Hi All
I am new to this foum and joined today after trying to find some information in regards to my 4 year old male Staffordshire Bull Terrier.  On the 30th October i came home from work and as usual made a fuss of my little boy and when i smoothed the right side of his head (from ear to front of the face) he yelped and his eye started flickering (open and shut) and from then onwards everytime i put my hand down to that part of his face he was pulling away and yelped on several occasions.  I made an appointment at the vets straight away and when i got there they were quite bumbfounded really to what the problem was, they checked his eyes (no problems), checked his teeth (no problems) his right ear was a little inflammed but not enough to cause that much pain so they gave him an injection of anti-inflammatories and a pain killer and said to re-book another appointment for the following day to see how he goes.  When i got home he was still a little sensitive to that area but after a few hours later he was ok with me touching there showed no pain whatsoever and never yelped.  So went back the next day (still he was fine no pain or yelping) and they gave me some drops to put in Troy's ear because it leant towards that causing him the problem.  However, the 06th November the pain, flinching and yelping started there again so off we go to the vets again and now they are leaning towards ?? inflammation of the nerve on that part of his face, he has been prescribed 3 weeks worth of anti-inflammatories and a follow up check up at the end of this month.  To date he is ok with me touching that area again and no flinching away or yelping so definitely a improvement.  But the vet said that if problem re-occurs after the three weeks they will need to refer him to a Neurologist as it could be some sort of nerve damage there and tests will need to be carried out.  Sorry for long post just wanted to see if anyone here has had a similar problem and can shed some light on this for me, Troy is so healthy usually and has got me worried silly now.
Many thanks, Melissa

Sorry Melissa I can't shed any light on this but thought I'd bring it back to the top of the list to see whether anyone else has any ideas.  I can see that it must be a worry.

On a lighter note can I applaud your unintentional but funniest spelling mistake I've seen in ages.  I won't repeat it here as it's best enjoyed in situ but it well describes many a vets state of mind and is my new word of the week!!  Thank you

xx

Hi Melissa,

I'm glad that this post has resurfaced as perhaps it has been missed - I missed it anyway ;)

Less than half way through your post I thought this may be a problem with a facial nerve - the reason being it is very similar to a problem I have personal experience of - quite literally me, not my dog :)

The cause could not be firmly established although it was suspected to be possibly down to something as simple as a draft however a spell on anti-inflammatories eventually cleared the problem and since this was around 3/4 years ago I assume it was fully effective as the pain (which was awful!) has never returned.

If the AI given is a steroid, do you also give ant-acid meds before doses?  If not, I'd suggest you have a word with your vet about this as even short term steroids can cause stomach problems and of course they should be gradually weaned off same and not stopped abruptly even if symptoms appear relieved.

HTH,
best wishes, Teri :)