Ok so I feed my two a raw diet. Neither have ever had any issues with the diet and have actually thrived on it. But just recently, my male chihuahua, Pee Wee, starts to " lick the air" for about 15 minutes to 1/2 hour after eating. What I mean by "licking the air" is that he just sits and continously flicks out his tongue and makes this smacking noise. (If you have ever given your dog peanut butter you know what I am talking about. ) He does not vomit nor does he have diarrhea and he doesn't eat grass. I have looked in his mouth to see if anything is lodged in there and I see nothing. Plus I brush his teeth. I'm thinking it might be indigestion because sometimes he whines a little bit but usually after about 1/2 hr, he stops. On the mornings that he gets chicken wings he doesn't lick the air at all after eating. It is really weird. I give my two Nupro which has digestive enzymes in it but I'm thinking I will take him to the vet although he only does this after eating and is perfectly fine the rest of the day. Any thoughts?

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Pee Wee

My Bella does that...she has ME and its thought that sometimes the food that is caught in the esophagus causes nausea....Maybe your little fellow is having some GI discomfort from something in his diet...just a thought....

Licking the air like that is a sign of nausea. I'd add a good probiotic to her meals. I wonder why he is feeling nauseated? What a mystery. I haven't encountered anything like that before. No vomiting or diarrhea or other symptoms at all? That's very strange.

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"Having heard all of this, you may choose to look the other way.....
but you can never say again that you did not know." William Wilberforce 1759-1833

I know, right? He has no other symptoms. He never vomits or has diarrhea. He just sits and licks the air. I kind of wonder if it could be ocd behaviour because when I took him to the vet about 2 months ago for a check-up (which he was not licking the air during that time, go figure) I mentioned to the vet that he was obsessively licking the carpet. Blood work was done and everything came back normal so the vet kinda thought it was ocd behaviour.Since then, he has kind of let up on the carpet licking but he traded up for air licking!!!! I do have a good probiotic and enzyme supplement by wholistic called digest-all plus and I was giving it to him when the licking first started which was about a month ago. But it didn't seem to be doing any good so I stopped. I guess I should continue but I think he needs to go back to the vet. It really baffles me because like I said, when he gets chicken wings, he doesn't do it. Maybe he produces too much stomach acid or something?

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Pee Wee

Just an update on Pee Wee's "air-licking" situation. Based upon comments from this forum as well as other research I have been doing, I'm thinking it might be a combination of nausea/gas/acid reflux. He does gulp his food and then afterwards he sometimes belches which seems to give him some relief. I have also learned that vets tend to prescribe Pepcid and other medications for these conditions. So since I have 2 dogs, I separate them now when they eat and that seems to slow him down some as far as gulping his food. I also ordered a product called "GI Support" from onlynaturalpet.com that seems to be helping alot. Actually, his "air-licking" has almost stopped. It contains: L-Glutamine, N-Acetyl-Glucosamine,Slippery Elm Bark, Licorice Root Extract, Quercetin Chalcone, L-Acidophilus, Saccharomyces Boulardii, Pantothenic Acid, Alfalfa, Pepsin, Bromelain and Folic Acid. The websites explains what each ingredient is for, the mg's and all the conditions that it claims to treat. It also got really good customer reviews. I have been opening a capsule and sprinkling it on Pee Wee's food for about a week and I definitely see a difference. I wanted to try this first before taking him to the vet because he has no other symptoms (no vomiting, no diarrhea, no gas except belching) but by no means am I recommending this product over going to the vet. Just wanted to share. Has anyone else used this product?

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Pee Wee

dex has done this before....and started lickin the air snd everythin on the floor ...like carpet and the couch and chair....he eventually puked when i let him outside and felt much better after. i heard dogs like to chew on grass to feel better and thats exactl what he ended up doin outside

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"I told him that if a lady who doesn't cook can make such yummy Jerky for Dexter then we can do it too" - Lynx8456

http://www.facebook.com/dextersheep

u know what u should try for digestion? coconut oil. i use cocotherapy coconut oil to either fry into dex food lightly or just give a teaspoon full and he has better digestion more then he ever did

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"I told him that if a lady who doesn't cook can make such yummy Jerky for Dexter then we can do it too" - Lynx8456

http://www.facebook.com/dextersheep

So do you give Dexter coconut oil for his digestion and as a source of efa's or just for his digestion issues? Right now I do give my two salmon oil capsules several times a week. Is coconut oil better or about the same as fish oils and did you ever find out what was the cause of Dexters' stomach upsets?

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Pee Wee