What is the best way to get rid of head pain other then meds?

What to do about our labrador with recurring neck pain?

• We have a much beloved chocolate lab who will be 8 years old this March. We've had him since he was a pup and he is like our firstborn. But in the last few years, he's developed a recurring issue that we're having a very hard time dealing with. It's a long story, please bear with me... Basically what happens is he'll do something seemingly benign (shake his head, sneeze, turn his head while standing up, etc.) and all of a sudden he'll start screaming in pain. Literally scream, it's heart-wrenching to hear. He'll continue to pace and yelp intermittently with certain movements and will not lay down or relax for at least 24 hrs after the initial injury. Back before all this started, he used to LOVE running and chasing his rubber ball. We had to cut that out completely, now he's lucky if he gets a short walk a day. The first episode occurred over 3 years ago and we took him to the emergency vet. They ran an x-ray with no results but gave him some pain killers and muscle relaxants, watched him overnight and he was pretty much back to normal in a day or two. This scenario has since happened on average at least 3-4 times/year and he's usually better in a day or two. That was until last summer. It happened again when he turned to get up from a sleeping position, and it was really bad. It wasn't getting much better after a day so we took him into the vet which only made him worse, he freaked out and caused it to get worse so we took him screaming over to the emergency vet where we spent $3500 on 2 MRIs, a biopsy and a vet stay over 3 nights. After all that, the only thing we know is that it's not a spinal / disc issue, it's something muscular but we don't know what except that it probably can't be fixed. So the vet sent us back with prescriptions for the max amount of pain killers and muscle relaxants we can safely give him for whenever these attacks occur. Well it just happened again a couple weeks ago. He hurt himself somehow just turning around to go out of a bedroom and he screamed like I've never heard before. Over and over, we all immediately were in tears. We had the meds on hand and gave them to him right away, but this time it really didn't seem to help him much. He couldn't calm down, his body was tense and quivering, he would yelp and cry throughout the day and night, even with the medication he was so tired but wouldn't let himself rest. It was awful and it went on for a few days until we couldn't take the lack of sleep anymore and our parents took him for us. He started acting better after about 4-5 days, but still had the occasional yelp. We've kept him on some the meds until just a few days ago. Here is the biggest issue: I have a 2.5 year old son and another baby on the way due in a month. This last episode was the worst yet and I just don't know what to do if it keeps getting worse like this. The only other option given to us by the vet was to take him in when it happens and they can give him a sedative shot but they'd have to keep him overnight ($600 out the door). The episodes are completely unpredictable, but inevitable (could be 2 months, could be 9 months, but it will happen again), incurable and not effectively treatable. We love this dog to death but are at our wits end thinking about what we should do with his situation. If anyone has any words of advice or similar situations to convey, I'd really, truly appreciate it. Sorry for the novel, it's just a complicated issue and I wanted to make sure I got the entirety of the problem across.

• Answer:

  You explained yourself very well. I can see, hear and feel the pain and anxiety you and your family is going through with your dog. The only advice I can possibly give you is to consider everyone's quality of life. Yours, your childs, your upcoming child and your dog. I know you have spent thousands of dollars with tests, vet runs, etc. But I am going to suggest checking into one more thing and this is holistic vet care. There are alternatives to pain killers. And there may very well be a way to treat this problem through homeopathic remedies, orthopedic and acupuncture. ADD: I know that holistic medicine to kill heartworms works. This is totally natural and takes about a month. It really works. I am fostering a 3 year old Dachshund that had moderate heartworms. She is now HW neg with the holistic treatment. Please, please consider it. Before you do anything else.