Cryptillian
New Born Pup
I hope it’s ok if I skip the usual care rundown since he’s terminal and I’ve done everything I can, I have been struggling so horribly with this because my grandma is also dying and one of our dogs has cancer as well.
Going to start by saying Pumba is 7 1/2 years old and had a massive bladder stone that was successfully removed late last year. Before all this he had never even been to the vet, he was so healthy. He had gotten bumblefoot after my last post due to constantly peeing himself and at the time having diarrhea. I actually cleared it up 4 times but it kept coming back, he gets epsom salt soaks daily with antibiotic ointment and petroleum jelly to moisturize his skin. I didn’t even know they could get it if my husbandry was good, in the past I dealt with a pig who had irritation from diarrhea getting in his feet but it cleared and never came back so this was new to me and unfortunately the vet did not want to prescribe anything besides pain medication, every time he’s been they said he was recovering from things at home and just needed better pain management or that there didn’t appear to be an infection, just sores. He has arthritis, tumors (probably cancer) and chronic IC. Please don’t be afraid to tell me if you feel the vets made the wrong call, I felt this every time I’ve gone. I am not sure if I want to go anymore despite family working there cause I feel like they have failed me a lot with him. Maybe it’s me grieving and being sad, I just feel like I should’ve gotten more help for all the money we’ve paid trying to save him. I’d been in and out of the vet for months trying to get answers, I even switched him to someone else recently.
Since his bladder surgery he developed chronic IC, I was going to put him to sleep in January but I decided to try Sherwood urinary supplements and he improved within an hour and bloody pee was gone in a week, genuinely I can’t say if it was a coincidence or not, but I felt they helped in some way as for weeks nothing else worked at all, no special diets or just keeping him on hay alone worked, no pain meds worked, nothing.
A few weeks ago Pumba grew a tumor on his foot unfortunately, though it has since stopped growing. I have found two small ones on his side this week now. They cause no discomfort but vet is sure it’s cancer, we opted not to do any tests because in the end there is nothing to be done regardless, I cannot put him through another surgery even if I wanted to. I just wanted him to be comfortable so I did bring him back to the vet for a kinda quality of life check once again and they were very pleased with his state despite being a bit underweight, so was I. I’ve been paranoid to go back cause every time I go I felt like we came back with pain meds and he got worse, well turns out there was a good reason for that.
Pumba ended up having horrible side effects on meloxicam (.35 ml), I had felt this was the case before but when we recently upped the dose to manage his pain fully he went into GI stasis the next day while I was asleep. I was able to get him to recover, within a day off the meds he felt amazing, he’s now been on tramadol (.4 ml twice a day) (which I believe is an opioid) which initially I thought was working great cause he gained 70 grams in 2-3 days and didn’t cry once or seem uncomfortable, but today he once again stopped eating and his breathing became heavy. His lungs are clear, mind I have a stethoscope next to me but he also was just at the vet, he’s had on and off breathing issues since his surgery which vet told me was stress and probably pain. I don’t know if that’s heart disease but vet said no, his heart sounded fine and previous X-rays showed nothing.
At this point I have been support feeding him since yesterday, yesterday he had been running around and wheeking and suddenly this. I am giving up hope that he is going to recover from the side effects of the meloxicam, in fact the vet told me she doesn’t know exactly what it’s doing but that it’s doing something. Whatever it is it increased his bladder pain by ten fold, he hadn’t cried like that even when he had his stone, unless maybe it’s stomach pain? An ulcer? But I assume crying from popping is from pressure on the bladder. I don’t know if I just need to give him some more time to recover from the GI stasis? It’s so hard cause the vet doesn’t really have answers for me either other than play it by ear.
I feel horrible because he was actually doing wonderful before we put him back on meloxicam, it’s just he had “flare up” days that lasted a few hours that made him uncomfortable, I wanted something to aid with that and his arthritis and pain causing him to pee himself which was making the bumblefoot return. I wish I listened to myself when I noticed the positive changes in him after taking him off the meloxicam for a while, I’d used it for my other pigs and never had an issue, so I thought I was being paranoid.
I feel so guilty because he was recovering slowly I just wanted to make him more comfortable since he was still not 100% and now I dont know what to do. His heavy breathing is a bit better, he’s more willing to take CC, but he is crying so much from pooping still after 12 hours of it starting and his flare ups never lasted this long. He has perked up a little but he is still lethargic and breathing heavy. I don’t know if I can hold out until tomorrow to see if he improves or vet suggested also taking him off tramadol for a day or two. I don’t know, I just really want input from someone who understands. I know only I can decide to put him to sleep, at this point should I just let him go? I don’t know how to decide, it doesn’t help he was so happy yesterday. I feel like my heart is breaking over and over but I can’t keep him here just for me. I’ve tried everything, I’ve tried really hard and I don’t know what else to do.
