[Gpdd] HEALTH UTI Infections, Yoghurt

[milton.the_bold at virgin.net]

Hello All
 
Katy - my "older" pig Wigwam The Lamb had a UTI a week or so ago.  The symptoms were different, though, he was weeing a lot and there was blood in his urine, he was also wet underneath and pretty smelly.  I was able to take a urine sample by having him out on some (clean white) lino which I keep in the piggy playroom and collecting it using a sample dropper.  This helped with the diagnosis.  A course of 0.8ml of Baytril per day for a week cleared this up.  Also I bought some cranberry juice and put this in the water bottle, though I stopped this as Wigwam's hutchmate Big Rumble was glugging the lot.  Instead I bought some cranberry tincture from a health food shop and just syringed 0.4ml in after the antibiotics.  Peter Gurney's website gives useful information about herbs which can be used but I wasn't able to find any of these in chemists or health food shops where I live.  I also fed cut-up celery and parsley.
 
Wigwam is still recovering.  Meanwhile his hutchmate Big Rumble has become ill.  At first I thought this was an infection but a trip to the vet yesterday revealed that he has a lump in his lower intestines.  Rumble has had a long-standing impaction problem, but recently his poo has got smellier and smellier and then squishy.  I thought initially this was due to him eating the celery and parsley, but it continued after I changed the food.  He also stopped wanting to run around during playtime and sat in the dried grass box looking miserable.  The vet thinks the smell indicates that he has a gut flora problem, so advised me to feed him "live" culture yogurt.  I know about pigs being lactose intolerant but the vet said it would do no harm for a few days.  I have been giving him 1ml of a probiotic yogurt drink twice a day.  He also gets a B12 supplement called feroglobin (0.4ml a day).  I have never seen a pig so eager to suck on a syringe.  He just won't let go of it and keeps sucking and pulling.  Rumble is very thin, weighs about 1000g and has done so since the start of 2006.
 
I just had one question - is the yogurt drink likely to cause problems with this level of dosage (1ml twice a day)?  Should I give more than this?  I am going on holiday next week for two weeks and want to be able to advise my petsitter on Thursday when they all go to their Pet Hotel.
 
Milton and the Increasing Lads
Captain Noodle, Wigwam "The Lamb", Big Rumble, Scallywag, Pepperpot, Poppy the Werebunny, Georgie the Water Balloon and (to arrive in September) Buddy the Bunny