Ate too much snow, burping

[BouncerBear]

So we were out playing in the snow and Bouncer (3 Year old male) ran quite a bit and kept eating the snow. As soon as we got home he would not stop burping, licking his lips and he gagged 3 times. He licks his lips a lot before he vomits. He did not vomit he just seems to be quite gassy. I called the technician at the animal hospital and he said it is hard to tell if it could be bloat without seeing him. He seems ok now, he is sleeping and dreaming.
Obviously, I will not let him eat snow anymore. Does anyone think he could have been bloating, or maybe indigestion? I am new to all of this and I tend to worry...
Thanks

 

[Gatorblu]

It sounds like he ate a lot of air with the snow. I have never experienced bloat but as I understand you will see the abdomen enlarge. Now back to eating the snow...It is habit you should break. One or two bites of fresh clean snow is fine, but excessive snow will cause stomach cramping and can bring down your dogs core temperature causing hypothermia. Also snow that is in parking lots or near roads can easily contain antifreeze which is often deadly to dogs. As for other areas there can be debris under the snow you cannot see and the dog can easily eat and swallow that. So even though it is cute, it is far from a healthy thing to do. My dogs have all loved playing in the snow and I have had to break one from eating it. For us distracting with a tennis ball worked well. You can also carry some bottles water as often the cold air can be drying to the throat.

 

[BouncerBear]

I agree, he must have taken in a lot of air while nibbling. He seems to be ok now but we were quite worried. He will eat anything at anytime no matter where it is so as you said, I will have to break that habit. His favorite thing to do is to chase snowballs, he loses interest in toys really quickly so that's why we figured it was alright but after today, no more!
Thanks for your reply

 

[Kisaq]

Being up here in Alaska I hear a lot of stuff about dog sledding, etc. Now, I don't want to pretend I know more than I do - because I can find no reference to this online anywhere - but I seem to recall that someone said something about sled dogs grabbing snow while they are running for a quick drink. And it can cause problems like URI's, or water in the lungs if they breath it in rather than swallow it... so mushers like to avoid too much of that with their dogs.

So my advice is to keep an eye open for any respirtory problems signs too.

But the burbing makes me just think your pup swallowed a bunch of air and now has gas. :(
Gas can be painful.

I hope he feels better soon.