Hey,
Back in July our pig started eating less, acting a bit weird, and being lethargic. Took him to the vet and after some X-rays he was diagnosed with GI stasis which allegedly was not too bad yet since his behavior had been going back to normal off and on. We were given two meds to give him twice a day as well as told to syringe-feed critical care three times a day. This regiment was prescribed for two weeks.
Since his behavior was not too "off" in the first place aside from one or two random days, his behavior improved fairly quickly. At the follow-up appointment (without x-rays) our vet was confident enough that he had beaten the stasis or that it was almost gone to recommend starting to ween off the critical care over a few days and to stop the meds. We did just that and his weight had reached a (recent) all-time high (2 pounds 4.6 oz) while continuing to maintain. However, 4-5 days later it shot down a couple of ounces. The next morning his behavior was a little off again so naturally we called the vet.
Now in their defense, the full situation may have been lost in the game of telephone between the vet tech and the actual vet, but I emphasized the sharp weight decrease to each person and their advice was to increase critical care to twice a day and to start weighing him once a week instead of once a day. Which we took as implying that we were getting too paranoid over natural weight fluctuations. While fluctuations are definitely normal, this drop was a larger drop than any previous one we had recorded. The vet also mentioned that if they or we begin to suspect this is something more than stasis, then we would have to go see a specialist an hour away because they "only do basic wellness checkups/diagnosis" which was news to us... (and yes our current vet is allegedly an exotic vet).
We disregarded what the vet said, upped critical care to 3 times a day, and continued to weigh him daily. This was just short of one month ago. Once his weight stabilized (behavior was back to normal after a couple of days again) we began to decrease critical care again, but very slowly instead of over a few days. First, we went down to 2.5 times a day for a while, then 2 times a day for a while, and then a few days ago down to 1 time a day. His weight has maintained for the most part, through all these decreases.
However now it is trending downwards as he is hanging around 2 pounds 2.1-2.5 oz instead of 2 pounds 2.9-3.5 ounces. Behavior has seemed to be normal still. Pretty energetic and crazy like always. He still eats 24/7, though maybe somehow not enough if his weight is going down again. We recognize he may not go back to his previous 2 pounds 4.5 ounce norm anytime soon so we were happy with his 2 pounds 3+ ounces stabilization but are now a bit concerned again.
Are we being ultra-paranoid? Does it maybe have something to do with transitioning off of critical care (he's been on it at least a little bit for 2 months now)/some sort of critical care reliance? While I'm not sure that my girlfriend agrees, my current thought process is to continue with the critical care decrease and give him more time to balance out his weight. Can't be certain it's a decrease of concern without more data points. That being said I also don't want to wait too long before taking further action if this weight decrease is something other than critical care related. Thoughts? Sorry for the long post, its a 2 month story lol.
Back in July our pig started eating less, acting a bit weird, and being lethargic. Took him to the vet and after some X-rays he was diagnosed with GI stasis which allegedly was not too bad yet since his behavior had been going back to normal off and on. We were given two meds to give him twice a day as well as told to syringe-feed critical care three times a day. This regiment was prescribed for two weeks.
Since his behavior was not too "off" in the first place aside from one or two random days, his behavior improved fairly quickly. At the follow-up appointment (without x-rays) our vet was confident enough that he had beaten the stasis or that it was almost gone to recommend starting to ween off the critical care over a few days and to stop the meds. We did just that and his weight had reached a (recent) all-time high (2 pounds 4.6 oz) while continuing to maintain. However, 4-5 days later it shot down a couple of ounces. The next morning his behavior was a little off again so naturally we called the vet.
Now in their defense, the full situation may have been lost in the game of telephone between the vet tech and the actual vet, but I emphasized the sharp weight decrease to each person and their advice was to increase critical care to twice a day and to start weighing him once a week instead of once a day. Which we took as implying that we were getting too paranoid over natural weight fluctuations. While fluctuations are definitely normal, this drop was a larger drop than any previous one we had recorded. The vet also mentioned that if they or we begin to suspect this is something more than stasis, then we would have to go see a specialist an hour away because they "only do basic wellness checkups/diagnosis" which was news to us... (and yes our current vet is allegedly an exotic vet).
We disregarded what the vet said, upped critical care to 3 times a day, and continued to weigh him daily. This was just short of one month ago. Once his weight stabilized (behavior was back to normal after a couple of days again) we began to decrease critical care again, but very slowly instead of over a few days. First, we went down to 2.5 times a day for a while, then 2 times a day for a while, and then a few days ago down to 1 time a day. His weight has maintained for the most part, through all these decreases.
However now it is trending downwards as he is hanging around 2 pounds 2.1-2.5 oz instead of 2 pounds 2.9-3.5 ounces. Behavior has seemed to be normal still. Pretty energetic and crazy like always. He still eats 24/7, though maybe somehow not enough if his weight is going down again. We recognize he may not go back to his previous 2 pounds 4.5 ounce norm anytime soon so we were happy with his 2 pounds 3+ ounces stabilization but are now a bit concerned again.
Are we being ultra-paranoid? Does it maybe have something to do with transitioning off of critical care (he's been on it at least a little bit for 2 months now)/some sort of critical care reliance? While I'm not sure that my girlfriend agrees, my current thought process is to continue with the critical care decrease and give him more time to balance out his weight. Can't be certain it's a decrease of concern without more data points. That being said I also don't want to wait too long before taking further action if this weight decrease is something other than critical care related. Thoughts? Sorry for the long post, its a 2 month story lol.
