted out. I went out with her and she was going crazy eating grass...not like she normally would. Swallowing issue was still going on so the vet did an xray with barium. He says her esopagus is clear, so he says she may have a scratch in her troat, and sent her home on antibiotics for the scratch. Once home, I again could not stop her from eating the plants and grass. She would not settle into a nap with me, though she could hardly keep her eyes open, after her frantic 3 hours at the vet. Now, 2 hours later, she has eaten some of her food and seems to have quit eating the grass....the plants I locked up in another room. Of course, she is still having trouble swallowing, and gags sometimes, though nothing comes up. Anyone ever had anything similar? The vet fit her in as an emergency, so I assume if the issue does not go away, I will need to make an appointment for her. What a scare...I was thinking it was her trachea, or a mass in her throat.

 

[Inga]

Thank Goodness it is NOT anything serious. Maybe she started with a tummy ache and then scratched her throat with the greens? I am glad she is getting better. It is truly a scary thing to not know what to do when our dogs are not themselves. Hope this was a once in a lifetime thing for her and she gets better quickly.

 

[Abbylynn]

Yikes! I am glad she is now eating normally! Scary for sure! Depending on what kind of plants she was mowing over in your house ... she may have gotten a really bad stomach ache and had to eat grass to try and vomit it back up? Just a thought. Lots of household plants are toxic. :/

 

[kitley2001]

Thanks for the well wishes. I think the grass eating came first...cuz she was outside for so long. She usually comes back in quickly and is stuck to me like velcro. Yes, I guess serious things have been ruled out..just makes me wonder when the swallowing issue will end. Luckily she got very little of the indoor plants..if any. She was acting so strange when she came in that I ran after her and caught her right away. She was running frantically through the house. The antibiotics is a gel in a syringe. They say it tastes like chicken. I had a hard time convincing Ginny of that though. She has settled even more now...mostly sleeping and not herself at all. At least she is no worse...in fact she is def better then when she was at the vets. $300.00 to diagnose a scratch to the throat. In my next life I would like to be a vet. Actually I always wanted to be but was not smart enough for all that education...lol.

 

[kitley2001]

Well...just an update. We had a tough night with Ginny. She was chewing at herself throughout the night, and still having difficulty swallowing. She is doing better energy wise now..we just came back from a 45 minute walk. Yeah...almost herself again, and not so many incidences of swallowing difficulty.

 

[Abbylynn]

Good to hear! I was thinking ... could she have swallowed an insect that bit her in the throat? It is that time of year and the bees and such are out now ... at least here they are. I would think that would be hard to find on any sort of testing.

 

[workerant]

That's where I was going with that too. I bet a bee down the gullet would look like you described.

 

[kitley2001]

Hi Workerant and Abbylynne. My sister was wondering the same thing. No bees here that I have seen, though we did have lots a month ago when we had 85 degree weather for a week or so. Could easy have been a spider or some other bug though...also maybe a burr...as I did find a little piece of one in her beard while we were at the vets. He said that is quite common and they usually soften fairly quickly and go on down the gullet...and could easily scratch her throat. Anyway, we just came back from another walk...a shorter one this time, and this evening Ginny seems to be acting totally herself, and I have not seen any swallowing issues now for an hour or so..so heres hoping. Living in the country it could easily happen again. Next time, I will know what it likely is and wait it out a bit...though she does need the antibiotics the vet gave her.