[Gpdd] HEALTH: Worried about Elder Piggie Audrey --- What's GoingOn?

[warmbreath at comcast.net]

Ok! Pat,   I have some specific suggestions.  When we have pigs with hind 
end paresis there are 2 specific suggestions  First you should immediately 
start supplementing here with chewable vitamin C. Put a 30 to 50 mg pill 
into her mouth just behind her teeth so she will eat it instead of spitting 
it out. If it seems to large break it into smaller pieces, but big enough 
she chews, if she does chew it's prob not her teeth, and the act of chewing 
the hard tab will help wear them down, the pepper was a good indication, use 
organic if possible, the regular ones have one of the highest pesticide 
loads of any veg or fruit. If she cant eat it have tweezers ready to extract 
it but I think from your description that she can eat, have a syringe of 
water handy for afterwards..  We have had very good luck with Vit C therapy, 
twice a day is best. Also give her therapy, move her legs gently and 
encourage her to walk.

Second in senior sows often the reproductive organs have started to fail 
with hormone imbalances or tumors, cysts or cancer. This is often associated 
with hair loss on the flanks and much increased thirst. Does she seem more 
pear shaped than before?  This can be treated with hormones and have the vet 
feel for tumors or fluid filled cysts which can be drained with a needle. 
Long term the prognosis is not good but she can be made much ore comfy for a 
good period of time depending on her condition.

Very rarely in pigs but very common in rabbits (so its important to know if 
she has ever been exposed to one) is a parasitic disease called e.cuniculi. 
It will commonly lay dormant for the animals whole life only to pop up in 
old age as her immune system wanes. This infestation's first symptom is hind 
end paresis (paralysis). This hind end paralysis is often found and fixed in 
pigs with the vit C therapy, turnaround in a few days to a couple weeks.  I 
have had reason recently to wonder if it is actually the e.c. parasite but 
the immune boost from the Vit C helps them fight it off.
Also there is a theory that treatment during a lifetime esp. very early with 
ivermectin destroys an inactive e.c. infection. Has she been treated with 
ivermectin in her life?

If it looks like e.c there is a 3 drug protocol used. One is one of 3 -zole 
family drugs, Panacur is used most commonly, also an antibiotic and NSAID 
pain reliever. After the hind legs, it goes to the kidneys and up to the 
brain so its important to catch it early. Some vets add a steroid. This is a 
very difficult diagnosis to make but there is a titre test. It take 2 weeks 
for results and is difficult to read/ interpret. A second test is often 
given to determine a movement in the titre which indicates a change in the 
infection, the trouble with the titre test is that it takes awhile and is so 
indeterminate, but in guinea pigs it may be more determinative because the 
infection is thought to be rare, so if a positive titre comes up I would say 
that's it.

But immediately start with the Vit C supplement and peppers, therapy, and 
encourage her to walk, even if its a few steps to get the peppers she loves. 
An ultra sound can see if there is trouble with the female organs, and I 
covered e.c.

There will be costs associated with all but the Vit C deficiency so you must 
make a determination but there is often fairly rapid turn around with Vit C 
therapy. After you read this if you want more info about any of these 
diseases and treatments please post again, in the meantime post answers to 
the questions asked and lets see if we can get closer to a diagnosis. Do 
force feed her, weight loss in a pig is very important, Even a middle of the 
night session is helpful.  And if she is getting dry oatmeal or barley make 
sure it is with lots of fluid so her gut doesn't get impacted, I dont 
normally use dry grains. Many of us use plain canned pumpkin its very high 
fiber and caloric for a pig.

Write with anymore questions  and good luck  Sandy and Shipwreck Sam


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "pat schuett" <bunzella at yahoo.ca>
To: <gpdd at gpdd.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:29 PM
Subject: [Gpdd] HEALTH: Worried about Elder Piggie Audrey --- What's 
GoingOn?


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Hi everyone,

I'm very worried about my little old piggie Audrey and hoping some of you 
who have nursed older piggies will recognize her symptoms and be able to 
give some guidance.

About a week ago, right after Portia came to live in my piggie room, I 
noticed the older girls, Doris and Audrey, weren't finishing off their 
pellets the way they usually do. At first I put it down to excitement about 
their new room-mate. They certainly didn't seem stressed about her being 
there, though, and were quite anxious to get as close as they could whenever 
they were out and about. I noticed that Doris was favouring one foot, 
checked and discovered that her foot bottoms were quite sore --- something 
that happens almost every winter at some time or another. She's white and 
has very sensitive skin which seems to get dry in the winter here; usually I 
soak her feet in Epsom Salts or water with a bit of chlorhexidine and change 
their fleeces every day for a while to make sure her feet stay completely 
clean and dry, and she's fine in a week.

