sudden profuse drooling

[boxerpeople]

This is very weird. My wife just called me here at work - told me she came home from work and noticed that Minnie was drooling ALOT - constantly.

This is very unusual for Minnie - she usually only drools when she's anticipating a treat or her dinner or something. My wife said Minnie has had a constant dribble of drool out of her jowls for the past 30 minutes, complete with drool bubbles and long drips hanging to the floor.

Minnie is crated when she's home alone, so we're certain she hasn't eaten anything peculiar while we were away. The only medications she is taking are her heartworm preventative, and a regular dose of PPA for a very minor incontinence problem that is now completely under control. We have not yet started Minnie back on her Frontline flea/tick preventative, but are scheduled to do so on the 15th of this month.

My wife reports that Minnie is not exhibiting any other unusual or odd symptoms or behaviors.

Any idea what might cause her to suddenly drool like this??

 

[Jan]

How is Minnie doing? I would take her the vet if there hasn't been any improvement. Markus did that once and it turned out that he had tonsillitis. Antibiotics cleared it up right away and it never happened again.

I hope Minnie is feeling better soon.

 

[MarinaS]

It also may mean that Minnie was feeling sick due to some reason. When my Tina feels sick she usually drools a lot.

How is Minnie doing now?

 

[boxerpeople]

When I got home from work last night Minnie was still drooling profusely, but only out of the left side of her mouth.

My wife and I looked all around in her mouth and could find nothing unusual - no foreign objects, no splinters, no cuts or abrasions, no signs of any damage to any teeth or gums. Minnie was acting very normal and had her usual high energy and playful happy nature. Aside from the profuse drooling from the left side of her mouth she was in every way normal.

We took her to the vet at about 6:30 pm. The vet checked her mouth/throat and did a complete physical exam. She even checked all of Minnie's facial muscle response and reflexes to see if she had a stroke or some kind of neurological problem. The vet could find nothing that would be causing minnie to drool out of the left side of her mouth.

Two other vets examined Minnie and could find nothing wrong at all. They said that it is possible that she was drooling because she wasn't feeling well, but agreed that it was extremely odd that she was only doing it out of the left side of her mouth. They completely ruled out any kind of neurological problem, and agreed that there was nothing outwardly wrong with her mouth, throat or any of her glands.

The vet mentioned that there were several more thorough neurological and other tests that they could do, but that it may be premature to go that far. They told us to take Minnie home and just watch to see if the condition improved, mentioning that if it didn't improve then we may have to take a closer look and maybe do some more tests. One vet mentioned that she had seen other dogs with similar problems that got better before any sort of diagnosis could be made. Since Minnie appeared to be healthy in every other way, and was obviously not in any pain or discomfort, we agreed to give it a day and see if Minnie improved.

On the way home from the vet Minnie stopped drooling. :confused: We kept a close watch on her last night and the drooling did not return. We have absolutely no idea what caused it to start and stop so abruptly. We continue to watch Minnie closely, but for now there's no more drooling and Minnie is as happy and healthy as ever.

 

[JulieM]

This very often happens if they have a hair in their throat! Try giving a piece or two of dry bread to see if that clears it up; also I've heard of people giving Benadryl to help it (personally, I'd try the bread first - that worked with my girl who was doing the exact same thing.)

 

[boxerpeople]

Minnie will froth at the mouth if she happens to pick up a toad. They're not out yet though - it's still too cold. She's pretty much learned her lesson with the toads too - she realizes now that they taste REALLY bad!

What was really strange about Minnie's drooling was that it was only out of the left side of her mouth, and it was like a faucet - drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip!! :eek:

Still no recurrence of the drooling, so maybe it was a hair in her throat or something. Hopefully we'll never have to investigate further.