[Storyteller.]

Hey there,

Thanks for reaching out! I'm hoping that we can help a bit, and that your dog starts to feel better soon.

As the other posters have said, it could be some kind of minor trauma or infection (although if you can't see any signs of injury that may not be incredibly likely). Sometimes it only takes something very small to cause irritation, and your dog pawing at his mouth will probably a) help him feel better in the moment and b) further the irritation. Does it seem like he's pawing only at one side of his face/in one place, or is he pawing at his mouth in general? The former would suggest something site-specific like an injury, whereas the latter might be something body-wide like indigestion. It could even be that he's not specifically pawing at his mouth, and the irritation might be somewhere else in that area. I know sometimes my dog will paw at her face and it's hard to tell whether it's an issue with her mouth, nose, or even eyes, so I'd recommend trying to see if you can figure out exactly where your dog is aiming for.

It could also be a food issue, especially if you've recently changed what you feed him. He might have some kind of allergy or even just not like the texture. Does he paw at his mouth after doing other things, such as playing with toys? If so, it's less likely that it's a food problem and it could be that something is causing him pain rather than just being irritating, which might indicate a deeper problem. I'm wondering how old your dog is? Dental issues get much more common in older pets, so it could be the onset of something age-related if your dog is getting up there in years (or even if he's not - dental disease doesn't always discriminate). One of my cats had to have some dental work done when she hit her senior years, which was preceded by her pawing at her mouth when it must have started to hurt. That kind of thing can be hard to pick up with physical exams alone, so it's good that you're following up with the vet to see if anything comes up on other tests.

Overall there's a lot of things that could be at play here, so it's hard to say for sure. I think the best thing you can do until his x-rays is just keep a record of how the behaviour manifests so that you can give the vet as much information as possible. Think about things like how often he paws at his mouth, how insistent he is about it or how long he does it for, whether it's every time he eats or just sometimes, whether he does it in any other situations, etc. All of that will go together to paint a picture of what's going on and help your vet determine what the best course of action is. Hopefully this was helpful, and please feel free to give us an update when you know more. Best of luck to you and your furry friend!