[Gpdd] [HEALTH] Aquinnah: Bloated piggy

[Kay Dudman]

Dear Nicholle

A piggy not eating or going to the bathroom for 24 hours is an emergency.
Get back to your vet to see if he/she will see Aquinnah as an emergency,
otherwise I really think you need to contact another vet to try to get her
seen urgently.  May be they have someone on call.

In the meantime I suggest what you do is:

* try to get Aquinnah to take a little water (with the chill taken off) from
a syringe (or from a teaspoon if you haven't got a syringe)

* mix up some critical care (or the pellets from the dry food) with some
water and offer to Aquinnah in a syringe or a teaspoon

* you could try a little baby colic treatment (e.g. infacol in the UK)

* hold Aquinnah's tummy up to your ear; what can you hear?  There should be
some gentle gurgling sounds of digestion.  No sounds at all and it could be
GI stasis where the natural action of the gut comes to a halt

* if you tap Aquinnah's tummy with your index finger, does it sound hollow?
Move your finger round and tap in different places to see if there is a
variation in the sound (you would expect it to be slightly hollow-sounding
where her stomach is, top left of the tummy as is ours)

* give Aquinnah a tummy massage: hold her on your lap with her back towards
you, lifting up her head and shoulders with one hand.  With the other hand
rub her tummy gently in the following sequence (to follow to natural path of
the gut): start just under the ribs (the "waistline"), then pressing gently
down towards the left, then down to the base of the tummy, then up to the
right side, and back to the starting position, and keep going.  This needs
to be more than a stroking action to have a beneficial effect, you need to
press into the tummy (you can try the action on yourself first to get an
idea).  A successful session of this should result in some faecal pellets
being produced.

* what your vet will probably do is give Aquinnah a shot of metocloprimide,
which stimulates the gut action.

If your vet really can't see Aquinnah until tomorrow evening, and doesn't
have an emergency service, you could try an animal society or rescue, they
might have someone there who can help.

If your vet doesn't recognise this as an emergency, you might need to think
about finding another vet.

Wishing Aquinnah a speedy recovery,

Kay