Hi my fellow humans,
First of all, this is my first post on this forum and I would like to thank all this community for sharing your experiences and lots of important information and advices on how to improve our lovely piggies' welfare. I live in Brazil so information about piggies is rather scarce. Finding this forum has been quite helpful on keeping myself together during this tough experience with my piggie Cacau.
Since I wanted to share as most information as possible to other people going through a similar situation, I am going to put down the events like a diary entry:
November 18th (Saturday) - I had to sleep 1 night out of my house during the weekend, so I searched for a "babysitter" for Cacau and left him there on Saturday morning, to pick him up on Sunday afternoon.
November 19th (Sunday) - On Sunday evening I went to the "babysitter"'s house to pick Cacau up, and I noticed he was very lethargic and the babysitter mentioned Cacau was not eating his veggies, which seemed pretty weird to me since he loves them and never refused. I then brought him home, and noticed that he was even more lethargic, almost like paralyzed. I then picked him up, and he was all wobbly, like he had no strength to move at all. I imediately took him to a 24x7 exotic vet clinic on another city (30 minutes from my house). While on the vet, I explained the situation and also that I did not know what could be the cause. The vet imediately gave Cacau a painkiller injection (I don't know the name of the med, sorry) and recommended we did an ultrasound to check his internal organs. The ultrasound was done immediately (same night) and the vet noticed that Cacau had pancreatitis. All other organs seemed normal. After pancreatitis was diagnosed, vet started medicating antibiotics, antiinflamatory, IV fluids and critical care (since Cacau would not accept any food). Vet also asked that I left Cacau hospitalized until his condition improved. I then left Cacau hospitalized.
November 20th (Monday) - During Monday morning the vet collected some blood exams and we had to wait for the results. I also spent a lot of time researching, including here on this forum for possible causes to Cacau's condition, and I saw some examples of heat stroke where symptoms seemed very similar to what Cacau experienced, and on Saturday when I left Cacau on the babysitters house, I remembered it was very hot that day, around 35º C, and she only had a fan to put on the room (no AC). During the afternoon I went back to the vet and suggested if what Cacau was experiencing was a Heat Stroke, and the vet said that it was probably the cause, since the blood exam results were ready and there were no signs of infection. Vet continued with all previous medication, but now we were certain that IV Fluids would need to be maintained until improvement. During Cacau's hospitalization, the vet team kept moving Cacau's legs as to reduce attrophy risk. Cacau still had no will to eat and could not move his back legs and very little his front legs.
November 21st (Tuesday) - The vet told us that Cacau was showing the first signs of improvement by accepting more the critical care during the morning. During the afternoon I was at the clinic to visit Cacau, and he also accepted some solid veggies, like carrot. However, quantity of solid food he ate was very small so critical care had to be maintained. Vet also received new results from blood exam collected on Monday, and noticed that Cacau's creatinine levels were through the roof - 6,40 mg/dL (reference value is 0,6 - 2,2 mg/dL) and his Urea was also very high - 146,30 mg/dL (reference value is 9,0 - 32,0 mg/dL). Vet said that these exam results also pointed to an accute kidney failure (AKI), probably caused by the heat stroke due to dehydration. Vet proceeded to do an X-ray to check Cacau's heart and lungs, and noticed Cacau's heart seemed a little large and also asked for an electrocardiogram. During the night, vet also collected another blood sample from Cacau to compare with the one taken on Monday.
November 22nd (Wednesday) - The vet told us that Cacau was showing some more signs of improvement, as his eyes and expression seemed better, Cacau was eating more veggies and also eating on his own, when putting smal quantities near his mouth, he would stretch his head to get the food and chew on his own. Also, blood exam collected on Tuesday night was available, and vet noticed that creatinine levels dropped to ~5 mg/dl (I still don't have the exam so can't tell exact numbers and also did not get urea values yet). Although creatinine values were still high, good news was that Cacau's kidney seemed to be working (at least a little) since creatinine levels were dropping. Vet proceeded with electrocardigram mentioned on Tuesday, and no major problems were found on Cacau's heart (thank God).
Current situation (time of this writing) - Vet mentioned that Cacau showed signs of improvement, and we should keep treatment until Friday and then collect another blood sample to compare creatinine and Urea levels. Cacau is also showing swell signs, since he has gained 100g during the treatment (from Sunday until Wednesday), vet mentioned that added weight was liquid retention due to Cacau not moving and receiving IV fluids.
My main concern now is reagarding Cacau's movements, he still cannot move on his own, his front legs have movement but not strong enought to move him to one place to another, and his back legs has even less movement/strength.
I did some searches on other piggies' stories on this forum and found some that were able to recover movement, but it seems it takes several weeks (I've seen some cases here that took up to 7 weeks for recovery). This has given me hope and is one of the reasons I am posting Cacau's story/situation here, to add to the knowledge base of this great forum which I am sure is helping lots of piggies' owners around the world.
What do you guys think of Cacau's condition? Do you think he has a chance? This whole scenario has been extremely painful for me and my wife and daughter as it is very hard to see Cacau on such a bad shape, and we are blaming ourselves for sleeping out of our home and leave Cacau on a hot place, and to be honest, I was not aware of the dangers of heat stroke (I know, pure ignorance on my side), and now that I did some more research, I can't believe I could do that to my lovely piggy.
As I get more updates on Cacau I'll share on this thread.
