Poorly GP

[Mendeleyev]

Any ideas? Started with head tilt and going round in circles last Tuesday. Took him to the vets who said it could be parasites in inner ear and prescribed metacam and some panacur. He seemed worse Wednesday morning, a bit snuffly, so took him straight back and got him antibiotics. He has been taking all the medicine as prescribed. But he is losing weight. He was about 450 g last week but is now at 380 g. Have seen him eating veg but refusing to eat veg tonight. He is booked into the vet tomorrow morning but I just wondered if anyone had any ideas? I was thinking about keeping him separate from the other pig tonight to be able to look at what he has eaten/poo but I don’t know if taking him away from his friend is a good idea? GPs are about 4 months. TIA

[Bananarama12]

I would worry if GP stops eating. They go downhill so fast the little ones. Sorry

[Mendeleyev]

Yes that’s what I am worried about. That said he is currently sitting on DD2’s knee being hand fed defrosted sweetcorn kernels. So he is at least getting something down tonight.

[FernieB]

Keep him with his friend if possible just so everything is familiar for them both. Head tilt is usually a sign of something ear related. It would be good to get some food into him if possible. In the past I've mashed up some of their nuggets in warm water and fed them that via syringe or on the end of a spoon. Try anything he likes to tempt him and keep up with the meds. It can take a little time before they take effect.

One of my original boys was put in a rescue by his original owners because he had a head tilt caused by an ear infection. I adopted him and his friend and he was absolutely fine - they can recover from this.

[Mendeleyev]

I have tried mashing some nuggets with warm water. Got it really runny to start with and he was very keen. Then fed him mushy lumps from a tea spoon. Fingers crossed!

[Mendeleyev]

In case anybody finds and reads this. He seems to have turned a corner. He is eating a variety of foods now and is pooing! He is also much more lively. Definitely not all over yet as he is so underweight but he has stopped losing and us starting to gain 😃

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Jusy seen this-
Poor lad but it sounds like the Vet treatment has pulled him round the right corner

I'd think "teeth" as a contributary factor too, something to bear in mind if he continues to lose weight or have any more trouble eating.


One of my pigs (GP8) was out of sorts a couple of weeks ago, the sunken eyes (her eyes are usually like big glassy black marbles) sitting in the corner . I was loathe to shift her , she does better with her cagemate and I didn't want to move the two sows and leave the boar....I honestly thought I'd go out to find her AcrossThe Bridge.
But she was back to normal!
Eating, scuttling about , bright eyed.

They are little complex beasts and you will have that "gulp" experience a million times over.

Keep up with the eating MendlePig

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Did your vet check his teeth when he went ? Back teeth aren't easy to see.Sometimes they need to sedate them to use a retractor especially if they need filed.
our vet uses a long light probe type instrument to look down (pigs hate it and fight it but it needs done)

[Mendeleyev]

No he didn’t really look in his mouth as GP was quite distressed. DH took him this week to get the food issues started. The vet does have elderly GPS himself and so seemed quite confident dealing with him. He did say on Tuesday that he hadn’t expected him to survive.

[millimat]

Glad he's recovered. We had that with gp2 but it affected his inner ear and balance and we lost him