Hi- my piggy is under vet care but I’m hoping someone here has some ideas of what could be going on with him. He was a rescue so I don’t know how old he is - we’ve had him for three years and he was a youngish adult when we got him. So 4-5ish?
He started making alarming hooting/grunting noises about a month ago. He’d occasionally make cooing noises over the years but always soft and very sporadically. He also had some eye discharge. Chest X-ray showed haziness in his right lung. We tried a course of chlorpalm (10 days although he didn’t get full dosages because we hadn’t mastered syringe meds to a reluctant pig yet) and metacam.
The hooting continued so we tried lasix twice daily assuming it could be CHF for 5 days. That didn’t stop the hooting either.
The vet checked his teeth to make sure there wasn’t a dental abscess- teeth looked perfect. We then tried metacam every 48 hours with salbutamol as a rescue inhaler when his breathing was loud in case it was a reactive airway process. That didn’t work.
Another trip to the vet- his eye had also started to water again. The vet did say his chest sounds clear but we didn’t do another xray. So we are trying another course of chlorpalm. I don’t know if my expectations are too high but he’s on day 5 of 10 and he’s still hooting so it seems like it’s not working. He also coughs/sneezes occasionally.
The hooting is not continuous. At all. Sometimes he sounds terrible, other times he’s perfectly fine. (“Perfectly fine” seems to reliably happen at the vet so that complicates diagnosis.) Each episode of hooting/not hooting lasts several hours. He’ll go well over 12 hours sometimes not making any hooting noises. There doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern to it- maybe a bit better in the evenings and at night than during the day lately but that’s not always true. It doesn’t seem to correlate with exertion. He’ll have floor time and be fine. If it was CHF, would the hooting come and go like that? Also would he be expected to be lethargic with CHF, especially after a month of this? Would 5 days of lasix be expected to stop the hooting entirely? It seemed to lessen it a bit but it’s hard to judge since it’s not a consistent thing. Also it hasn’t gotten worse being off the lasix.
His behaviour throughout has been normal- he’s always been a bit of a lazier pig so not super active, but normal for him. He’s eating and asks for treats whenever I’m in the kitchen. In spite of eating normally he’s also lost weight. We don’t know if this is related to the hooting or not. Or maybe the antibiotic? He doesn’t act “sick” though. Even when he’s hooting terribly he still asks for treats. (He “dances”- picks up a piece of hay in his mouth and seats at it with his paws. He knows I can’t say no to a dancing pig
I’ve read hyperthyroidism can cause weight loss and breathing difficulties (at least in humans). That doesn’t seem to fit well though as he’s not a super active piggy and nothing has changed in terms of his activity level. If anything he’s a bit less active since our youngest piggy died a couple months ago. (Not alarmingly so, he just doesn’t have an active playmate any more.)
Water intake isn’t excessive and his urine doesn’t smell sweet so I’m not sure about diabetes for the weight loss part of this at least. Not sure if that could even explain the hooting.
The plan for next was skull X-rays and bloodwork to check thyroid but I delayed that until next week....he’s starting to get a bit bitey so I was thinking he needs a bit of a break from being poked and prodded. He was a bit of a biter out of fear when we adopted him and I didn’t want him to go back to being that scared and mistrusting, but maybe that was the wrong decision. I’m also waiting for a call back from the vet to ask if we should try a different antibiotic.
Any feedback at all is appreciated.
Tracy
He started making alarming hooting/grunting noises about a month ago. He’d occasionally make cooing noises over the years but always soft and very sporadically. He also had some eye discharge. Chest X-ray showed haziness in his right lung. We tried a course of chlorpalm (10 days although he didn’t get full dosages because we hadn’t mastered syringe meds to a reluctant pig yet) and metacam.
The hooting continued so we tried lasix twice daily assuming it could be CHF for 5 days. That didn’t stop the hooting either.
The vet checked his teeth to make sure there wasn’t a dental abscess- teeth looked perfect. We then tried metacam every 48 hours with salbutamol as a rescue inhaler when his breathing was loud in case it was a reactive airway process. That didn’t work.
Another trip to the vet- his eye had also started to water again. The vet did say his chest sounds clear but we didn’t do another xray. So we are trying another course of chlorpalm. I don’t know if my expectations are too high but he’s on day 5 of 10 and he’s still hooting so it seems like it’s not working. He also coughs/sneezes occasionally.
The hooting is not continuous. At all. Sometimes he sounds terrible, other times he’s perfectly fine. (“Perfectly fine” seems to reliably happen at the vet so that complicates diagnosis.) Each episode of hooting/not hooting lasts several hours. He’ll go well over 12 hours sometimes not making any hooting noises. There doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern to it- maybe a bit better in the evenings and at night than during the day lately but that’s not always true. It doesn’t seem to correlate with exertion. He’ll have floor time and be fine. If it was CHF, would the hooting come and go like that? Also would he be expected to be lethargic with CHF, especially after a month of this? Would 5 days of lasix be expected to stop the hooting entirely? It seemed to lessen it a bit but it’s hard to judge since it’s not a consistent thing. Also it hasn’t gotten worse being off the lasix.
His behaviour throughout has been normal- he’s always been a bit of a lazier pig so not super active, but normal for him. He’s eating and asks for treats whenever I’m in the kitchen. In spite of eating normally he’s also lost weight. We don’t know if this is related to the hooting or not. Or maybe the antibiotic? He doesn’t act “sick” though. Even when he’s hooting terribly he still asks for treats. (He “dances”- picks up a piece of hay in his mouth and seats at it with his paws. He knows I can’t say no to a dancing pig
I’ve read hyperthyroidism can cause weight loss and breathing difficulties (at least in humans). That doesn’t seem to fit well though as he’s not a super active piggy and nothing has changed in terms of his activity level. If anything he’s a bit less active since our youngest piggy died a couple months ago. (Not alarmingly so, he just doesn’t have an active playmate any more.)
Water intake isn’t excessive and his urine doesn’t smell sweet so I’m not sure about diabetes for the weight loss part of this at least. Not sure if that could even explain the hooting.
The plan for next was skull X-rays and bloodwork to check thyroid but I delayed that until next week....he’s starting to get a bit bitey so I was thinking he needs a bit of a break from being poked and prodded. He was a bit of a biter out of fear when we adopted him and I didn’t want him to go back to being that scared and mistrusting, but maybe that was the wrong decision. I’m also waiting for a call back from the vet to ask if we should try a different antibiotic.
Any feedback at all is appreciated.
Tracy
