Help, am I paranoid?? First time bearded dragon owner!!

Okay, so I've had my bearded dragon for a while now, this November will mark a year that I've had my lovely girl.
Her name is Yoko.
I recently upgraded her from a 20 gallon to a 40 gallon breeder. I use reptile carpet as her substrate, I own two that way I can switch them out when cleaning the other, so we can rule out her problem as impaction. I use a Zillah desert edition UVB FT light, her basking spot is normally around 102-98 degrees Fahrenheit, her cool side ranges from 80 degrees Fahrenheit to the mid 70s. At night the temp drops to 71 degrees. I give her insects (Both live and sometimes canned), everyday with calcium and every 2-3 days out of the week with repti-vitamins. She usually eats mustard greens, squash, fruits (occasionally) sometimes Kale if we don't have anything else at the moment, cabbage too.
Now for the problem.
I had a large water dish in her tank for her to soak in (Though I give her baths often), shallow enough for her not to drown, I was watching as she was drinking which is sort of odd because she usually doesn't drink when she soaks, and my cat zoomed by her cage, she immediately picked up her head and started making gagging noises and flaring her beard like she was choking or as if it had gone down the wrong pipe, I picked her up and tilted her body up, head down, to try and help, however she didn't like it too much and proceeded to climb up my shirt and even onto my head, still making gagging sounds. Once I got her down, I put her on a towel, in case she vomited, however she stopped. Her beard was black for a bit, but it went back to normal after a few minutes. I took out the dish and put her under her basking spot just to make sure.
Well now I notice whenever I put her in the water she drinks a lot, and after the gagging incident she did it again, but the next time it wasn't as intense as the first one, more so beard flexing and two gag sounds. She hasn't made the noise again, but I notice shes still drinking from her baths and flexes her beard after she does it. I notice she swallows a lot too, not like shes in pain, but as if she has more saliva than she'd like. Her eyes are very bright and shiny, and shes still her sassy self, except her movements are a bit slower and not happening as much as before. Her poop is also very watery, and its starting to not have a shape, more so a gross pile. Twice she's waited a week or so to poop, giving me messy mountains to clean up (Trust me it was a lot grosser in person than what you're reading). She just finished shedding part of her tail, her arm, and now her face is beginning to shed. I don't think its her shed that's making her shed however, she's been doing the swallowing for a while, however when I'd point it out to my family they would tell me I was being paranoid.
I would take her to a vet, however I don't have the finances due to the fact I've just moved from North Carolina to Washington state. She had a clean bill of health before we left, and we've been in WA for about a month or so. (Please don't scold me and tell me I should have thought about finances before getting her, I am young, and moving wasn't exactly my idea, things came up and life happens. You would understand if you were in my situation.)
Any ideas on what it could be?
Could she be dehyrated?
I've switched her food at the moment to these pellet things, which she eats, but she'll only eat them dry, if I soak them she takes no interest in them, shes also not had much in her greens. She also licks her lips a lot, possibly indicating her mouth could be dry?

Sorry for such a long story, I'm very worried and I really just want her to be okay. She's my baby and I spoil her rotten, she's got me through a lot and I just need a general idea of what might be wrong that way I can tell if I should just go through and take her in for a check up.

Someone more experienced should chime in soon and offer you much more help than I can. Until than I would like to say it is pretty rare to see a dragon willingly drink water from a bowl of still water, though it does happen. When I first got my girl she would drink from a bowl like a dog and she was very dehydrated.
Now I want to jump to the pellets. Stay away from them especially if the are dry! Think of dry pellets as little sponges, when she eats them they sit in her and soak up water which can cause dehydration and impaction.
As far as the bearding out, it sounds like the cat may have startled her. and you say she is currently shedding, are you positive she is not shedding her neck area? The reason I ask is because my Beardie puffs her beard out on and off in order to loosen the skin around her neck when she is shedding.

hey. i see no one else has decided to help you, i apologize. i am a first time owner myself, but since i want to be an exotic animal vet, i do my searching, and i feel i have some knowledge. so, when she drinks a lot of water, does it look like she's swallowing a lot? like, does her beard kind of look like this? https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jSydiuOzwkc/hqdefault.jpg because my beardie does that after he drinks a lot of water. that's not a picture of him, and i don't think that beardie just drank water, but is that the general shape of her beard after drinking? my beardie does something like that, as well as licking around his lips for about 15 seconds, then he opens his mouth as if to tell me, "that's enough, mommy! thank you!" it's not gaping, it's kind of just a little smile. he also makes some small clicking noises as his beard is expanding, but it doesn't seem that he's choking. so is your little girl doing something like this? because from my understanding, this is normal, and other people i know with beardies say theirs do that. does she look like she may be shedding her chin? if you're not sure, look for blurry scales, or a slightly blurry overlapping of the scales. the other person who posted may be right. she may be expanding her beard to help loosen the shed, as it can be uncomfortable for them. mine does that when he's shedding his neck and chin.

also, i see you said her poop is very runny and it smells bad. this could possibly be a sign of two things. it could be parasites, or it could be Metabolic Bone Disease. either way, you need to take your girl to the nearest reptile vet/ exotic animal vet ASAP. also, the pellets aren't too good for her if you believe she's dehydrated. try giving her some baby food. i'm not exactly sure which ones are acceptable to feed, but google search it. i have some questions for you.

does she have a bit of swelling around the mouth?
how often is she pooping?
does her stomach seem to be bigger, or swollen (as she isn't pooping regularly)?
do her elbows look more rounded and seem to be more flimsy?
is she having any trouble propping/ keeping herself up?
does she have a lump on her spine, possibly back by her hind legs?
when you feel down her spine while petting her, does the spine feel smooth or are there any bumps?

please reply asap.
i hope i've helped at least a little.

best wishes, and keep us updated!

also, about that gagging noise. did it sound like a click? or did it literally sound like someone gagging before they throw up?

Does she have mucus around her mouth or nose?

My beardie was making weird gasping noises and I thought it was RI. It turned out that she had a uterine infection from laying too many infertile clutches. What was happening was that she was trying to make space in her abdomen so she could breathe. The swollen uterus was taking up space in her abdominal cavity and not leaving as much room as usual for her lungs. Antibiotics cleared that up and she's been breathing fine.

One of the ways we could tell was that she wasn't inhaling or breathing normally. You can check and see how her breathing is.

So it could be a few things, can you provide some pictures? It's really just speculation at this time until we can get more details.

Someone wrote that runny poo is a sign of MBD....it actually has nothing to do with MBD. Possible parasites, yes but you wouldn't know unless a fecal test was done. Some dragons will drink and then gasp/gurgle a bit but if she's doing it a lot there may be a problem , it's odd that she seems so thirsty. Doess the calcium powder that you use have D3 ? Too much D3 can cause kidney issues and excess thirst, so be careful to not use a lot of it. Check the vitamins to see if that contains D3 as well, and cut it back to 1 day a week if it does. If you could put up a video of her drinking + gasping that would be helpful.