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Critical Care worked so well for this sick piggie he thought he could fly!

A

algetron

New Born Pup
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https://imgur.com/GJ4qyUW

Jokes aside, fortunately Algernon was uninjured by his tumble. We picked him up, checked he wasn't in pain, then continued with his syringe feeding, which he happily finished.

Some background: On friday evening me and my wife were on the sofa watching TV. Our piggies are allowed to free roam, and Algernon made his way over to the sofa and sat there looking at us. We ushered him back towards the piggie area and saw he was walking very stiffly with his back legs. When I picked him up, he felt much smaller than usual so we decided to weigh him. His weight had dropped from 788g on July 15th to 660g.

https://imgur.com/xgtlTvv

We prepared some Critical Care and fed him with a syringe which he took very slowly.

We have continued feeding him since then and despite dropping to 640g yesterday, he is now up to 680g.

A couple of times he has gone missing and we found him hidden in the room. I'm not sure if he went there purposely or got lost, but we have decided to put a fence around the enclosure for now so it doesn't happen again.

Yesterday he eaglery ate some pepper, and we have seen him drinking and eating some dried food:
https://imgur.com/vX3wxlk

He still isn't very active. He'll sit in one of the houses most of the time, but he is eating and drinking more on his own, so I am hopeful he will get better. He takes his critical care and water by syringe very well now, so I think he understands that it is good for him. He still walks very stiffly with his back legs, so a trip to the vets might be in order to find the cause. But at the moment, I'm concerned such a trip would be so stressful for him that he might regress.
 
I’m sorry to hear he is not himself.
Please do continue to syringe as much as is necessary to replace his hay intake and to keep his weight stable.
Please do have him seen by a vet as soon as possible. It won’t make him regress but getting to the bottom of any discomfort quickly is important.
How old is he?
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m sorry to hear he is not himself.
Please do continue to syringe as much as is necessary to replace his hay intake and to keep his weight stable.
Please do have him seen by a vet as soon as possible. It won’t make him regress but getting to the bottom of any discomfort quickly is important.
How old is he?
Click to expand...
He is around 4-5. We took Algernon from a friend last year after Algernon's cage mate died.

We had noticed that he drinks much more water than the other piggies, so perhaps it is kidney/diabetes related.
 
I agree about having him seen by a vet asap.
It is great he is gaining weight and taking the critical care so well, but if he is showing signs of stiffness and discomfort then this needs to be properly investigated.
A piggy taking themselves off to hide can also be a sign of feeling in pain or unwell.

Hopefully it is just a sprain and some pain relief will help until things go back to normal.
 
It’s important you get into the habit of weighing him every week, rather than just once a month (as it looks from your chart). When they are poorly you must switch to weighing once every day so you can monitor hay and syringe feed into much more closely.
I would be concerned about his weight being on nothing but a downward trend going back for months. It may only be small losses at a time but they have added up to quite a bit of weight loss

A vet will need to make a diagnosis, but his age and stiffness at the back end may be arthritis or injury.
 
Swissgreys said:
I agree about having him seen by a vet asap.
It is great he is gaining weight and taking the critical care so well, but if he is showing signs of stiffness and discomfort then this needs to be properly investigated.
A piggy taking themselves off to hide can also be a sign of feeling in pain or unwell.

Hopefully it is just a sprain and some pain relief will help until things go back to normal.
Click to expand...
FYI he was already walking stiffly prior to the fall. The fall doesn't appear to have had an impact, thankfully.

Piggies&buns said:
It’s important you get into the habit of weighing him every week, rather than just once a month (as it looks from your chart). When they are poorly you must switch to weighing once every day so you can monitor hay and syringe feed into much more closely.
I would be concerned about his weight being on nothing but a downward trend going back for months. It may only be small losses at a time but they have added up to quite a bit of weight loss

A vet will need to make a diagnosis, but his age and stiffness at the back end may be arthritis or injury.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I will ensure we weigh weekly, and continue to weight Algernon daily.

We'll take him to the vet today.
 
I think it’s a good idea to have him reviewed by a vet, in view of his age and the weight loss and stiffness. Hope he gets on ok at the vets. Please let us know what the vet says.
 
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