Engel's Herd

Tomorrow is the day that Cyril says goodbye to his plums. Just checking I've got everything I need. If there's anything I've missed, let me know.

Heat pads, metacam, baytril, recovery food, baby food/porridge (to mix with recovery food to encourage him to eat),1ml/5ml/15ml syringes, probiotics, disposable puppy pads, F10, hibiscrub, saline, multiple soft cozies. For if the unthinkable happens I have gloves, sterile gauze and cohesive bandages to cover and protect the incision and anything which shouldn't be outside of the body until we can get to the vet. The animal hospital is open 24/7 but is a hour away hence the protective barrier.
 
Cyril has gone to the vets. Waiting for the phone to ring to say it's all done. Feels like an eternity. Been trying to keep myself busy but I've now ran out of things to do.

Oh and befor I forget, can this thread be renamed 'Engel's Herd' please @BossHogg
 
Hope everything hopes well for Mr Cyril 🤞It’s always a long wait for that phone call x
 
Cyril had to stay for a little bit longer as they weren't happy with the recovery (from anaesthesia). He's home now, little spaced out. He's eaten a few strands of hay (which is more than what basil did at this stage). Will be stepping in with recovery feed and probiotics for the next few days. Got follow up tomorrow so 🤞

He's already done a small rumble strut for his ladies nextdoor.
 
Managed to finish a sachet of science selective recovery food (with ProC mixed in) in 24hrs, I'm so pleased. Poops took a while to come but he's pooping more now and they're normal and regular. He's eating hay but it's hard to judge how much so will continue topping him up with feed. He's currently taking about 10ml+ every 2-3 hours. I don't know how much in one sitting is normal, I'm aiming for as much as possible?

Went for a check with the nurse and his incision is looking good, a little bruised but she's not concerned. We have another appointment on Monday for post op check. He does squeak a little while peeing but I'm putting this down to being sore from the op at the moment (he had abdominal castration at my request). I did bring this up with the nurse and explained Basil did the same and he had a UTI, his was a few days after the op though. She said to keep an eye on him and his output and of course if things don't improve or get worse before Monday bring him back.

To top it all off Bella (dog) went for her booster today and a check up, all is good but her teeth. She's got to have a dental, likely with extractions, in 2 weeks time. Bella has never had great teeth so I'm not surprised. The vet fund is going to look a little sad after all this.
 
Feed him as much as he wants in each sitting.
Are you weighing him? Of course that is the only way he is getting enough until he starts eating enough hay on his own
 
Piggies&buns said:
Feed him as much as he wants in each sitting.
Are you weighing him? Of course that is the only way he is getting enough until he starts eating enough hay on his own
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Yes I'm weighing him (and checking the incision) once a day and will continue to do so for the next 2-3 weeks then go to bi-weekly for a the next 2-3 weeks. After that he'll go back to the normal once a week check/weigh.

He was ~930g before the op. 889g this morning before his 6am feed; I'm happy with that.
 
Engel said:
Yes I'm weighing him (and checking the incision) once a day and will continue to do so for the next 2-3 weeks then go to bi-weekly for a the next 2-3 weeks. After that he'll go back to the normal once a week check/weigh.

He was ~930g before the op. 889g this morning before his 6am feed; I'm happy with that.
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I thought you would be!
Yep, I’d also be happy with that one day after surgery.
I hope he has a quick and easy recovery!
 
Piggies&buns said:
And I’m sorry to hear about Bella. I hope it goes well
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No doubt she'll be fine, just a basic scale and extraction. To be honest she doesn't have that many teeth left anyway so the cleaning side of things won't take long. 😅 This is one of the problems with having multiple animals; everyone's fine for a while then everything happens at once! :blink:

Piggies&buns said:
I thought you would be!
Yep, I’d also be happy with that one day after surgery.
I hope he has a quick and easy recovery!
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I'm hoping it's quick and easy too. He's doing much better than Basil did so far so hopefully it stays that way. 🤞
 
Ugh. Cyril is really squeaking while peeing (only). This is the exact same as what Basil did. He's starting to refuse recovery food. Got the vets at 3. Thinking a course of baytril is worth trying. He's lost 50g since yesterday.
 
Engel said:
Ugh. Cyril is really squeaking while peeing (only). This is the exact same as what Basil did. He's starting to refuse recovery food. Got the vets at 3. Thinking a course of baytril is worth trying. He's lost 50g since yesterday.
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Oh no, poor Cyril.
Sending lots of healing vibes
 
We're back. Cyril was very good at the vets and everyone loves him. Turns out they'd all had a snuggle with him on the day of his op. His incision is fine and the vet could press into his tummy and there was no pain or discomfort. We're to up his metacam to 0.4ml twice a day as she believes that his current dose of 0.2ml isn't enough for him. He's also to take baytril twice a day just in case there's a UTI forming.

He's got probiotics mixed in with his recovery food to help his gut. Can they have too much probiotic? (I'm following the instructions on the tub).
 
Weighed all the pigs and I've been looking at the figures working out the weeks gains/loss. I can't help but noticing that both Autumn and Blossom have gained more than what I'd expect during the 3 weeks I've had them. I have everyone's weight logged next to their ages so went back and compared the gains based on their ages.

From 6 months old to 6months 3 weeks old all piggies gained under 50g total during this period. Autumn and Blossom have gained 147g and 142g. (They're meant to be roughly 6 months old +3 weeks). Slightly sleep deprived feeding Cyril round the clock so I don't even know of this is making sense. Does a gain of 140g+ in 3 weeks for a pig that's 6 months seem a lot to you? (They're on pregnancy watch anyway but I swear one of them was in season last week).
 
So they’ve gained around 50g each week. That sounds fine. Generally the average is 20-30 per week but some will gain more, some less and they are at the end of the fast growing period, and you don’t know what their weight gain has been like uo until the last few weeks. But they are gaining which is good (unless they are indeed pregnant). You may find they don’t gain much next time
 
Piggies&buns said:
So they’ve gained around 50g each week. That sounds fine. Generally the average is 20-30 per week but some will gain more, some less and they are at the end of the fast growing period, and you don’t know what their weight gain has been like uo until the last few weeks. But they are gaining which is good (unless they are indeed pregnant). You may find they don’t gain much next time
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I know it's just that they drink a lot more than all the other pigs, they eat a lot more than the others and they've gained much more than everyone else. By all means if it's just a case of better diet that's all good but hopefully it wouldn't be wrong of me to be suspicious. Very little was known about them and they were handed in together. They spent 3 weeks in a p@h adoption area in a neighboring county before being transferred here (thus me finding and adopting them). So is it fair to say their pregnancy watch started while they were there? Or should I start it from when I adopted them?
 
Generally you start the pregnancy watch from when they came to you as that is when you can be certain they were not in contact with any boars
 
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