Come on Mr Pig!

[PurpleDaisies]

Mr Pig is worrying me a bit today. He had his dental on Thursday and came back very chirpy and eating small amounts but essentially normal. Yesterday evening he just went a bit quiet and stopped eating completely. He was resisting syringe feeding which is unusual and is poo has been softer and smaller than normal. It looked like overnight he hadn't done any at all so I have him some ranitidine and more critical care this morning. He's now done some more soft pops (yay!) and perked up a bit but I'm still quite concerned about him. I'll carry on with the syringe food and if anything changes ring the vet but this is so unusual for him because he's always well (apart from the teeth).

He may need a second bowel motility drug called metoclopromide alongside ranitidine. One of my pigs had this. Also make sure you are giving lots of critical care to keep the poops coming as could get bloat.

Thanks garden. We've been to the vets and seen a general vet who have him a shot of stronger painkillers, advised keeping on syringe feeding and ranitidine. She sad he was a bit bloated but not necessarily to a degree that warranted admission and it was worth giving the ranitidine chance to work. We're going back tomorrow for IV fluids if he doesn't improve.

I've fed him again and he seemed a bit more receptive to it. Hopefully he's in a bit less pain. Poor old Mr Pig.

Oh poor mr pig!

Hopefully the stronger painkillers will work and he'll be back to full fitness soon.

Thanks dietcoke.

We've been syringe feeding him and massaging his abdomen every two hours and finally he's started to poo again. They're still soft and he's not eating at all but he looks much more comfortable. He's lying down properly and not sitting hunched up with his fur puffed out.

The plan is to keep going and see how he is in the morning. If he's worse it's back to the vets for iv fluids, if not it'll be a trip to the exotic specialist we normally see on Monday. It's going to be a night of broken sleep-good thing we like him!

Bless him sounds as if he is making progress though.

Just as well we love these pigs hey. I once hand/syringe fed our ginger for about three days whilst his pain from a sharp tooth was managed (vet operated and filed it down once the painkillers had kicked in and we'd managed to get a bit of weight on him.

At the risk of sounding slightly pathetic, at the time I could barely work out how to get calpol out of the medicine bottle for the DC using the syringe thing, but soon became a syringe expert when I had to feed up a poorly pig

He actually seems to have turned a corner and I've just spotted him finally eating something. I really hope so-he's such a lovely little thing. It's impossible to have a piggy and not love them.

I know exactly what you mean about managing all the syringes and medicines!

That's great news! Hopefully onwards and upwards for Mr Pig now.

Come on Mr Pig, you can do this, get well soon. Spring is just around the corner

He's looking a lot better now. His weight is down a bit (which is actually a good thing given there was so much gas), his poo is smaller but normal consistency and he's started eating pretty normally. We're going to carry on the syringe feeding and decide whether to take him to the vet in the morning. At the moment I think he'll probably be fine to just have some tlc at home.

Oh Mr Pig! Hope he's feeling better and perked up. They're worse than children with their ups and downs. They really like to worry us. Sometimes I think they do it on purpose just to keep us busy - "oh the pig slave is so bored she's doing cooking and washing, a trip to the vets would occupy her and she'd love to syringe feed us".

The Fernie gang are keeping paws crossed for Mr Pig.