[dryoasis88]

Originally Posted by bobohyde

How old is Hepburn? When my Columbo was 4, he started walking around with his head down. Almost like he had a stiff neck or neck injury. Sometimes, he would shiver in pain and cry when I picked him up. Sometimes he would wince when I put his harness on. This would only last a short time and then go away. Sometimes massaging his neck made it go away after a bit. I couldn't tie it to anything (like a certain time of day, after sleeping, etc.) I took him to the vet and they took xrays. They really couldn't find anything, except possibly a very slight disc problem that might be causing a bit of arthritis. I later had the xrays evaluated by a second vet years later and he said the same thing. Ok, so the first vet gave him rimadyl and that helped a lot. However, there are bad long term side effects to rimadyl, such as liver failure, so we didn't want him on it as a maintenance drug. We started giving him Dasuquin with MSM every day. It took about 2 months to kick in, but it worked. He is now 9. It is rare to see him with his head down now. Rarely, he will slightly wince when I put on his harness. Dasuquin is a chewable tablet which contains glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM. The MSM has mild pain relieving properties. He takes 1/2 tablet of the small dog chewables each day and thinks it is a treat. There are 150 in the bottle, so by cutting them in half, it lasts almost a year. If you read about Dasuquin on Yorkie Talk, you we see many members use it and also think it is a miracle worker. You also will only read good things about it in online reviews. It lubes up the joints and helps with cartilage. It is great for Yorkie knee issues, too. I hope your baby doesn't have anything serious. If it is something like what Columbo has, I would recommend you get him on Dasuquin.

This is exactly how he is! He just turned 3 last month. He winces with the harness (I thought it was the matting which is why I was keen to remove it. He just appears to have a stiff neck, nothing else. This is the first time he has had this, although I did notice last winter that he would be stiff getting up and take a bit to really get moving. Can I get Dasuquin over the counter? I would like to start him on it now so he can get feeling better. He is a drama queen and I think he makes a big deal out of it when he is just a little off (since we have had lots of runs to the vet when he is fine) but since all of his symptoms match what you said, I think it is worth a try. Are there any side effects from Dasuquin?