Dog forcefully swallowing, won’t stop!

Maxie is a 3 year old Australian shepherd. She’s healthy as can be minus the occasional allergy season causing issues with her ears. She’s been doing this thing where she begins to forcefully swallow for at least the last year, but it’d very random when it happens. I already plan to get an appointment with her vet asap, I’m just wondering what I can do to relieve the discomfort my dog is experiencing. She has had on and off episodes of forceful swallowing before, but today has been the worst. There’s never any correlation to what causes it either. Sometimes it’s before she eats, after she eats, after she naps, before/after playing- nothing makes sense. Today’s episode was about an hour and a half after eating. It Started at about 9:30 am and has continued throughout the day (it’s now 3:00pm and she’s napping). The last time she had an episode to this severity she swallowed an entire dryer sheet. We took her into the emergency vet and they induced vomiting. It all came up, and she’s been fine since then. Had her on a low-fat canned food diet and some rice and boiled chicken for about a week. I gradually got her back into her normal kibble. Since the dryer sheet she’s only had small minor episodes. Usually when she has minor episodes of this, it leads to her finding bits of things on the floor that she’ll lick up (I describe it as if she’s a roomba). Until the dryer sheet, we’ve never had an issue with her swallowing something dangerous and the episodes only seem to last 10-15 minutes before she snaps out of it. She ate as normal this morning (1 cup of food that I’ve been mixing with warm water), she has been drinking normally (she gets fresh water daily). She has only coughed a couple of times, and there’s no wretching like she wants to vomit. But she keeps forcefully swallowing as if there is a discomfort or item in her throat. I’ve checked her mouth and teeth, and I can’t see a thing. I just don’t know what else to do. There’s some light drooling in between the waves of the swallowing, and some snorting sounds occasionally. When we had a break in it happening this afternoon, I took her out to go to the bathroom. She did fine, urinated and pooped. Then out of nowhere began eating at grass and leaves and even tried to really quickly swallow a small branch with leaves still attached. I was able to coax it out of the back of her mouth, and she slightly coughed it back out. If I hadn’t seen it, she would’ve swallowed it almost whole. I’m just terrified to leave her alone in case she decides to try and get at something she usually doesn’t go for, and end up with her swallowing it. My boyfriend and I are not sure what to do to make these episodes stop, or what could be causing it since it’s so sporadic. I do not believe this is behavioral, and I do not believe it is bloat as she’s had no abdominal swelling or pain. Reading online leads me to think it is ulcers or acid reflux. I did give her 10mg of Pepcid to see if it would help. It’s been a couple of hours since then and I haven’t seen a decrease in the swallowing. I’ve taken videos, but the forum will not allow me to upload it. Visually it looks like a lot of head bobbing, licking her lips, slight drooling, and some snorting breaths. When she goes into roomba mode she puts her head to the ground and sniffs/licks at anything in her sight. Any advice or thoughts?

Hello - your poor girl;  she does sound uncomfortable.  I agree it doesn't sound like bloat, but obviously it's important to be aware of the signs.  It sounds to me as though your dog might have nausea, especially as it has been associated with the eating of foreign bodies in the past.  Another possibility is pica - the desire to eat anything inappropriate - which may unsurprisingly lead to feelings of nausea at times. If the origin of all of this were to be the eating of inappropriate things, then dietary imbalances such as thyroid disease, liver or hormonal diseases might be part of the picture.  If the cause were more nausea-related, I might wonder about liver disease or pancreatitis, which is much more common than is diagnosed.  There are also diseases of German Shepherds that make them seem insatiably hungry, such as exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). Whichever way, the symptom sounds to be well-worth investigating - how much does your vet know about it?  Keeping a diary can help to pinpoint patterns.  We would strongly advise against giving medications without the advice of your vet - even if it's a quick chat on the phone. Please do go back to them for advice (which may involve referral) and do let us know how you get on.

Hmmmm.... reading back through this again, I wonder about a small foreign body or diverticulum in the throat, or a lump e.g. to the epiglottis.  These possibilities are very physical and may be seen with an endoscope.  This is a fascinating case and once again, we'd love to hear how you get on with it.  Wishing your girl all the best with her swallowing from here.