[Gpdd] HEALTH- Angela the piggie

[Cuttlefish Arts]

Dear Jaime (and everyone else, too)

Thanks very much for all the ideas about Angela; it's so true what Jaime
says about food for these little pigs, they live to eat and eat to live, and
when that's disrupted, it's hard to get them well, no matter what the cause.
Good luck with Molly, it's a tough road. I've also chopped hay for Angela,
as well as tried any form of food I think she can eat. She tries, and
succeeds some of the time, and I'm trying to keep her topped off with
Critical Care.

It's sure looking like her problem is osteo dystrophy or something else
involving a malfunction of the parathyroid that is interfering with her
ability to absorb calcium -- the symptoms match all the way down the line.
It's possible, although she's not a silkie (at least not obviously; I guess
she could have some silkie genes -- who knows?) that she could have just a
osteo dystrophy that wasn't connected to her genes, just bad luck like some
people. As we are in Colorado, USA, and it seems that the silkie osteo gene
seems to be mostly in Europe, I guess it would be unlikely.  BUT, I wanted
to throw that idea out there in case the genetic problem was spreading into
the general population and was popping up elsewhere.

Anyway, thanks to Jaime and everyone else for the info and encouragement.
GPDD is an invaluable resource. We've forwarded everything we found on the
internet about the disease to our vet, who was stumped, and are going to
take her in again either tomorrow or Monday, as soon as she can be seen, and
decide what to do next.  I'll update everyone on GPDD when I know more.


Vic

> From: Jaime <rzm.2 at juno.com>
> Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2007 00:37:31 GMT
> To: <cuttlefisharts at comcast.net>, <Gpdd at gpdd.org>
> Cc: <rzm.2 at juno.com>
> Subject: HEALTH- Angela the piggie
> 
> Vic-
>   Wow, that's a tough one. I agree with your theory of a possible
> stroke & someone mentioned the osteo dystrophy, which is another good
> theory if she's a satin piggie. Is she getting enough vitamin C? That
> could cause scurvy & painful joints, but seeing as it's only her 1
> leg, I'm thinking that's probably not it either.
>   My 1st piggie Albert passed a stone, but was never the same after
> that. He stopped eating too & after a long, valiant struggle passed
> away from kidney failure. Stones take everything out of a piggie. They
> are evil.  
>   My Molly had a abscess that gave her trouble eating, so to help her
> eat her hay I began trimming it into manageable size pieces. She
> doesn't have to "suck it in like spaghetti", as they normally do. I
> think she actually is eating more hay this way. I just put the pile
> into her cage & then just take a scissors & run it thru the pile
> chopping the hay up for her. Angela's definitely lost alot of weight,
> poor thing. She can't eat cause she doesn't feel good & she doesn't
> feel good cause she can't eat. It's like that vicious circle thing.
>   You could be right that she is older then you think she is. Molly is
> also a rescue piggie & they told us where we got her that she was 2
> years old. I didn't care & wanted her anyway. When I took her in to
> our vet he just kind of looked at us & said they were a little off.
> She was only 6-8 months old! That's also when we found out she was
> blind & had been abused before we got her (which probably caused her
> blindness). You just never know what you are getting with a rescue
> piggie. 
>   I'm sorry I can't help you more. I really hope you can find some
> answers & we will keep you & Angela in our prayers. Please let us know
> if you find anything out. Take care.
> 
> 
> ~Jaime, Molly,& Grumpy Carl~
> ~Radar & Albert always in our hearts~
>  http://www.piggiepages1.blinkz.com/
>