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So now I'm waiting for wee...

C

CV26

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Currently sat next to Spud who is in a makeshift tray-cage waiting for him to do a wee.

Both boys had a vet check up today after being on Baytril since Christmas. We know we probably won't cure their problem and they'll be on LT antibiotics but all has so far been going well. Nothing too out of the ordinary to report to the vet.

But, although he was very pleased with Dash, he said Spud felt very boney in his back and hips. He lost quite a bit of weight very quickly before Christmas and has slowly been gaining, but it's obviously not really showing in his condition.

The vet reckons there might be something else going on. Spud has had very orange wee recently so now the vet wants a sample. He did offer a blood test - but at £170 it's quite steep so we're going to see if a urine test offers up any more information first.

Bit sad now as I knew the boys wouldn't ever be 100% but wasn't expecting something else to potentially get added to the list. :no:
 
So it took a fair while but the vet now has a sample - it was completely opaque and yellow - the colour of mustard. Not sure if that is good or bad.

We'll see if it sheds any more light on why Spud is slowly gaining weight but appears to be boney.
 
Thanks everyone. He's absolutely fine in himself, as far as the eye can see anyway...eating, drinking, pooping, popcorning etc. Apart from a little husky breathing now and then you wouldn't know we had a bad time of it last year to look at either of them.

Hopefully the vet will call in a bit and we'll know whether there's anything the urine can tell us.
 
How old is he? Just wondering as older piggies become very bony on their hips, spine, shoulders. Make sure you’re weighing weekly anyway so that you notice a dip in weight, if I were you I’d be weighing daily now for a bit to see if the decline is something that happens everyday or if he’s maintaining some of the weight
 
He's only 7-8 months old.

I've been weighing daily since the start of the year so I can see that he's gradually going up overall. Around Christmas he lost quite a bit dropping quickly from 900g to around the late 700s...we've got him back up to 850g at the moment give or take a few grams each day.
 
Long story short, both boys were diagnosed with a URI shortly after I got them in late August. Since then we've been back and forth to the vets trying to help them.

The diagnosis from both vets I've seen is an underlying infection or illness that just won't be knocked out. The options were LT ABs or potentially lots of tests and surgery with no guarantees that they'd have any better quality of life. Both vets agreed for various reasons, that the best plan is to let them be happy as long as we can rather than go down the invasive road.

I got them (foolishly) from a hobby breeder and I think they are probably the runts of the litter. Whether she deliberately sold me poorly pigs or she was just a naive breeder I can't be certain. I'd quite like to write her a snotty message for all the heartache but I don't think it would make me feel any better.

Lesson learned the hard way and I'm just cherishing whatever time I get to have with my boys.
 
Aww I'm so sorry to hear about this situation,I hope your boys recover soon.x
 
Sorry for not updating but there isn't anything to tell you.

I hadn't heard anything so I chased the vets and today they got back to me to say they'd lost the results. Can I bring another sample in and sorry for the inconvenience.

So I called them and asked who would be looking at the sample...was it in house or do they send it somewhere....didn't want to take one in and my normal vet not be working. And they have yet to get back to me on that either.

Thankfully Spud seems fine in himself and his weight is staying steady. We have a check up on Friday too so if needs be I can try and get a sample for when we go. It's not like you can order the stuff for a fixed time though!
 
So I've had a call now. Turns out they didn't lose the results - they just put them under Dash's account rather than Spud's. They unfortunately didn't think to check the other piggy before calling to say they couldn't find them.

Anyway. The good news is there is nothing nasty there at all. No signs of infection, no blood cells. The only thing the vet could find was that the protein was a little lower than he would have expected but he wasn't too concerned by this given Spud's age and past history.

So all we've got to go on is a boney back end to go on at the moment. Spud - apart from being on the Baytril for the respiratory issues - is behaving like a piggy should.

We'll have our appointment on Friday and decide if we're going to try a Baytril free period. And the vet will also check Spud again to see if anything has changed condition wise.
 
Glad they hadn’t lost them. That would have been 😬 I’m sure you’ll come up with a suitable plan for your boy 😊
 
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