So then I thought Doris' sore feet might be at least contributing to the 
problem, but I continued to watch, and noticed that Audrey didn't seem to be 
eating many pellets at all. She's always been the healthy one, while Doris 
has has many UTIs and molar spurs once as well. They are both getting up in 
years now, though I don't know exactly how old they are --- I first met them 
in late 2004; they were already grown up then and living with a friend of 
mine but she had rescued them from a shelter and didn't know how old they 
were either. So they are probably five at least but how much older, I don't 
know for sure.

By this time I was wondering if Audrey might have tooth problems and began 
slipping her extra bits and pieces --- they always get a sprinkle of oatmeal 
and barley flakes on top of their pellets, but I began giving her an extra 
ration of these while I was soaking Doris' feet, and making sure Audrey got 
extra chopped veggies and an extra big piece of apple or banana for treats. 
I don't have a very experienced vet and I was just turning over in my mind 
the wisdom of putting an elder piggie through a molar filing, which I know 
my vet would not do without anesthetic.

Today, things took a bit of a turn for the worse. I slept in, gave the 
piggies their breakfast and then their morning pellets. I noticed that 
Audrey was eating the oatmeal and barley flakes on top, but after a few 
mouthfuls, she would lie down flat on the fleece as if she were just 
exhausted, then perk up after a few minutes and eat a bit more. I was quite 
alarmed and decided to check her over more thoroughly; she does not enjoy 
being handled (which Doris has fortunately come to enjoy over the years of 
administering medicines and force-feeding) and I don't pick her up often.

As soon as I picked her up I could feel how thin she was. The last time I 
weighed them, probably in late November, she and Doris were almost the same 
(about 1.7 pounds) but Audrey is much lighter now. I couldn't see anything 
else obviously wrong; her feet weren't sore, her bottom was clean, no 
discharge from anywhere that I could see. I decided to try a bit of 
forcefeeding, so I put her back in the cage and went off to mix up a batch 
of pellet mush with some grated carrot and cranberry juice.

When I came back with the warmed blended mush and my syringe and bent down 
to pick her up, I was horrified to see that she seemed to have lost control 
of her back legs which were turning over and dragging under her. When I 
picked her up, she could use them a bit to push on my hand but could not use 
them to stand up. I wasn't sure what else to do so I went ahead with the 
forcefeeding, which she accepted hungrily, sucking the mush down and gnawing 
on the syringe tip with quite a show of enthusiasm. Afterwards, I gave her a 
chunk of red pepper as a reward which she munched right down, too.

Then I tucked her back in her pigloo and moved a space heater into the 
piggie room to make sure she was cozy. It's been very cold here (thirty 
below most nights for the past week or so), and it's hard to keep the house 
warm even with the furnace going almost continually. Then I ran a bath, sat 
in it for a while and had a good cry. I honestly was not sure whether or not 
she would be alive when I went to check on her next, things seemed to be 
deteriorating so quickly. Neither of the two vets I have used for the guinea 
pigs will be available until next Wednesday (one is away on holidays and the 
other is on short hours, having just returned from maternity leave), so I 
knew I was pretty much on my own.

After an hour, I peeked in from the doorway and was heartened to see she had 
gotten herself out of the pigloo and was resting next to it, which is where 
she normally sleeps during the day. When I went in to have a closer look, I 
was amazed to see her trot over to the wire to see if I had anything to eat, 
all four feet working quite well.

It's now several hours later, and she still has use of all of her legs, 
though sometimes she looks a little tentative on the back ones. I gave her 
another ration of pellet mush just before setting out to come down to work 
(no computer at home), feeling the need to consult you folks. Again, she was 
happy to slurp down as much as I gave her, and ate up the red pepper rewards 
as well.

I've checked my Peter Gurney book and know that he recommends calcium as a 
treatment for hind-end paralysis, but I'm not sure whether to go ahead with 
that since she *is* using her legs now. I can't see how it would hurt unless 
she had urinary issues, which she doesn't appear to do, plus she is getting 
extra liquid with the forcefeeding to wash it through so I probably will 
give her that and I'm intending to continue with the forcefeeding as a way 
to build her up as much as I can.

I'm so sorry this is SOOOO long --- I wanted to give all The Facts --- I 
know there are many of you out there who have nursed older piggies (these 
are my first). Does this sound like anything you have had to deal with? I 
would be SO glad of any advice!!!! I should also mention that I gave her 
just a tiny drop of metacam with the first forcefeeding, thinking it might 
help if the problem was related to arthritis or other soreness.. Many many 
thanks in advance ----

A Very Worried Pat S.





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