Older sow losing weight

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Mum
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:24 am


She's enjoying being syringe fed, which is a good thing! And this morning she's trying to eat hay, so I know at least that the effects of the anesthesia and torb are wearing off.

It's so worrying to have your old pigs under anesthesia.

This whole thing started when I tried another pig in her cage, and her front tooth got knocked out. Such a simple little thing that ended up causing her so many problems.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:30 pm


It's even more worrying to have old heart pigs under anesthesia.

Toby has developed a funky tooth, much like Goldie's. My only guess on his was he bashed himself in the face on his water bottle tearing through hay. Tell Goldie you and she are not alone.

PigWorrier

Post   » Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:35 pm


I am glad she is coming out of the anesthetic well. The lovin' the syringe food is such a good sign!

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Mum
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:44 pm


She's almost fine now - and able to eat veggies.

I switched her KM pellets for Oxbow (smaller) this morning, and she even ate a few of those without dropping them - haven't seen her do that in awhile!

Talishan, you're right - I should have qualified that as an older heart pig anesthesia isn't something I would do unless it was absolutely essential.

Goldie is my daughter's first pig, and so she's very special to us.

I hope Toby does ok too!

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:49 pm


Thanks. I'm printing Goldie's thread for our vet. ;-)

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Mum
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:23 pm


I hope it helps Toby. Apart from her heart, which seems to be typical of aging pigs, she's the picture of health - if we can get the incisor under control!

Smaller, softer pellets definitely helped. I tried putting in bigger pellets (KM's) softened with water, but she didn't eat them - and she adores KM's pellets. The Oxbow are smaller, and at the moment she seems to eat those.

So now I stock both types of pellets :-p

maremma

Post   » Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:31 am


Oh the poor baby! I am so glad to hear she came out of the anesthesia okay.

Can you tell me how you file her tooth by yourself and exactly what size glass file do you need to be able to do that? Where would I buy one of those?

My Cookie has a strange tooth in the front of his mouth that starts out coming down straight beside the regular tooth but then once it gets so long it begins to curl backwards on poor Cookie!

I have had to take Cookie to the vet to get it trimmed and his back teeth checked. It bothers him when it begins to curl. If I can learn how to file it right away and keep it even with his other tooth I would feel a lot safer. He has to get anesthesia at the vets to get it done because he goes wild with anyone else fussing at him.

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Mum
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:12 am


I think it may have been Paravati who had filing a tooth down to an art - you might do a search for her name.

I don't do it. I did get a glass nail file but couldn't figure out how to get the thing in her mouth without poking her.

I have once clipped the tooth off with a human nail clipper - which is what my local vet uses.

My other vet takes the tooth down with a dremel - no anesthesia needed.

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LAWomans
"Live Long and Prosper"

Post   » Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:41 pm


maremma, my Frosting has a similar tooth that curls back into her mouth. I have taken her to Dr. Kanfer twice to get it trimmed and although I'm pretty handy at treating my animals, I would leave the denistry to the vets. If you splinter the tooth, which can happen with nail clippers or even a file, you have a serious problem. It's been my experience that there are some things we shouldn't try to do ourselves.

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Mum
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Wed Jan 09, 2008 4:59 pm


We lost our little girl this morning - she would have been 6 years old in a week or so.

I had the non cavy-savvy vet do a quick gross necropsy: he found that she had an enormously enlarged gallbladder, and the right ventricle of her heart was so enlarged there was no space left in the cavity. He's going to consult with the other vet (cavy-savvy) about the gallbladder findings.

Until this morning she was running around and eating as usual. Around 9am she started going into what I thought was CHF. I gave her some lasix and held her, but 40 minutes later she died.

Goldie was my daughter's first guinea pig, and we've had her since she was a couple of weeks old, so she'll be very missed.

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3Smithboys

Post   » Wed Jan 09, 2008 5:02 pm


I'm so sorry for your loss Mum. At least she was able to go while you were with her.

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LAWomans
"Live Long and Prosper"

Post   » Wed Jan 09, 2008 5:06 pm


Mum,

I am so very sorry you lost Goldie. She was such a very special girl!

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