Plymouth, MA: 2 young pigs found in woods

PooksiedAnimals · Post » Sun Nov 16, 2014 9:48 am

mmeadow, that stinks. What a shock to lose one that young! I'm sorry.

Talishan · Post » Sun Nov 16, 2014 3:40 pm

Godspeed and safe passage, Cream Puff. You will be remembered, honored and loved.

mmeadow -- I strongly suspect she had some serious genetic abnormalities. I think many of us would agree that we're seeing pigs that are weaker and have more problems inherent coming with them than we have in years past, much less whatever may have happened to them before you got them.

Know that her time here was wonderful thanks to you and everyone else that helped her. That counts.

mmeadow · Post » Sun Nov 16, 2014 5:45 pm

Could well be genetic. Cream Puff's littermate Bo (back of first photo) already had a bladder stone at age 2; amazingly, he passed it without surgery. Rosie is obese, and has a growth on her lip at which the vets just shrug. The growth doesn't bother her--sure doesn't keep her from eating!--which is good because I don't think it's operable. So far no issues with Pepper. I'm somewhat regretful about not getting an autopsy, but we'll compensate by extra vigilance with the other three.

shanachie05 · Post » Thu Nov 20, 2014 9:45 am

mmeadow- I'm so sorry, hun. That's so sad.

I agree that we are seeing a lot more pigs come with mysterious conditions we know nothing about. The past year has been hard with most of the losses being what I would consider, too soon. It is likely they have trashy genetics.

The one "old age" loss was the exception this year. Most of the others were 6 months to 2 years.
Granted I had pneumonia wipe out a load of them at one time and the vet said it can happen pretty fast. But many of them were just mysteries. I didn't do autopsies mostly because it was just too overwhelming....

Bookfan · Post » Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:35 am

She was beautiful & I'm so sorry. I read the beginning of this thread & I'd say she's a lucky pig. Even though her life was sort of short, it was a good one with you.

mmeadow · Post » Thu Nov 20, 2014 10:03 pm

Thanks, everyone. (shanachie05, where have you been hiding?!)

In hindsight, I recall a little more squabbling than usual in the couple of days before Cream Puff collapsed. Wish I had thought to investigate further, as I now suspect that the other two were picking on her. But overall she was a very content little sow who enjoyed her place in the middle of the pack of three--neither alpha nor omega: invariably the second to emerge for treats. And she wasn't sick long. Sigh.

Talishan · Post » Sat Nov 22, 2014 8:52 pm

"Wasn't sick long" is important to me. Everyone's different (and the pigs can't say what they want), but I always feel worse for any of our pigs (or humans) that end up going through multiple disorders, surgical recoveries, treatments that don't completely do the job but do the best they can do, etc. etc. etc.

If she was a happy little pig with you and wasn't sick for a very long time, that to me is very important, and special.

mmeadow · Post » Wed Oct 14, 2015 1:54 pm

So now Pepper (the brown and white sow) is squeaking while passing bloody pee. My partner got antibiotics for her last week (assumed UTI) and began full replacement feeding while I was away in Europe til a few days ago. I'm taking her back to the vet tomorrow. Her brother Bo had a stone which he passed, as an ultrasound immediately before surgery confirmed it wasn't there anymore. I'd been syringing him shillingtong in the hope that it would relax his urinary tract, and I'm going to start that with Pepper. Stupid bladder issues. We've never actually had a pig need to go through stone removal surgery, but that might be about to change.

Post » Wed Oct 14, 2015 2:32 pm

Poor guy! I hope the shillintong helps too.

Bookfan · Post » Thu Oct 15, 2015 12:25 pm

Sending good wishes to Pepper. Hope he passes that nasty stone if that's what it is.

Talishan · Post » Sat Oct 17, 2015 12:48 pm

How's she doing now, mmeadow?

Being female, hopefully if it's a stone she can pass it.

mmeadow · Post » Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:30 am

Pepper went back to the vet on 10/15. No definitive stone visible; he did see a little shadow along the upper margin that was probably scar tissue from her spay, but could be a stone becoming encapsulated into the bladder wall. He guessed that she passed a stone and that the blood and pain were the result of a traumatized urethra.

He prescribed tmp/smz (sulfatrim) for two weeks, plus a dose of meloxicam (Metacam) that seemed like a decimal point mistake: 0.7mL of the 1.5 mg/mL. The last time we had a piggy of her size on meloxicam, the dose was 0.07mL.

Of course I immediately checked about the dosage, and the vet explained that the dosing standards had been adjusted sharply upwards. I'll put up a separate post with his response.

Pepper is doing better--less squeaking and blood, more eating on her own.