Taking separated Boar to have an X-Ray tomorrow - Should we also take his cagemate?

Alamerona

Alamerona

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Hi TGPF - Tomorrow our youngest Boar, Walker, is going for an X-Ray to figure out some phantom pains he's been having whilst eating his poops, however we were confused if we should bring his cagemate, Bluebear, along with him - It's a day session at our local vets', however the two had a blood falling out recently and are currently separated. We only have one travel cage at the moment. Should we bring both pigs to the vets to keep eachother company during the X-Ray for Walker? Or will Walker be ok on his own?
 
Alamerona said:
Hi TGPF - Tomorrow our youngest Boar, Walker, is going for an X-Ray to figure out some phantom pains he's been having whilst eating his poops, however we were confused if we should bring his cagemate, Bluebear, along with him - It's a day session at our local vets', however the two had a blood falling out recently and are currently separated. We only have one travel cage at the moment. Should we bring both pigs to the vets to keep eachother company during the X-Ray for Walker? Or will Walker be ok on his own?
Click to expand...
If they don't live together then I personally would only take the one. Good luck at the vets hope it goes well.
 
Hi all, sorry for the late response!

We obviously came back from the vets after Walker's X-Ray, which, bizarrely, came back totally clear - The vets said they could not see anything - One thing we have observed however is when we take Walker off of the Metacam (Which we did accidentally today), he begins the strange grunting noises from this phantom pain again; asides from this, he is otherwise in good health, consistent weight, eating and drinking normally and has no change in behaviour. This noise only happens when he eats a poop - Specifically, he does the following actions:
  1. Hunches over, almost readying
  2. Strains
  3. Noise is made
  4. Bends over and eats a poop
  5. Repeats, doesn't make the noise or strains, or moves on
We've also conducted a home urine sample, which appears to show the following:
  • Leukocytes - Negative
  • Nitrate - Negative
  • Urobilinogen - Normal
  • Protein - Trace
  • pH - 8.5
  • Blood - Negative
  • S.G - 1.000
  • Ketones - Negative
  • Bilirubin - Negative
  • Glucose - Negative
Please note as this is just a home test, so may not be 100% accurate, but it does correlate to previous tests we've done.

@Wiebke do you have any thoughts on this? The vets are stumped, and we're now moving towards explorative testing. Has anyone experienced this? The next step is to have Walker undergo a blood test under general anaesthetic, but we'd ideally like to solve this without putting him under due to the risks! Thanks!
 
Alamerona said:
Hi all, sorry for the late response!

We obviously came back from the vets after Walker's X-Ray, which, bizarrely, came back totally clear - The vets said they could not see anything - One thing we have observed however is when we take Walker off of the Metacam (Which we did accidentally today), he begins the strange grunting noises from this phantom pain again; asides from this, he is otherwise in good health, consistent weight, eating and drinking normally and has no change in behaviour. This noise only happens when he eats a poop - Specifically, he does the following actions:
  1. Hunches over, almost readying
  2. Strains
  3. Noise is made
  4. Bends over and eats a poop
  5. Repeats, doesn't make the noise or strains, or moves on
We've also conducted a home urine sample, which appears to show the following:
  • Leukocytes - Negative
  • Nitrate - Negative
  • Urobilinogen - Normal
  • Protein - Trace
  • pH - 8.5
  • Blood - Negative
  • S.G - 1.000
  • Ketones - Negative
  • Bilirubin - Negative
  • Glucose - Negative
Please note as this is just a home test, so may not be 100% accurate, but it does correlate to previous tests we've done.

@Wiebke do you have any thoughts on this? The vets are stumped, and we're now moving towards explorative testing. Has anyone experienced this? The next step is to have Walker undergo a blood test under general anaesthetic, but we'd ideally like to solve this without putting him under due to the risks! Thanks!
Click to expand...

Have you checked the genital area, especially the penis shaft and the anal sac for a potential start of impaction, and have you also checked for potential arthritis in the lower spine?
Boar Care: Bits, Bums & Baths

Grunting and straining when eating poos is not all that uncommon in older piggies.

Please keep in mind that it is all packed in very closely down at the bottom end and that pain often radiates into the gut.

Just keep on with the metacam.
 
Wiebke said:
Have you checked the genital area, especially the penis shaft and the anal sac for a potential start of impaction, and have you also checked for potential arthritis in the lower spine?
Boar Care: Bits, Bums & Baths

Grunting and straining when eating poos is not all that uncommon in older piggies.

Please keep in mind that it is all packed in very closely down at the bottom end and that pain often radiates into the gut.

Just keep on with the metacam.
Click to expand...

Hey Weibke - Yep, we do regularly check his genital and anal areas; he frequently gets a buildup in his anal sac, which we totally clean out every few days, and he does accumulate smegma very frequently (Which we also totally clean off) - He's a young boar, at just over 1 year old - At this point, the only bit left to check is potential arthritis, however he's more than willing to sprint, jump heights and climb around without any pain or worry. It's a total anomaly! He does have an appointment this Tuesday to check and to make future plans, but yeah, it's very weird!
 
Alamerona said:
Hey Weibke - Yep, we do regularly check his genital and anal areas; he frequently gets a buildup in his anal sac, which we totally clean out every few days, and he does accumulate smegma very frequently (Which we also totally clean off) - He's a young boar, at just over 1 year old - At this point, the only bit left to check is potential arthritis, however he's more than willing to sprint, jump heights and climb around without any pain or worry. It's a total anomaly! He does have an appointment this Tuesday to check and to make future plans, but yeah, it's very weird!
Click to expand...

It always gets much more difficult once you have excluded all the more obvious issues. Thank you for providing more helpful background information. We can only ever guess based on what you are telling us and go by our own or our forum experiences - which have their limits.
 
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