Hi,

I'm hoping you can advise me about my dog, Ronnie. He is a boxer and this afternoon has begun to drool excessively. Literally forming pools of saliva at his feet if he stays in the same place for more than a minute.

I have checked his teeth and he has no loose ones or sore spots in his mouth (including teeth, tongue and jowls). I don't think he has anything lodged in his throat as he has eaten his dinner. However, he does look a little depressed.

There is a small chance he has eaten some mouse/rat poison (difenacoum) as we have rats in the compost heap. However, if this is so it will only be a very small amount and quite unlikely that he has as it would not be easy for him to get to the poison. He has killed rats in the past but not consumed them, but again this is a small possibility.

Just in case he has eaten the poison we have given him charcoal and cereal and milk to line his stomach. We have not forced him to vomit as he has been drooling all afternoon and eaten his large evening meal.

Obviously a trip to the vets would be advisable if he consumed the poison, however, we don't have an out of hours vet and the mouse man who brought the poison said he'd have to eat his body weight in it to cause serious harm. He has shown no other poison symptoms, just the excessive drooling,

I would be really grateful if you could advise further.

Thank you in anticipation.

Rachel and Ronnie

Hi,

If you had not said that he had eaten his dinner and kept it down, I would have suspected a very serious condition which we see in Boxers and other deep-chested dogs, gastric torsion. However, I do not think you have to consdier that.

Other than that, excessive salivation can be caused by the dog getting some irritant material in his mouth. This often results from a dog picking up a toad in its mouth. Toads secrete an irritant chemical from glands on their backs, and if a dog 'mouths' a toad, it does cause the signs you decribe, which can take hours to wear off.

I see that it is now several hours since you e-mailed, and I would not be in the least surprised if the problem has disappeared by now!

W

Hi I have a boxer who excessivly drools on aregular basis, he is never sick with it eats as normal and shows no other signs of being ill. The problem occurs several times a week and leaves pools of drool everywhere he goes, it can last as little as 20 mins or as long as a few hours. There does not seam to be any patteren or trigger. He is almost 8 and has been doing this for about 3 months. We have had him at the vets but they seam as lost as us, any ideas?

Hi,

Drooling saliva is a characteristic of Boxers, and if your vets have checked his mouth and found no problems such as bad teeth, I am afraid that you are likely just to have to put up with it.

W

Hi,

I have a 5 year old type English Bulldogge.
When he was about a year old we noticed excessive drooling after walks. And sometimes after waking up very suddenly from deep sleep his head would shake and he would look very disstressed, ears down.
It is hard to diagnose but our vet in Holland thought he was mildly epileptic. He is on life long medication for it but what stays very important also with the drug is that he needs regular excersise not to have drippy mouth as we like to call it. When we can't give him a proper walk for a few days and then take him for a long nature trail run it goes wrong. We learned that excitement in humans who are epiliptic can trigger an epileptic seizure, in our dog it triggers a drippy mouth. So we build up his walks, not to long of lead not to much running, every day a little longer of lead and after a week he can go on a 'long running around like a nutter' walk again. I do not know if your dog has the same problem as ours but the drug can limmit the drooling.
BUT you can never stop once started this drug and admission has to be on the clock!
(drug epiphen/phenobarbitol 30mg twice a day, his weight is 5,5 stone)

Viv

Hi, Viv,

Thank you for your contribution. Unless you have made a typo, I think that 77 lbs is very overweight for an English Bulldog!
Bulldogs, like all short faced dogs, are very prone to drooling saliva, and I would not advise medication with barbiturates just to try to control it.

W

Hi W,

First something about my dogs bread, he is an Old Type bulldogge, also known as a Victorian bulldogge. 17,5 inches to shoulder, 21 inches shoulder to tail. And very important a longer nose & less wrinkles, more Staffordshire like but so much bigger. I have weight him and he is 72 lbs. He is a standard for his sort. Reference breeder Dave Leavitt.
To come back to your reply. The drooling I talk about is not to be compared with drooling for a treat. I know first hand that bulldogs a big droolers, we have a towel ready in every room! but the puddles that form where they lie when they have an 'attack' is completely different. You can see the dog is in distress just by looking at him, ears hanging off to the sides. Our dog also had the shaking head, not like Parkinson's in humans but proper yes shaking up and down movements, very nasty and upsetting to look at. (petite mall) I do not read about this is Rachael & Ronnie's story but the shaking might not have occurred at a time the dog was in there company. Our dog seemed to have it waking up from deep sleep when you disturbed him at night! The drooling does not necessarily has to come with the shaking and vice versa. I hope you will have an second look at there story, drugs might give the dog & owner a few more 'calm & stress less' years together.

King Regards,
Viv

Hi i have a 2 Year old Maltese and for 3 days now he is drooling badly.Last night i woke up and it was like someone dumped a bucket of water on my bed and he was soaked.i don;t think he got inot anything the most was a package that might of have some Deep Woods fly spray on it but a small amount it would of benn dried on the package.anyone has any ideas waht is wrong with him it would be great ..thanks

Hi,

It may be a dental problem - get his teeth checked by your veterinarian.

W

I have an 8 year old boxer with the exact same drooling problem you described. She appears to be fine. She eats all her meals and doesn't appear to be in any pain. This has been going on for about 9 months now off and on. She will drool for a few hours and then it will stop. We are in the middle of a drooling spell now that has gone of for 2 days. It's really wierd. I am calling my vet tomorrow to have them check her teeth more closely than I have. Please let me know if you figure anything out. It sounds like it is a trait that we may have to live with. I have 2 other boy Boxers and they don't have this problem.

I'm interested to know what your vet said about the 8yr old Boxer's drooling. Everything you described is now hapening to my 10yr old.

I'm curious to know if any of you've seen any positive progress or if you have any updates on your drooling boxers. Our boxer Jack is 4 years old and he does not normally drool unless he's exercising or eating something really gross. Tonight though, he started drooling like crazy...it looks like his lips are a leaky faucet. There are drool spots everywhere he goes in the house. At first I thought he was urinating but that's not what's happening. He's walking gingerly too, acting depressed and is picking odd places to curl up and sleep. He's eating and drinking normally though. We'll keep an eye on him and take him to the vet if it continues but I was curious if anyone had any updates.

Thanks!!
Amy

can anybody help i have a staffy who every so often drools uncontrolably he has no acess to toads or poisonso it comes on so quickly he shakes and drops to the floor then after about 5 mins hes up running around and looking for food, any suggestions?

This sounds neurological - it is most likely to be partial epilepsy or reflect a liver problem, the latter is not as likely because the dog recovers so quickly.

My 6 year old boxer caymus has suddenly started to drool excessively and is forming pools of drool at her feet. I look at her mouth to check and saw that her gums looked a little irritated but she would keep moving her tongue to I couldn't really see her bottom teeth but her teeth look okay she's just drooling a lot and has red gums.