Tremors and Excessive Drooling around Food

Hi, I have a Staffy mix and when he sees food he starts drooling excessively. He also will have short term Tremors if he tasts something sweet.  His mouth will uncontrollably smack his teeth and lips together for maybe 5 seconds or so. He has even done it after kissing me when im eating something sweet and he tastes  it on my lips. He is a rescue that ive had for about 2 months snd ge is 7yrs old. What could be the cause of these problems? Thanks

Hello!  Drooling in anticipation of food is a normal, natural neurological response and can be seen in many dogs - and indeed, to a lesser extent, in people (imagine your favourite hot dinner and you salivate more, right?) Similarly, perhaps, for the smacking together of lips after tasting something sweet - although, hopefully you don't see this much because sweet food isn't part of a dogs' natural diet and shouldn't be given to them. Could the tremors be excitement?  I can't really picture what is happening here, so filming it for your vet may be useful. I can't really speculate as to why the drooling seems to happen more more noticeably in your dog - I wonder whether he has been hungry in a previous life, or whether he is being normal for a dog but his mouth confirmation (being a staffie) makes his drooling / lip-smacking very obvious to you, or whether he is particularly sensitive / reactive in this way or has a neurological problem  (there may be neurological tests that distinguish this?) or whether his saliva is actually different from usual. A check over from your vet / chat may be useful in deciding whether you need to take more action on the issue. I look forward to hearing how you get on.      

In some situations (less likely to be associated consistently with food but not impossibly), lick smacking and tremours can indicate or precede fitting which is serious and needs to be checked out.  Speaking your vet and filming events, particularly the eyes, may be helpful here.

Following on from that thought, neurological signs in older dogs can be connected to acquired liver shunts or neurological (brain) changes, for example. So I've given you a range of possibilities from 'normal to your dog' to 'this could be pretty serious' and your vet may have a better idea of what's going on after talking to you and examining the patient, or may want to do tests to figure out where on this spectrum your dog fits.