I'm worried about Rosie.

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snowflakey
E's Moriarity

Post   » Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:16 pm


Good to hear Rosie is feeling perkier.

KM, I hope your daughter is feeling okay. Major Ouch! At least you have Critical Care on hand as a nutritional supplement should you need it!

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Paravati
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:38 pm


KM, I never have felt you were short with me. You are a honey and I owe you my firstborn child. :) I hope your daughter feels better soon.

dribble

Post   » Sat Oct 25, 2003 2:10 pm


Um, Para? I think another child is exactly what KM does NOT want. Better think of something else.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Oct 25, 2003 4:17 pm


Give her fancy coffee. If ever there was a coffee-haulic, she's one.

kleenmama, I'm sorry to hear about your daugher. It must be quite painful. I hope she realizes how lucky she is to have a quality nursemaid like you.

pinta

Post   » Sat Oct 25, 2003 7:29 pm


Email me for details on the Chin-Sling.

InkysMom

Post   » Sun Oct 26, 2003 1:17 am


Haven't been on in a couple days and this is one of the threads I was kind of afraid to look at... so hurray for Rosie doing better! I would love to have seen the look on Alex's face when he got up and you informed him of what you needed help with... my husband would be too squeamish about handling "that area," I think! :-)

I hope the vet can figure out what's going on. If nothing else, you have absolutely kept the old boy alive until now and it sounds like he's happy again. Go, Rosie!

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Paravati
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Sun Oct 26, 2003 9:50 am


He does seem happy again. We went to a Halloween party last night and I was obsessing the entire time about being away from the house. When we got back around 3 am, Rosie was actually eating some veggies on his own. When we walked in he started running back and forth, demanding to be picked up and fed. When I started handfeeding him he was grabbing at the syringe with his teeth and trying to jerk it out of my hands. He feels better all right! He ate some dill weed and some parsley all by himself.

His teeth "seem" better to me. I am not a tooth problem expert by any means, but I could swear that the "grindy" sound I've been hearing for the last few days when I handfeed him has definitely diminished. He is no longer grinding away when there is nothing in his mouth. Now he grinds when he is chewing, and it doesn't make a creaking sound you can hear a room away. He sounds almost like a normal pig chewing again. I can't believe how fast he's gotten better. We are still going to the vet tomorrow to have him checked out but I feel like we're out of the woods. I hope.

I noticed last night that his eyes look wet and shiny. I didn't notice it when he was sick, but I notice the change in them now that he is better. I guess when he was dehydrated his eyes (he has bad cataracts) looked very dry and scratchy and uncomfortable. They are large, wet, and dewey looking now. I am going to lay off on the 2x daily subcue for a bit and see if he manages ok with just the syringing of Pedialyte. He is now drinking from his water bottle again, and it's filled with Pedialyte. I think the subcues AND the drinking on his own are a little much. When we got home last night his cage reeked of urine - I never really though about it, but I guess the poor dear has been peeing up a storm for the last 2 days. Heh.

kleenmama
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:53 am


Glad to hear Rosie is improving. So is my daughter, and her and her husband finally went home yesterday afternoon. She was a good patient. I find if you just keep them good and drugged you can get through anything.
She did seem a little worried that I kept putting her on the kitchen counter on top of a towel to feed her, and the critical care and syringes freaked her out, but I just kept plying her with Vicodan and she soon forgot.
Dribble is right, though, the LAST thing I need is more kids!

Keep us posted on Rosie when you get back from the vet today.

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Paravati
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Mon Oct 27, 2003 10:00 am


Hee hee... KM, you're a riot. :)

kleenmama
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Mon Oct 27, 2003 10:04 am


Yeah, so I've been told. :)

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Paravati
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Mon Oct 27, 2003 6:05 pm


OK. We went to see the vet today.

She confirmed that Rosie is one of the oldest pigs she's seen before. She also said he has probably the worst case of Malocclusion she's ever seen before. His bottom molars have grown almost completely together, forming a tent like thing in the back of his mouth. He has ulcers and severe infection back there. His bottom incisors have overgrown almost 1/2" past where they should be to compensate. A direct quote: "My GOODNESS, look at those long teeth!"

His heart and lungs sound fine, but she is worried about possible organ damage or failure. The molar problem has apparently been going on so long that he has been chronically undernourished, perhaps for years. His corneas are damaged with some sort of growth due to malnutrition, and he has some serious cataracts as well. His right eye doesn't dilate when you shine light into it, so he's probably blind on that side. He is emaciated but still very active. She gives him a very good chance at surviving the dental work so we're going to try. If we don't do it, all we can do is keep maintaining him with subcues and CC and she says that his lifespan is definitely not going to be that much longer if all we do is maintain him. She said he would eventually waste away no matter how much effort we put into it.

We are going back on Thursday at 10:30 for his teeth to be done, and while he's under she will take some blood and have it sent off to see if he has liver or kidney problems. The pervasive smell of feces a few days ago (and now the stench of Critical Care) seeping off of him makes us think that perhaps he isn't eliminating waste the way he should.

We were told to keep him on subcues every other day and keep handfeeding him. She wants him to not eat for 3 hours before the surgery and she is going to let me watch while she does his teeth. I told her about Pinta's Chin-Sling and she is very interested in it. She thinks it would be a great idea to get one and hopefully we can keep this problem from coming back. She also thinks Tigger could definitely benefit from it as he lacks muscle control on the right side of his face and he will eventually develop problems. So I guess I'm gonna order 2 Chin Slings!

Yay! Thanks to everyone who's helped and especially to KM for her endless patience.

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salana
GL is Just Peachy

Post   » Mon Oct 27, 2003 6:13 pm


I hope fixing the tooth problems cascades into fixing all of Rosie's problems.

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