# Painful jaw



## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

My gsd for the last couple of days has expressed pain with his jaw/mouth. He yelped when given his ball yesterday morning, can't yawn either and is really quite quiet and depressed. One eye in particular is swollen, and nose a little too, he can eat...soft food, I'm feeding him tinned food only at the minute.

I was initially thinking bee or wasp sting allergy, loads of them about, but I'm getting a little concerned with him having depression with it, I haven't experienced depression with such an allergy before at least not after a few hours.

I've encountered a horrible disease on the net which apparently gsds can be prone to, masticatory myosis....I'm really hoping it's not that.

Anyone had anything similar ?


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## Summer Voth (Jan 20, 2008)

I've seen something similar happen with a tooth that has an abscess.


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## Molly Graf (Jul 20, 2006)

time for a vet visit - I'm thinking cracked tooth/tooth abcess too - and they can get nasty, deep infections that can go systemic and cause all sorts of terrible problems. Hope he's ok, please let us know.


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Yeah that's a possibility, had that myself a while back and in another dog. Can't get his mouth open to have a look though, plus both eyes but one in particular is puffy, looks very similar to an insect bitre allergy but the pain on opening his mouth I'm a little unfamiliar with.


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

I was going to give him another day before taking him to the vet. The eye swelling is a little more reduced today than yesterday, if more improvement tomorrow hopefully we'll be plain sailing. I'm curious if anyone has experienced similar and if the cause being allergy to bee sting or similar.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

maggie fraser said:


> My gsd for the last couple of days has expressed pain with his jaw/mouth. He yelped when given his ball yesterday morning, can't yawn either and is really quite quiet and depressed. One eye in particular is swollen, and nose a little too, he can eat...soft food, I'm feeding him tinned food only at the minute.
> 
> I was initially thinking bee or wasp sting allergy, loads of them about, but I'm getting a little concerned with him having depression with it, I haven't experienced depression with such an allergy before at least not after a few hours.
> 
> ...


Is there discharge? (I am thinking of sinus infection possibility.)


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Connie Sutherland said:


> Is there discharge? (I am thinking of sinus infection possibility.)


No discharge, not from nose or eyes. Swelling mainly above one eye only now, a little swelling around the snout but not much, yelps of pain if he tries to open his mouth more than a little, looks to go pick up a toy but abruptly stops. Subdued and sleeping a lot, hungry but not drinking much. I've had a poke around his gums with my finger with no response from him.

It appears very much like an allergy according to previous experience only his pain seems intense on opening his mouth, I've had dogs whose head swelled like a balloon but never had this pain on opening the mouth. He's on metacam already at the moment.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

You have probably found these already, but in case not....

http://www.vetinfo.com/dog-sinus-infection-symptoms.html#b

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2102&aid=233

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_masticatory_myositis.html

http://www.ehow.com/list_6884801_reasons-tissue-around-eye-dog.html


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Thanks very much Connie, I'll have myself a good read.


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## Gina Pasieka (Apr 25, 2010)

Hopefully it is just an allergy, but if it continues I would agree that we are dealing with an retrobulbar abscess or masticatory myositis. Hopefully it isnt masticatory myositis, as that takes a while to get rid of, requires long term steriods and usually results in some chronic loss of jaw muscles....which as you can imagine would be a problem with our dogs.


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## Molly Graf (Jul 20, 2006)

I would at least try to get his mouth open as far as possible, have a look-see in there with a good LED flashlight - check the back of the mouth as far back as you can see, look at the roof of the mouth too. Could be he has a stick or bone stuck in there, or across the roof of his mouth, or something lodged in his mouth between teeth, or an obvious abscessed or broken tooth. 

I'd certainly take him to the vet tomorrow. sounds like a problem you might need him sedated to figure out.

molly


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

To get his mouth open and for a look see he is going to need sedated, that is why I am waiting to see if the facial swelling subsides and there is improvement. Sometimes poking around prematurely can have adverse effects as they can in catching something earlier, two sides of the coin. I reckon I will know in my gut tomorrow or so if we're looking at something more sinister or at least something requiring veterinary assistance.


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## Martin Koops (Oct 15, 2009)

Had a similar problem with my Rottweiler a couple of years ago turned out to be an infection behind the eye. 

I very rarely visit vets but in this case I would go ASAP.


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Martin Koops said:


> Had a similar problem with my Rottweiler a couple of years ago turned out to be an infection behind the eye.
> 
> I very rarely visit vets but in this case I would go ASAP.


