[Gpdd] HEALTH: Metaclopromide Okay for Pigs?

[bunzella at yahoo.ca]

Hello all,

I spent the morning at the vet's with Doris & Audrey.  Over the past few weeks, they haven't been eating all of their pellets (sometimes hardly any of them, and they only get about a quarter-cup a day) and I'd noticed Doris was a bit quieter than usual and spending more time in her pigloo.  Given her history, I was suspecting a bladder infection in its early stages or tooth problems, since she has had both before.  Before I took them in, I collected a urine sample from her in a new syringe (via the old plastic-wrap in the bottom of the carrier trick), in case they needed to test it.

Well, $300 and two hours later, I was none the wiser.  The vet tested the urine and found nothing amiss there, just regular urine bacteria at normal levels and no white blood cells or occult blood.  In the course of the initial examination, she thought one side of Doris' chest sounded quite different from the other, so we did an x-ray to see if she might be incubating a respiratory infection; that also came back clear. Then they took a good look at her teeth as well and those were fine too.  

The only thing they found that they considered at all worrisome was that she had a bit more gas than usual in her digestive system.  The vet suggested that some metaclopromide (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly) would help her to pass the gas, and prescribed this (it's an oral form; I'm giving .1ml twice a day).  

I know this is fairly commonly used for rabbits but haven't heard of it for piggies --- have any of you used it and, if so, were there any ill effects?  I am a bit concerned about using gut motility drugs, since aside from not eating the pellets, Doris is already eating and pooping normally (as she proved very nicely on the examination table, munching on the bribes of red pepper bits I had brought while simultaneously providing some excellent poop samples at the other end). (She's also eating her veggies and hay pretty much as usual.)

I wonder if the gas is being caused by lettuce?  I was rereading something on the Peter Gurney website the other day and noticed quite a stern warning against feeding lettuce in any great quantity to piggies. In my ongoing quest to get more liquid into Doris, I added some lettuce to their regular salad some months ago, but I might try cutting that out and seeing if there is any improvement...

Please let me know if you have ANY thoughts at all on this --- most of the time I feel fairly competent with piggie care these days, but let one of them get a bit "off" and I'm back to "Square One"!

                                        Pat S.
                                        (slave to Doris, Audrey & Olivia)


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