[Gpdd] Health: Strokes and Head Injuries

[pat schuett]

I was so interested to read about the symptoms of strokes and the extent to which some piggies are able to recover and live happily afterwards with only minor disabilities.
My Primrose came to me at the age of about a month with a serious head injury suffered after a breeder packed too many baby piggies into a shipping box on its way to a pet store.  A compassionate store employee got permission from her manager to look for someone to adopt the injured piggie after they realized she was not going to die from the injury.  This nice lady just kept phoning until a local cat rescue put her in touch with me and I agreed to come and get Primsie,
I took her to the vet right away and after performing a few tests, the vet told me it was indeed a head injury but that Primrose appeared to have recovered from it fairly well.  I was afraid it might be a congenital condition that could be degenerative, but the vet said it was definitely an injury and while she was confident that Primrose would not get any worse, she also could not say whether she would improve at all from where she was.
Primrose still (about four years later) has many of the symptoms other people were describing with their stroke piggies; when she is excited, she bobs her head up and down, and her gait is a bit unsteady.  Also, when she walks, her back legs are splayed a bit out to each side, not right under her as with most piggies.  Fortunately, none of these things bother her in the slightest --- she gets around just fine, has an excellent appetite and a great zest for life!. Pat, Primrose and the other Prairie Piggies