Painful in opening the mouth ? Third eyelid very visible yesterday but not today with less swelling ?


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## Martin Koops (Oct 15, 2009)

Yes very painful, would not eat or allow me to open jaw to inspect.


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## Lynn Cheffins (Jul 11, 2006)

I had a dog with an infected salivary gland due to a sliver of wood and it had similar symptoms. I have heard of the same thing with infections due to foxtails.


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## Martine Loots (Dec 28, 2009)

Allergies gernerally don't hurt. I'm thinking of an infection too. I'd have him checked by a vet for sure.


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## brad robert (Nov 26, 2008)

Id agree with the infection.Like plenty of people here i have had dogs bitten by all sorts of insects and usually within 24hrs most symptoms on my dogs had resided substantially even when there heads swelled right up from bees etc.


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## Alice Bezemer (Aug 4, 2010)

maggie fraser said:


> My gsd for the last couple of days has expressed pain with his jaw/mouth. He yelped when given his ball yesterday morning, can't yawn either and is really quite quiet and depressed. One eye in particular is swollen, and nose a little too, he can eat...soft food, I'm feeding him tinned food only at the minute.
> 
> I was initially thinking bee or wasp sting allergy, loads of them about, but I'm getting a little concerned with him having depression with it, I haven't experienced depression with such an allergy before at least not after a few hours.
> 
> ...



Mags I really like you but WOMAN!!! I honest to god dont understand you waisting time on forum with this when it should have been put to better use by taking your dog to the bloody VET! this has been going on for days you say! whats keeping you ? go to the bleedin vet and have it checked out already....if it was yourself in that amount of pain you would have sat at the doctors already so do the same for your dog.

and yes im crude but hey if hes in pain you should deal with it in real life and not on forum!


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

I had the "pain on opening" problem years ago with one of my dogs, but he didn't have the swelling or other issues you are talking about. I noticed it when he couldn't open his mouth all the way to grab a huge Kong we had (it wasn't the normal sized one, but one about twice that size) which happened to be one of his favorite toys. That got me paying attention and realizing he was having problems opening his mouth 100%, was only getting about 80-90%. The vet did say most people didn't notice it quite as early, and what he described as later symptoms as sounded similar to your dog, can only eat soft food, some swelling, etc.

Turned out it was an infection in the jaw, I think it was actually in the area where it hinges. He did mention the possibility of masticatory myositis but wanted to treat it as an infection first, regular antibiotics cleared it up, and it never happened again. I do think it took a couple of rounds of antibiotics, but it's been 15-20 years so I don't remember for sure.

I've also had dogs get stung by a bee and have an allergic reaction where their entire face swelled up, puffy eyes, lips, etc and they never had pain on opening their mouths, or any evidence of pain at all.

So I'd be leaning towards infection.


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## Tracey Hughes (Jul 13, 2007)

I have dealt with M. Myositis with my first Bullmastiff, many years ago now. It was brought on by a bee sting. Her face swelled up, she couldn’t open her mouth to pant or drink. The vet had to put her on high levels of Prednisone, the idea was to have her weaned off it over time. 

Unfortunately for her, every time we brought the dose down her jaw would lock up again. So we had to keep her on such high levels of Pred that in a few months she went from a weight of 110 pounds down to around 80 due to her muscles wasting away. I had to put her down on her first birthday.

I hope no one else every has to go through that, it was horrible to watch a year old dog waste away to the size she was at 6 months, and at the end I had to carry her down the stairs as her hind end couldn’t support the weight.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Maggie, I'm hoping it's better today ..... ?


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## Claire Poissonniez (Feb 11, 2011)

I wouldn't rule out tetanus, particularly if the eyelids are showing. The skin also tightens on the face, and the whole body gets stiff. We went through it with a pit bull (he lived, but it was quite a weeks-long ordeal and we had to hand feed him very soft food throughout most of it). A lot of vets might not consider tetanus right away as most dogs seem to be quite resistant to the bacteria, which is commonly found in the soil. It can enter the body through an open wound (in my pit's case, it was probably a broken toenail).


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Thanks for the responses everyone!

Well I broke down and took him to the vet , only my vet was on holiday and it was a young vet standing in for him who I've never seen before. She didn't think tooth/mouth abcess, or the abcess you get behind the eyes, which someone already mentioned due to the facial and eye swelling having subsided. Jaw pain is still there though so we have a course of antibiotics for him and I've put him back on the tramadol, he did have a wee bit of a temperature. I had noticed behavioral changes in him over the last couple of weeks, I had put it down to the loss of my jrt ie. eating more slowly, and the warm humid weather for his drop in energy levels.

