[Gpdd] ANNOUNCEMENT: Ebony lost a long battle

ME buddies at buddies.org
Sat Mar 19 00:17:33 EDT 2016


It's actually been awhile ... I don't even remember the date, but it was a Friday night about 15 minutes before 7 near the end of February (I think the 3rd Friday).  I was going to pick her up at 7 to weigh her as was our routine, but my husband saw her hiccuping and I saw that she was badly bloated ... she was normal at 4:30 when I picked her up to give her her vitamin.  Anyway, I picked her up and held her to calm her, but she was gone in less than five minutes.  Necropsy showed signs of enteritis.

Ebony had been getting sick since around her fifth birthday last fall.  Actually, I guess it started with a URI last spring, but that was short lived.  In the fall, she had a bladder infection (treated with Baytril), a low grade infection somewhere (unknown origin ... she was losing weight and blood test showed there was an infection somewhere and since a course of Zithromax cleared it up, no further tests were done), then a more stubborn bladder infection (requiring Amikacin and Vibromycin).  A couple days after she was off the antibiotics, she lost all strength and couldn't walk or even hold her own head up.  She started walking after four weeks and was able to drink water (and walk almost normally) in another three weeks.  Just when it seemed that she could sustain herself (I had been feeding her every 2-3 hours for the last four months and had just went down to feeding 4 times a day that week), this happened.

I didn't have that much time to mourn as Sequoia had surgery to remove a uterine tumor the following Wednesday.  Her recovery was without incident, though I've been obsessed with her weight as she hasn't gained it back yet.  Still, she's self-sufficient and has started to put some weight on this past week.

Now, tonight, I find blood on Daisy.  It was after vet hours, so I just started her on antibiotics (Baytril and Trimethoprim), which is what my vet always does first thing.  I cleaned up the area and will check in the morning to see the amount and location of blood, if any.  I did hear one sharp cry earlier in the day, but I couldn't tell who it was ... and it was only one short cry, so I didn't investigate further.

I only have three now, since Ebony's passing ... just Minnie is the one I'm not worried about ... but she's four years old, too (same age as Daisy).  I've been kind of thinking that these may be the last piggies I have.  I just don't know if I can take losing them anymore.  It was about six years ago when I lost my whole herd (six of them) in just under a year ... four of them were 5-7 years old, but two of them were only 3.  And it does almost feel like back then ... with them getting sick one after the other with unrelated illnesses.



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