[Gpdd] health: Patch has a probable lung tumor

[Bradley, Stephen G]

As far as what to expect when a pig has a lung tumor...
 
Clover had a bronchial adenoma, which is apparently common in pigs of 3 years
and up.  We thought he had a respiratory infection, and he spent about 1 month
on and off various antibiotics before the end.  For about the first 3 weeks of
it, I would say he still had a fair quality of life; his breathing had a strange
clicking to it, and if he was nervous or excited, it would get worse.  But he
would run around when he had floor time (maybe not as much as usual) and he
would eat, also not as much as usual, and we tried to get him especially tasty
things to tempt him to keep his strength up.
 
The whole process of having a pig on antibiotics and, as we had later, critical
care, is very trying and has risks of its own.  It seems like antibiotics deaden
their appetite, so that's real bad by itself, plus it kills the good flora in
their guts so they really need pro-biotic material.  When we took Clover onto
critical care, I could see by the character of his poos that he wasn't really
digesting right; they were too blond and small and hard.  We had been using
acidophilus as probiotic, although we had some "Bene-bac" also, because they
tolerated acidophilus in water better than bene-bac.
 
As Clover started to go down hill, Butterscotch was starting to improve from
whatever had been ailing him (which we never quite figured out but he lost a lot
of weight at about the same time), and he finished the course of antibiotics he
was on.  I pushed a lot of probiotic into Clover; I mixed Bene-bac with his
Critical Care, and I still gave him the acidophilus, but I also mixed some of
his brother's poos into the feed, since by then he was antibiotic-free.  By the
time of Clover's last vet visit, his weight was actually stabilizing and his
poos looked quite a bit healthier -- although still not great.
 
All of this I mention on the off chance it's useful to somebody, not because
it's relevant to the lung tumor situation.  In the last week, breathing got very
difficult for him, and when he got agitated, his whole body would convulse when
he was working to breathe, and it would sound kind of like a tiny drum.  I
wasn't positive, but I'm pretty sure that his lips and nose were actually dusky
-- more toward purple than pink -- because he wasn't getting enough oxygen.
 
I had been thinking that he stopped eating regular food because of all the
medications, but in hindsight, I believe he had sensed, or decided, whatever you
want to call it, that it was his time.  We were trying to cure the infection for
so long, by the time we actually found out it was a tumor, he was already very
uncomfortable and had been for several days, and it was obvious that the right
thing to do was to let him go right away.
 
If I had known earlier that it was a tumor, I would have stopped all the
antibiotics and probiotics, and just given him food until he got too
uncomfortable, and I probably would have let him go to the Bridge a little
sooner, instead of trying to coax him to hang on -- except, of course, I didn't
know.
 
I am sorry to hear about Patch; I hope that she has some good time left.
 
Love your piggies all you can; they're only visiting for a little while.
 
Steve Bradley