My dog is licking, gagging, and coughing. Why?
I have an older mutt (most likely a terrier mix) and every once in a while when I put her to bed she starts licking the bars of her kennel, her stuffed animal, and her blanky. I usually tell her to stop and sometimes she will, but as soon as she realizes I'm paying attention to her she starts to do it almost complusively. Then she starts gagging and coughing up nothing. She whimpers and coughs and licks the bars of her kennel until I let her out. All she wants to do is go eat grass. I realize this is helpful for dog's stomachs and helps her vomit, but we don't feed her anything that would upset her stomach like this. She only eats dog food.
The part that bothers me the most is that lately this is happening more and more often. At first it was alright, but now it's happening sometimes during the day and almost every night. A lot of the time I just tell her to calm down and I rub her belly to comfort her; and eventually she falls asleep.
She went to the vet and my mother asked about her obsessive desire to eat grass, and they said something like "Oh, some dogs just like it. It's tasty to them so when it's in season that's all they want to do." Something about that just didn't seem right.
Should I have a follow-up appointment to get to the bottom of this, or just stop worrying? She is an older dog after all, but I love her and I hate it when she does. It scares me and I don't want to lose her for something that I could have easily cured.
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