Worried about Bentley in pain

Hi all:

Last weekend while I was picking up dog food I picked up 3 dog bones --the ones that are flavored at the pet stores. I was home monday and tuesday from work with a pulled out back. On tuesday there was a dog fight between Chelsea and Bentley. With my back the way it was I was unable to jump and break it up quickly. I'd say it took maybe 30 seconds to get it broken up. On wednesday we noticed he was in pain. Thursday after I got home from work he was sitting on the recliner and started screaming and we called the vet and told them we were on our way. I hadn't been home 10 minutes when this happened. We took him in and our vet check all around--we all thought it was his leg. Today I'm noticing his head is not straight--he is favoring it to the side so I believe it may be a strained muscle in his neck. No I'm not paranoid of the head tilt (regards to Abbey) as this has all happened since this fight. He is obviously in alot of pain. We talked to our vet again today and he told us to give him rimadyl for pain and if he's not any better by monday to bring him in. I'm worried especially as this is only 4.5 weeks since losing Abbey. I'm thinking it's just a stiff neck like my pulled out back but of course her I come to post on CT for advice. He wasn't eating but we give just dry food and friday night we stopped and got some canned food for him and he's eating every bite now as that's like giving him a steak. He's not a big eater to begin with. He's the slimmest of the group and never hardly ever eats all his food both in the a.m. and the p.m.

We never saw blood or any kind of wound on him after the fight.

Linda

Gosh Linda, I am so sorry about all of this. I don't have any great advice, but it does sound like a neck injury especially if you just saw it (the head tilt, scream, etc) after the fight. Hummmm, I guess I would get the vet to do a more in depth check, might need and x-ray...though I dont know how you test for pulled muscle or anything like that. When he is resting, try putting an ice pack wrapped in a towel on his neck, could help if it is inflamed or just might feel good (like it does for us).

Poor Bentley, I hope it's nothing more than a strained muscle. Please let us know how he gets on.

If he's OK in his crate, I'd give him as much crate rest as you can. If it is a pulled muscle, all you can really do is give it time to heal, which means rest. The problem with rimadyl and similar painkillers is that you do need to deal with the pain but often the absence of pain encourages the dog to do more before the muscle or other source of the pain has actually healed. So you have to intervene to prevent this by enforcing some rest.

Kate, Oliver and Aled