Will wait and see if it settles down for a bit. She is a little suspicious could be masticatory myosis.... not what I wanted to hear really, maybe we will be lucky.


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

My wife's GSD female had similar problems a few months ago.
Wouldn't eat etc. We took her to our Vet who pulled 2-3 inch
twig out of the roof of her mouth!


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Thomas Barriano said:


> My wife's GSD female had similar problems a few months ago.
> Wouldn't eat etc. We took her to our Vet who pulled 2-3 inch
> twig out of the roof of her mouth!


Yeah could still be something like that, maybe once he's had some antibiotics and more effective pain relief, we'll get a better look inside his mouth.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

maggie fraser said:


> .... maybe we will be lucky.


I hope so.


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## Aaron Myracle (May 2, 2011)

Adding or increasing the amount of Omega 3 in the dog's diet may help bring the swelling/inflammation down a little faster.

I'd keep hounding the vet until you have a definitive answer as to the cause of this, even if it spontaneously remits. Problems in/around the mouth, eye, ears, etc, are generally not good things, and I know you don't want a dog who loses vision or hearing. 

Don't let the vet brush you off with "well, we've ruled out this, that and the other, and it's gone away now, so lets all just be satisfied with that, and not identify the root cause". I'd want an x-ray of his entire head to make sure he doesn't have a broken tooth below the gum, and fracture jaw, etc etc...

Jesus, now I sound like a total fear monger, I'm gonna shut up.


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## Aaron Myracle (May 2, 2011)

Thomas Barriano said:


> My wife's GSD female had similar problems a few months ago.
> Wouldn't eat etc. We took her to our Vet who pulled 2-3 inch
> twig out of the roof of her mouth!


We had a dog like that in our club.
Except it was a splinter of wood that slid down between the tooth and the gum. Wasn't visible on examination. The initial swelling and pain went away, so the owner assumed all was good, until the tooth began to rot out.

All told, the dog lost several teeth because of the infection in the gums and jaw, and it ruined her bite- the association of pain with gripping never went away, and being a semi-soft dog to begin with, she never recovered from it.


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Aaron Myracle said:


> Adding or increasing the amount of Omega 3 in the dog's diet may help bring the swelling/inflammation down a little faster.
> 
> I'd keep hounding the vet until you have a definitive answer as to the cause of this, even if it spontaneously remits. Problems in/around the mouth, eye, ears, etc, are generally not good things, and I know you don't want a dog who loses vision or hearing.
> 
> ...


My vet isn't back until next Tuesday, the vet I saw today wants to see us again Friday, I may go, I may not (on Friday) I want to see my own vet. If it is looking something major with the dog, he'll be getting a tap on the head. That sounds very harsh, but this dog has been through a lot, not least prolonged heavy doses of pred prior for stuff I'm not going over in this thread. 

I'm gonna go canny for a while, we've had quite a lot of changes lately and I want to see if he'll settle before/if I subject him to a barrage of testing but is unlikely.


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## Ricardo Ashton (Jun 3, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your dog and I hope he gets better soon. A skull x-ray AP & Lat sounds like a good low cost way to see if its a foreign body or infection.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

I'm hoping there's good news about this ...


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Connie Sutherland said:


> I'm hoping there's good news about this ...


 
There is, there is ....

The dog seemed to turn the corner this afternoon. Over the weekend, he was opening his mouth a little more and whilst still unable to yawn was almost getting there. Today I saw him manage a couple of tentative yawns, pick up his toy, try it out with a few bites then exploded at me barking and barking with the toy in his mouth.

He's been pretty sore and stiff also all week, still seems a bit stiff but not as down. I'll get him back along to the vet this week, hopefully he is on the up.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

maggie fraser said:


> There is, there is ....
> 
> The dog seemed to turn the corner this afternoon. Over the weekend, he was opening his mouth a little more and whilst still unable to yawn was almost getting there. Today I saw him manage a couple of tentative yawns, pick up his toy, try it out with a few bites then exploded at me barking and barking with the toy in his mouth.
> 
> He's been pretty sore and stiff also all week, still seems a bit stiff but not as down. I'll get him back along to the vet this week, hopefully he is on the up.



I'll take it. :-D

Seriously, good news.


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