Prolonged digesting/reflux?

I have an eleven pound pug. He was the runt of the litter, from a respected purebred breeder. He is unable to eat kibble without choking, so he primarily gets soft food mixed with sweet potatoes, green beans and fish oil. We spread the food in small bites and give a little at a time as he is a very motivated eater!  He’s four now and seems very healthy. The odd thing is that after he eats, and this has been true since we’ve had him, he stands under a table, or at least sticks his head under a table, and licks the air for about an hour. He may intermittently lick the floor, looking for crumbs. His tongue is a little too big for his mouth, at rest, it usually sticks out a little. I have always thought that it was his way of digesting. Perhaps because his stomach and esophagus are so small or narrow, the food doesn’t go down easily and he has to do this to keep it down. Perhaps a kind of reflux. He never throws up or seems to be in pain or unwell. My vet has never been concerned about it as he seems otherwise healthy. I’m just wondering if you have any idea of what this might be. Thanks. 

Hello and thank you for this insightful question.  I wonder whether your pug suffers from BOAS, which is short for bracycephalic obstructive airway syndrome.  I can tell you a little about this.  A syndrome is a group of clinical signs or 'symptoms' that occur together in one individual animal.  For example in BOAS there tends to be some combination of:

• a short or flattened snout
• narrow / small nostrils
• excessive nasal turbinates (thats the thin sheets of bone folded about in the upper nostrils if you look at a skull)
• a narrow throat
• a tongue that appears too large for the mouth
• a relatively large and thickened soft palette (if you put your tongue to the hard roof of your own mouth and slide it backwards towards your throat, at some point quite far back, the roof of your mouth becomes soft and unsupported by bone; this is the soft pallette).
• a small trachea (windpipe)
• a collapsing windpipe

Unfortunately amongst some pug breeders, BOAS has historically been considered 'normal' in the pug (including in veterinary circles), although vets have long since been campaigning to change this culture of acceptance and nowadays, although common, few vets would consider BOAS normal or healthy in any dog. . Unfortunately a direct consequence of being born with  this head-shape / conformation is that the airways are nowhere near as big as that of, for example, a wolf - indeed the pug's head shape is so changed that it can be difficult to appreciate that one was the ancestor of the other.  Practically, less air can pass through the airways at once and this can lead to dogs becoming short of breath, snoring, making abnormal breath-sounds and generally finding it hard to breathe, to exercise and even to eat comfortably. . Please ask a vet if this is what is going on for your dog; if so, particularly when severe, I would not personally describe having repeated BOAS in a line as respectable breeding.   It may be that things can be done to make it easier for your pug to breathe or swallow.  Surgeons will perform surgery for example, in some cases.  This is often best assessed / performed by a specialist.

Please remember at this stage that I have not seen your dog; that other conditions - perhaps a shortage of certain nutrients or recurrent checking the texture of sufaces with the tongue, possibly in response to chronic stress, nausea or other underlying issues,  may also be possibities.

Furthermore, it is worth making your vet aware of your dogs' unusual diet, in order that they can check that your dog is accessing all of the nutrients that they need.