First of all, this is my first post on this forum and I would like to thank all this community for sharing your experiences and lots of important information and advices on how to improve our lovely piggies' welfare. I live in Brazil so information about piggies is rather scarce. Finding this forum has been quite helpful on keeping myself together during this tough experience with my piggie Cacau.
Since I wanted to share as most information as possible to other people going through a similar situation, I am going to put down the events like a diary entry:
November 18th (Saturday) - I had to sleep 1 night out of my house during the weekend, so I searched for a "babysitter" for Cacau and left him there on Saturday morning, to pick him up on Sunday afternoon.
November 19th (Sunday) - On Sunday evening I went to the "babysitter"'s house to pick Cacau up, and I noticed he was very lethargic and the babysitter mentioned Cacau was not eating his veggies, which seemed pretty weird to me since he loves them and never refused. I then brought him home, and noticed that he was even more lethargic, almost like paralyzed. I then picked him up, and he was all wobbly, like he had no strength to move at all. I imediately took him to a 24x7 exotic vet clinic on another city (30 minutes from my house). While on the vet, I explained the situation and also that I did not know what could be the cause. The vet imediately gave Cacau a painkiller injection (I don't know the name of the med, sorry) and recommended we did an ultrasound to check his internal organs. The ultrasound was done immediately (same night) and the vet noticed that Cacau had pancreatitis. All other organs seemed normal. After pancreatitis was diagnosed, vet started medicating antibiotics, antiinflamatory, IV fluids and critical care (since Cacau would not accept any food). Vet also asked that I left Cacau hospitalized until his condition improved. I then left Cacau hospitalized.
November 20th (Monday) - During Monday morning the vet collected some blood exams and we had to wait for the results. I also spent a lot of time researching, including here on this forum for possible causes to Cacau's condition, and I saw some examples of heat stroke where symptoms seemed very similar to what Cacau experienced, and on Saturday when I left Cacau on the babysitters house, I remembered it was very hot that day, around 35º C, and she only had a fan to put on the room (no AC). During the afternoon I went back to the vet and suggested if what Cacau was experiencing was a Heat Stroke, and the vet said that it was probably the cause, since the blood exam results were ready and there were no signs of infection. Vet continued with all previous medication, but now we were certain that IV Fluids would need to be maintained until improvement. During Cacau's hospitalization, the vet team kept moving Cacau's legs as to reduce attrophy risk. Cacau still had no will to eat and could not move his back legs and very little his front legs.
November 21st (Tuesday) - The vet told us that Cacau was showing the first signs of improvement by accepting more the critical care during the morning. During the afternoon I was at the clinic to visit Cacau, and he also accepted some solid veggies, like carrot. However, quantity of solid food he ate was very small so critical care had to be maintained. Vet also received new results from blood exam collected on Monday, and noticed that Cacau's creatinine levels were through the roof - 6,40 mg/dL (reference value is 0,6 - 2,2 mg/dL) and his Urea was also very high - 146,30 mg/dL (reference value is 9,0 - 32,0 mg/dL). Vet said that these exam results also pointed to an accute kidney failure (AKI), probably caused by the heat stroke due to dehydration. Vet proceeded to do an X-ray to check Cacau's heart and lungs, and noticed Cacau's heart seemed a little large and also asked for an electrocardiogram. During the night, vet also collected another blood sample from Cacau to compare with the one taken on Monday.
November 22nd (Wednesday) - The vet told us that Cacau was showing some more signs of improvement, as his eyes and expression seemed better, Cacau was eating more veggies and also eating on his own, when putting smal quantities near his mouth, he would stretch his head to get the food and chew on his own. Also, blood exam collected on Tuesday night was available, and vet noticed that creatinine levels dropped to ~5 mg/dl (I still don't have the exam so can't tell exact numbers and also did not get urea values yet). Although creatinine values were still high, good news was that Cacau's kidney seemed to be working (at least a little) since creatinine levels were dropping. Vet proceeded with electrocardigram mentioned on Tuesday, and no major problems were found on Cacau's heart (thank God).
Current situation (time of this writing) - Vet mentioned that Cacau showed signs of improvement, and we should keep treatment until Friday and then collect another blood sample to compare creatinine and Urea levels. Cacau is also showing swell signs, since he has gained 100g during the treatment (from Sunday until Wednesday), vet mentioned that added weight was liquid retention due to Cacau not moving and receiving IV fluids.
My main concern now is reagarding Cacau's movements, he still cannot move on his own, his front legs have movement but not strong enought to move him to one place to another, and his back legs has even less movement/strength.
I did some searches on other piggies' stories on this forum and found some that were able to recover movement, but it seems it takes several weeks (I've seen some cases here that took up to 7 weeks for recovery). This has given me hope and is one of the reasons I am posting Cacau's story/situation here, to add to the knowledge base of this great forum which I am sure is helping lots of piggies' owners around the world.
What do you guys think of Cacau's condition? Do you think he has a chance? This whole scenario has been extremely painful for me and my wife and daughter as it is very hard to see Cacau on such a bad shape, and we are blaming ourselves for sleeping out of our home and leave Cacau on a hot place, and to be honest, I was not aware of the dangers of heat stroke (I know, pure ignorance on my side), and now that I did some more research, I can't believe I could do that to my lovely piggy.
As I get more updates on Cacau I'll share on this thread.