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Extreme Drooling

3K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  davetgabby 
#1 ·
My dog is 15 month old and has drooling from one side of his mouth. It all started about 2 months ago. He was diagnosed with ear yeast infection, which was in severe form. We’ve been giving medication for that including ear drops and it was successfully treated, end of November 2012. On December 8, 2012 we’ve noticed that dog started to drool excessively from the right side of the mouth. We took him to emergency and after ultrasounds, x-rays, blood work, Vet did not find anything accept of the full stomach with food that should’ve digested by that time. Next day we took him to our regular Vet and after putting him under anesthesia and checking him out, Vet said she had inflamed tonsils and Vet prescribed some medication for that. Medications were given to him for 5 days but drooling did not stop. We took him to another clinic thinking he might have dental issues. After giving him anesthesia again, Vet found that he had a cut underneath his tongue that required stitches. Also, during this procedure, they sucked out a lot of saliva that accumulated, but nothing else was found. He was prescribed medication to give at home, one of which was antibiotics. This procedure helped him and for 2 weeks his drooling stopped. Then, he was given a chicken strip treat and salivation began again. It is been more than 5 days and it is not getting better. We don’t know if chicken strip caused some irritation or something, but 2 Vets we’ve been taking him too don’t have a clue of what may be causing this. So I’m looking for someone else’s opinion. We need some clues of where to look. It hurts to see him suffer like this. His appetite is perfect and he is active as usual, but obviously this excessive amount of drooling causes him discomfort and he has to vomit every 2-3 hours to get the mucus out.

Did anyone's dog have similar symptoms? We are just so frustrated no Vet can find a cause.
 
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#5 ·
I'm not sure what's going on, but has your vet considered biopsying the esophagus and portions of the oropharynx? It might not be a problem with excessive drooling, but rather a problem swallowing the normal amount of drool so it accumulates. Your dog maybe is too old for this problem to first present.

Is he having any problems drinking or eating?

Also, at least in people there are medications that are quite effective in drying up secretions. Even if you can't figure out what's causing it, you might be able to get him some symptomatic relief.

Could he get into any toxins anywhere? It could be something you didn't even notice him eating (or even absorbing through the skin). The twice, but not continuous, episodes puts my money on that.

I hope your vets can help you figure it out. I'm sure drooling is no fun.

Feel better puppy!
 
#7 ·
I'm not sure what's going on, but has your vet considered biopsying the esophagus and portions of the oropharynx? It might not be a problem with excessive drooling, but rather a problem swallowing the normal amount of drool so it accumulates. Your dog maybe is too old for this problem to first present.

Is he having any problems drinking or eating?

Also, at least in people there are medications that are quite effective in drying up secretions. Even if you can't figure out what's causing it, you might be able to get him some symptomatic relief.

Could he get into any toxins anywhere? It could be something you didn't even notice him eating (or even absorbing through the skin). The twice, but not continuous, episodes puts my money on that.

I hope your vets can help you figure it out. I'm sure drooling is no fun.

Feel better puppy!
Thank you for your reply. He has a good appetite and is drinking water. Today we took him to a new Vet clinic, but all we got from that is an instruction to place him on a new diet and prescription of Metronidazole antibiotic.

I will look into symptomatic relief options, but Vet didn't propose anything.

There is one more theory that we've developed, but need to try out. His diet for the past 6-9 months have been boiled chicken breast, home made dry chicken breast treats and dry food. He could have developed a protein food allergy/intolerance because of a lot of chicken in his diet, which is whole protein. We have been given a recommendation to feed him Science Diet dry and wet food and monitor for next several days his salivation.

Another theory that Vet had is Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Dogs (IBD), but we will not explore it any further at this time, unless diet and antibiotic will not help. However, the only way to confirm the presence of IBD is an open surgery where Vet would take biopsy of all organs. I really pray it won't get there and we'll find cure sooner.
 
#6 ·
Do you mind if I cross post this on another forum. We have some vets on board. ?
 
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