Specialist Not eating, pain pooping

[loopytheone]

Meg is a 5 year old female pig with ovarian cysts, skin lumps and a history of chest infections, bladder stones following antibiotics and GI stasis.

About a two months ago Meg started ruttling when breathing. Tried several courses of Baytril and Bisolvon with limited results. Started her on a higher dose of Baytril and on Azithromycin for 10 days about a month ago.

Her chest infection went away but she went off her food during the course of antibiotics and stopped pooping. Started Cisapride and Zantac, and recovery food/critical care. When I finally saw her poop, she was straining and jumping and squeaking, like she had a bladder stone. Started Metacam and then Vetergesic.

Had her scanned, x-rayed and had blood/urine tests done. Nothing showed up on the scan, the x-ray showed a tiny shadow but nothing that would be a problem. Urine tests were clear and blood tests showed mild dehydration and such but nothing sinister.

On Saturday I reduced her Vetergesic by half as it was almost knocking her out and she'd been doing nothing but sleeping and nibbling veggies but not really eating. She started straining/squeaking when pooping again. The vet is asking me to collect faecal samples to check for parasites but other than that, we are about out of options with her and have no idea why she is still in so much pain. She's too delicate to risk exploratory surgery of any kind.

Does anybody have any ideas? If the parasite test comes back clear I may have her put to sleep as we have no idea what is wrong and she is in pain/distress.

 

[sport_billy]

What type of scan did she have please? EDIT sorry it was said x-ray

Tagging in @Abi_nurse who may have some suggestions of possible diagnostics that can be done, sorry you are going through this. Lots of love to Meg x

 

[sport_billy]

@PigglePuggle @Piggies&buns @Siikibam @Wiebke @furryfriends (TEAS) any idea on scans that could be done to detect any possible stone if xray drew a blank

 

[Wiebke]

Meg is a 5 year old female pig with ovarian cysts, skin lumps and a history of chest infections, bladder stones following antibiotics and GI stasis.

About a two months ago Meg started ruttling when breathing. Tried several courses of Baytril and Bisolvon with limited results. Started her on a higher dose of Baytril and on Azithromycin for 10 days about a month ago.

Her chest infection went away but she went off her food during the course of antibiotics and stopped pooping. Started Cisapride and Zantac, and recovery food/critical care. When I finally saw her poop, she was straining and jumping and squeaking, like she had a bladder stone. Started Metacam and then Vetergesic.

Had her scanned, x-rayed and had blood/urine tests done. Nothing showed up on the scan, the x-ray showed a tiny shadow but nothing that would be a problem. Urine tests were clear and blood tests showed mild dehydration and such but nothing sinister.

On Saturday I reduced her Vetergesic by half as it was almost knocking her out and she'd been doing nothing but sleeping and nibbling veggies but not really eating. She started straining/squeaking when pooping again. The vet is asking me to collect faecal samples to check for parasites but other than that, we are about out of options with her and have no idea why she is still in so much pain. She's too delicate to risk exploratory surgery of any kind.

Does anybody have any ideas? If the parasite test comes back clear I may have her put to sleep as we have no idea what is wrong and she is in pain/distress.

Vetergesic can be problematic for piggies.

There could be a chance that your girl may have contracted sterile (i.e. non-bacterial) interstitial cystitis as she is on the frail side? Treatment is mainly with glucosamine (like cystease capsules for cats; mix the contents of 1 capsule with 2-4 ml, shake well before use again and give half of the mix every 12 hours), which is a food supplement and not a medication in addition to an analgesic.

 

[loopytheone]

Thank you for the support everyone.

I hadn't thought of interstitial cystitis, thank you for that.

Her poop samples go to the vets tomorrow so I will keep everybody informed. She's decided she wants to refuse all her critical care now, which isn't great. I'm still getting most of it down her, though quite a lot on her, me, the table etc etc!

 

[loopytheone]

Initial tests on the samples suggest there aren't any parasites, or at least not many. The samples are off to the vets for more in depth cultures/analysis. Should have the results by the start of next week.

If they are all fine, I will try taking her off the vetergesic and seeing if that helps. If I do do that, I really, really hope the straining/spasming is uncomfortable and not painful...

 

[loopytheone]

Hey everyone, I know it has been a while (I understandably had other things on my mind) but I wanted to give you one last update about Meg.

She didn't live long enough to have the detailed cultures come back (as they were delayed) and we cancelled them after her death. After I posted, she seemed to go downhill. She was in more pain, more tired, losing so much weight. I think you just know when you've nursed a piggy from the brink before, like I have with Meg, when it is time to let her go. We had her put to sleep.