Going to start by saying Pumba is 7 1/2 years old and had a massive bladder stone that was successfully removed late last year. Before all this he had never even been to the vet, he was so healthy. He had gotten bumblefoot after my last post due to constantly peeing himself and at the time having diarrhea. I actually cleared it up 4 times but it kept coming back, he gets epsom salt soaks daily with antibiotic ointment and petroleum jelly to moisturize his skin. I didn’t even know they could get it if my husbandry was good, in the past I dealt with a pig who had irritation from diarrhea getting in his feet but it cleared and never came back so this was new to me and unfortunately the vet did not want to prescribe anything besides pain medication, every time he’s been they said he was recovering from things at home and just needed better pain management or that there didn’t appear to be an infection, just sores. He has arthritis, tumors (probably cancer) and chronic IC. Please don’t be afraid to tell me if you feel the vets made the wrong call, I felt this every time I’ve gone. I am not sure if I want to go anymore despite family working there cause I feel like they have failed me a lot with him. Maybe it’s me grieving and being sad, I just feel like I should’ve gotten more help for all the money we’ve paid trying to save him. I’d been in and out of the vet for months trying to get answers, I even switched him to someone else recently.
Since his bladder surgery he developed chronic IC, I was going to put him to sleep in January but I decided to try Sherwood urinary supplements and he improved within an hour and bloody pee was gone in a week, genuinely I can’t say if it was a coincidence or not, but I felt they helped in some way as for weeks nothing else worked at all, no special diets or just keeping him on hay alone worked, no pain meds worked, nothing.
A few weeks ago Pumba grew a tumor on his foot unfortunately, though it has since stopped growing. I have found two small ones on his side this week now. They cause no discomfort but vet is sure it’s cancer, we opted not to do any tests because in the end there is nothing to be done regardless, I cannot put him through another surgery even if I wanted to. I just wanted him to be comfortable so I did bring him back to the vet for a kinda quality of life check once again and they were very pleased with his state despite being a bit underweight, so was I. I’ve been paranoid to go back cause every time I go I felt like we came back with pain meds and he got worse, well turns out there was a good reason for that.
Pumba ended up having horrible side effects on meloxicam (.35 ml), I had felt this was the case before but when we recently upped the dose to manage his pain fully he went into GI stasis the next day while I was asleep. I was able to get him to recover, within a day off the meds he felt amazing, he’s now been on tramadol (.4 ml twice a day) (which I believe is an opioid) which initially I thought was working great cause he gained 70 grams in 2-3 days and didn’t cry once or seem uncomfortable, but today he once again stopped eating and his breathing became heavy. His lungs are clear, mind I have a stethoscope next to me but he also was just at the vet, he’s had on and off breathing issues since his surgery which vet told me was stress and probably pain. I don’t know if that’s heart disease but vet said no, his heart sounded fine and previous X-rays showed nothing.
At this point I have been support feeding him since yesterday, yesterday he had been running around and wheeking and suddenly this. I am giving up hope that he is going to recover from the side effects of the meloxicam, in fact the vet told me she doesn’t know exactly what it’s doing but that it’s doing something. Whatever it is it increased his bladder pain by ten fold, he hadn’t cried like that even when he had his stone, unless maybe it’s stomach pain? An ulcer? But I assume crying from popping is from pressure on the bladder. I don’t know if I just need to give him some more time to recover from the GI stasis? It’s so hard cause the vet doesn’t really have answers for me either other than play it by ear.
I feel horrible because he was actually doing wonderful before we put him back on meloxicam, it’s just he had “flare up” days that lasted a few hours that made him uncomfortable, I wanted something to aid with that and his arthritis and pain causing him to pee himself which was making the bumblefoot return. I wish I listened to myself when I noticed the positive changes in him after taking him off the meloxicam for a while, I’d used it for my other pigs and never had an issue, so I thought I was being paranoid.
I feel so guilty because he was recovering slowly I just wanted to make him more comfortable since he was still not 100% and now I dont know what to do. His heavy breathing is a bit better, he’s more willing to take CC, but he is crying so much from pooping still after 12 hours of it starting and his flare ups never lasted this long. He has perked up a little but he is still lethargic and breathing heavy. I don’t know if I can hold out until tomorrow to see if he improves or vet suggested also taking him off tramadol for a day or two. I don’t know, I just really want input from someone who understands. I know only I can decide to put him to sleep, at this point should I just let him go? I don’t know how to decide, it doesn’t help he was so happy yesterday. I feel like my heart is breaking over and over but I can’t keep him here just for me. I’ve tried everything, I’ve tried really hard and I don’t know what else to do.
