I'm struggling with the loss of my best piggy friend. If anyone has any similar experiences or can give any insight it would be greatly appreciated. Not understanding what happened has been so hard. This is my first time as a pet parent.
We saw three vets while Toby was sick and none of them were sure what was wrong. He was 5.5 years old and only this year started showing his age. His breathing was a bit more laboured starting earlier this year and he started having weepy eyes sometimes which I thought was old age. A month before he passed he had a period of smaller poops but they went back to normal, then this happened on and off. He was also always known for eating anything I gave him but he became fussy this year about which veggies I gave him and the freshness of all his food. He would refuse to eat anything not fresh. He also had days where he slept more and didn't come out/out much in the evenings (we'd open his cage and he'd normally come out to get peas from us every half hour).
On Saturday he had one of his sleep days. I also noticed very slight wetness/dirt in his nostrils. The next day I checked his blanket he'd been sleeping on and it had mucus poop on it, but he was otherwise pooping normally. His breathing became more laboured through the day and he looked uncomfortable and unable to sleep. Vet found enlarged lymph nodes in his neck, he was slightly cold and had a rattling in his right lung. Vet suggested URI or lymphoma.
Got him on pain meds and antibiotics, keeping him warm, started doing nebuliser on the Tuesday. His nodes had started reducing. His poops got smaller but he was busy sleeping instead of eating. I didn't realise I should have been hand feeding him, vet hadn't mentioned it. We cleaned him out Tuesday eve and by Wednesday morning I realised there were almost no poops in his cage.
Vet got me started on hand feeding but had said he was backed up and had gas. Vet didn't seem to think it was a huge deal but I'm not sure if he was just avoiding being honest with me how dire the situation was. Toby basically stopped having the energy to move about from then on. I was hand feeding him every 2.5 hours and on the last feed it took me 30 mins to feed 8ml, and that's when we decided to hospitalise him.
The 3rd vet seemed to think it wasn't a URI and wanted to do an xray. Toby passed 30 mins after we dropped him off so we never got to start the investigations. It really wasn't clear he was so close to passing, but I know they're good at hiding illness.
I've read other people's stories of gut stasis where they talk about their animals losing weight and refusing food and Toby didn't do any of that. He was a big boy and maintained his weight to the end, he never stopped eating, just smaller amounts.
I'm just heartbroken and feeling let down by the vets and also myself for not being able to have done more for him. I really want to be able to do better should anything similar happen again, so would be really grateful for any advice or thoughts on what could have been going as it's been really difficult letting this go. TIA
We saw three vets while Toby was sick and none of them were sure what was wrong. He was 5.5 years old and only this year started showing his age. His breathing was a bit more laboured starting earlier this year and he started having weepy eyes sometimes which I thought was old age. A month before he passed he had a period of smaller poops but they went back to normal, then this happened on and off. He was also always known for eating anything I gave him but he became fussy this year about which veggies I gave him and the freshness of all his food. He would refuse to eat anything not fresh. He also had days where he slept more and didn't come out/out much in the evenings (we'd open his cage and he'd normally come out to get peas from us every half hour).
On Saturday he had one of his sleep days. I also noticed very slight wetness/dirt in his nostrils. The next day I checked his blanket he'd been sleeping on and it had mucus poop on it, but he was otherwise pooping normally. His breathing became more laboured through the day and he looked uncomfortable and unable to sleep. Vet found enlarged lymph nodes in his neck, he was slightly cold and had a rattling in his right lung. Vet suggested URI or lymphoma.
Got him on pain meds and antibiotics, keeping him warm, started doing nebuliser on the Tuesday. His nodes had started reducing. His poops got smaller but he was busy sleeping instead of eating. I didn't realise I should have been hand feeding him, vet hadn't mentioned it. We cleaned him out Tuesday eve and by Wednesday morning I realised there were almost no poops in his cage.
Vet got me started on hand feeding but had said he was backed up and had gas. Vet didn't seem to think it was a huge deal but I'm not sure if he was just avoiding being honest with me how dire the situation was. Toby basically stopped having the energy to move about from then on. I was hand feeding him every 2.5 hours and on the last feed it took me 30 mins to feed 8ml, and that's when we decided to hospitalise him.
The 3rd vet seemed to think it wasn't a URI and wanted to do an xray. Toby passed 30 mins after we dropped him off so we never got to start the investigations. It really wasn't clear he was so close to passing, but I know they're good at hiding illness.
I've read other people's stories of gut stasis where they talk about their animals losing weight and refusing food and Toby didn't do any of that. He was a big boy and maintained his weight to the end, he never stopped eating, just smaller amounts.
I'm just heartbroken and feeling let down by the vets and also myself for not being able to have done more for him. I really want to be able to do better should anything similar happen again, so would be really grateful for any advice or thoughts on what could have been going as it's been really difficult letting this go. TIA