I had an autopsy done on her. They didn't find anything that would explain the symptoms I described but I'll go over the results here in case they prove useful for any other piggy owners in the future.

Meg had adenomas in her lungs and pnuemonia, which is consistant with her ongoing chest problems. She also had multiple small infarctions in the heart and mild fibrosis, which all explains why she reacted so badly to anaesthetic, why she was chronically tired and why she got out of breath so easily.

They found severe cysts on the ovaries, which we already knew about. I always thought they were supposed to be less common in pigs that had had litters, like Meg. She also had uterine fibrosis which again, not unexpected.

She had mild kidney cysts, an infarction in her kidney and severe bleed. The bleed is thought to have been caused by coagulation problems caused by her liver failure. Liver wasn't enlarged but pale with moderate/severe hepatic lipidosis. Upon talking to my vet, she says that this was almost definitely caused by the six weeks or so of her not eating before her death. I forced fed her, did everything I could to keep her alive, but it just roasted her liver. She likely had chronic liver problems, possibly caused by the repeated infections and antibiotics on and off her whole life. Her condition certainly worsened dramatically after being on Sulfatrim for her chest infection, and I know that is know to affect the liver.

As the liver wasn't swollen there was nothing to see on the scans. The blood tests taken two weeks before she died showed no liver or kidney problems so it is likely that these developed in the last two weeks, as my vet said, as a result of her prolonged illness. We don't know what caused her problems pooping, why she stopped eating in the first place or why she was having spasms/pain when pooping. In the end, she was straining with her whole body and screaming whenever she pooped and it didn't seem fair on her anymore.

The vet thinks there is nothing any of us could have done to figure out what was wrong or to fix it. Meg was likely inbred and suffered health problems her whole life. In the end, her body just gave up.

Like I said, not sure if this is helpful to anyone or anything they can learn from. I hope so.

 

[CocoAndOreo]

Hey everyone, I know it has been a while (I understandably had other things on my mind) but I wanted to give you one last update about Meg.

She didn't live long enough to have the detailed cultures come back (as they were delayed) and we cancelled them after her death. After I posted, she seemed to go downhill. She was in more pain, more tired, losing so much weight. I think you just know when you've nursed a piggy from the brink before, like I have with Meg, when it is time to let her go. We had her put to sleep.

I had an autopsy done on her. They didn't find anything that would explain the symptoms I described but I'll go over the results here in case they prove useful for any other piggy owners in the future.

Meg had adenomas in her lungs and pnuemonia, which is consistant with her ongoing chest problems. She also had multiple small infarctions in the heart and mild fibrosis, which all explains why she reacted so badly to anaesthetic, why she was chronically tired and why she got out of breath so easily.

They found severe cysts on the ovaries, which we already knew about. I always thought they were supposed to be less common in pigs that had had litters, like Meg. She also had uterine fibrosis which again, not unexpected.

She had mild kidney cysts, an infarction in her kidney and severe bleed. The bleed is thought to have been caused by coagulation problems caused by her liver failure. Liver wasn't enlarged but pale with moderate/severe hepatic lipidosis. Upon talking to my vet, she says that this was almost definitely caused by the six weeks or so of her not eating before her death. I forced fed her, did everything I could to keep her alive, but it just roasted her liver. She likely had chronic liver problems, possibly caused by the repeated infections and antibiotics on and off her whole life. Her condition certainly worsened dramatically after being on Sulfatrim for her chest infection, and I know that is know to affect the liver.

As the liver wasn't swollen there was nothing to see on the scans. The blood tests taken two weeks before she died showed no liver or kidney problems so it is likely that these developed in the last two weeks, as my vet said, as a result of her prolonged illness. We don't know what caused her problems pooping, why she stopped eating in the first place or why she was having spasms/pain when pooping. In the end, she was straining with her whole body and screaming whenever she pooped and it didn't seem fair on her anymore.

The vet thinks there is nothing any of us could have done to figure out what was wrong or to fix it. Meg was likely inbred and suffered health problems her whole life. In the end, her body just gave up.

Like I said, not sure if this is helpful to anyone or anything they can learn from. I hope so.

Poor meg.
You did what you had to do and now she is happily playing in the rainbow bridge. Meg is now in a happier place without pain. You did what you could, and at least you tried. Hugs x

 

[Lady Kelly]

Wow, thank you for sharing the details. I have never seen what's covered in a piggy autopsy before and it is interesting. I'm sorry you had to let her go but it sounds like you did the right thing. Poor little girl sounds like she was up against it but you have her a good life while she was here and that's what counts