[Gpdd] HEALTH: Doris' Slave at Wit's End

[pat schuett]

Hi all,

I'm the <slightly incompetent slave> of Doris, the piggie who has been having recurring bladder infections for some months now (maybe all her life, really, but definitely more frequently in the last year).

My vet's latest thinking, several months back now, was that it was the same infection never quite getting eliminated and she wanted to try Doris on the same antibiotic we have been using (Sulfatrim), but for six weeks instead of two.  Doris and I did survive that (actually, I ran out of the drugs after a bit more than five weeks, but the vet thought that was close enough).  

As usual after antibiotics, Doris was good for two or three weeks afterwards, then I began to see signs of her being wet and uncomfortable when she peed yet again.  As luck would have it, my regular vet had cut her hand quite badly and was off work for a month, and the other vet at the practice who also sees pigs was away on holiday, so I decided for the short term to try Peter Gurney's cystitis remedy (also recommended to me by Penny and some other experienced GPDD people) of barley water, honey and unsweetened cranberry juice.  This regimen did seem to keep Doris comfortable for the two weeks until the second vet came back from holidays, but unfortunately, it didn't really improve things any.

The second vet x-rayed Doris and reported that, thankfully, there was no sign of a stone or even bad sludge in her bladder.  She decided to try a different antibiotic, Chloramphenicol, which she felt was more effective
at eliminating bladder infections (it has occurred to me as well that Doris' UTI bacteria might have gotten resistent to the Sulfatrim since we have used it so many times).  

So we are now about ten days into the two week course of the Chloramphenicol.  Doris has not had any bad effects from it, thank goodness, but I am not honestly sure whether it's working on the infection or not.  She is definitely dry most of the time now, but I am still hearing the odd squeak that sounds to me like pain when she is peeing, even after ten days on the drugs.  (To hedge my bets, I have also been continuing with the barley water and honey --- it also provides some extra fluid which is always good for bladder infections...)

I guess there is no real decision to be made until we are done the drugs and see what the final effects are; I'm just getting on with the fretting ahead of time!   (As an extra complication, I had a tear in my left retina two weeks ago and at the moment have virtually NO vision in that eye; I am definitely in absolute admiration of you piggie slaves with vision impairments who do so well with your little masters nonetheless!!!)  SOOO, if anyone has any thoughts or wisdom to share, PLEASE DO!!!  I do worry about little Doris who has so patient and tolerant of all this...

                                                                 Pat


      __________________________________________________________________
Instant Messaging, free SMS, sharing photos and more... Try the new Yahoo! Canada Messenger at http://ca.beta.messenger.yahoo.com/