I know this is long, but want to be very thorough. 6 weeks ago Cooper was licking his lips, gulping and heavy swallowing. I took him to the vet to find out he had a 103.5 temperature and a throat infection. After some antibiotics he seemed better in about 2 days.
Recently he started this licking/smacking lips thing again (without the gulping or swallowing). It seems that there are 3 instances of this. The best I can expain it is:
1 - he looks as though he just ate and is licking his mouth.
2 - he has peanut butter on the roof of his mouth
3 - he ate something disgusting
Cooper does this at night and it starts in bed around 2am. I wake up to hearing him.
After speaking with another member of YT, we both came to the conclusion that it could be dust mites since it really only happens in the bedroom. This past weekend I turned my bedroom upside down, dusting, cleaning, putting a protective cover on my mattress, etc. That night I gave Cooper a bath and his "licking" was at about a 10% rate. It worked!
The next night, right back to the behavior - licking/smacking.
Cooper has no fever, is eating fine, pooping, playing and is not lethargic. He rarely scratches his body although once in a while when he wakes up he scratches and rubs his nose on the carpet. It's nothing that I'd be alarmed about. His nose sometimes runs, so maybe slight allergies.
I took him to the vet about 3 weeks ago and they tested him for pancreatitis (he vomited once after his throat infection) and it came back negative.
I took him to the vet 4 days ago to have his anal glands expressed. He went through a full exam and appears healthy. I explained what Cooper was doing and she said to give him some benadryl, thinking it was allergies. It doesn't seem as though benadryl is doing much, although i've only given him 1/2 dose. I will full dose tonight. The vet gave me the option of doing full bloodwork although she didn't seem to think it was necessary. I was told that I could be as aggressive with this as I wanted.
So, with all that being said. What's going on? Do any of you have experience with this? Cooper seems totally fine except for this odd behavior. He started doing it a little bit this afternoon today but normally only does it at night when he's sleeping. There MUST be a reason for it.
Also, I understand that lip licking is a sign of nausea. We woke up last night at 3am and he went and got his ball and started spinning in circles. He wanted to play
