How much does he weigh? If he is <1kg, I am concerned this is a high dose and may be contributing to his developing lethargy. I do not think however he is having an adverse reaction like my Carson as that presents differently.
Most doses prescribed are <0.1ml - such as Sport billy at 0.03, and my own pig Tia (0.06ml) and Poppy's mum with the normal 0.05ml. With Carson we upped his dose to 0.1ml from 0.06 because we thought he was poorly due to inadequate pain relief - in fact we were making the situation worse because he was having an adverse reaction (as opposed to a side effect - where as we know, a high dose can and will make a piggie a bit lethargic)
For info: here is what happened with Carson this last week. The suddeness of his response (and his recovery following withdrawal of the drug) is what classifies this as an adverse reaction rather than just a "side effect"
Last saturday evening I discovered his dental abcess had come back and pus could be expressed. Sunday morning I spoke to the vet and he received 0./06ml of buprecare (plus abx, gut motility etc) with a view to getting him up to see Simon. At that point he was taking his meds/syringe food well and still eating some for himself. By sunday evening he was less lively and so we upped the buprecare to 0.1ml. By monday morning when he was given his third dose, he was completely flat - front and back legs splayed out and he wouldn;t support his own weight. He wasn;t eating or drinking anything and wouldn't swallow anything from a syringe. Throughout the day he was unmoving except to blink his eyes and occasionally shuffle for a more comfortable position. He had an appointment with Simon for tuesday morning and the plan was to take him up to TEAS monday evening but by monday I was considering PTS thinking it was the abcess. but something abut his behaviour didn't sit right with me in that he wasn't behaving as though he was stressed/in pain/dying....he was just "vacant"
In fact if I hadn't had an all day job interview then he would have been taken in monday morning to go to The Bridge. Luckily during monday I remembered he had responded like this previously when he had his abcess,but went on to make a full recovery and linked it to a one-off dose of buprecare given at the vets. So monday evening he didn;t get his dose of buprecare and went to my vets for subcut fluids prior to being given permission to travel. He wet up to Nton and Debbie fed him a little and often through the night. He was seen by Simon the following morning and things still looked pretty grim (although his mouth was fine and there was no sign of any further pus). By the evening Debbie reported he was becoming more responsive to syringe feeding and the following day (wednesday) when Simon saw him again he couldn;t believe it was the same pig! By thursday when I saw him he was his old self, supporting his weight, head up and eating for himself.
I think it is worth having a chat with your vet about the possible side effects of such a high dose of buprecare given how he is currently responding and also what happened to
@Poppy'sMum with her Petal once her dose was upped to 0.2m which was clearly too much. I also would suggest not continuing with such a high dose 3x daily until the matter is resolved with your vets and you either have a lower dosage regime or an alternative analgesic.
Metacam (which is the most common pain relief but is an non-steroidal anti-inflammatory as opposed to an opiate like buprecare) may not be effective with deep seated pain but has less side effects so I'm assuming your vet is either also prescribing it or has ruled it out? As an alternative opiate - my vet uses tramadol which, unlike buprecare, hasn't affected any of my pigs. They in any case normally get cisapride and zantac to keep their guts moving because they are poorly and not eating their full complement of food.
HTH
x
this is what it looks like...
