Calling all pigs on HEART MEDS...

[ellie_jo3213]

hello!

Have a pig with dental problems which has been treated every few months by my vets. Around a week ago I noticed a swelling on her jaw so took her to exotic specialist to get her teeth done and have a look at the swelling. Teeth are now fixed but shes been diagnosed with a heart murmur. Shes going to have investigations into the jaw swelling and radiographs to assess the heart enlargement with a view to being put on meds - most probably Pimobenden.

Just wondered if anyone else is on heart meds?
Are they tablets - if so how do you give them?!?
What were your pigs clinical signs of heart failure?

Thank you
Ellie
xx

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

I had a heart piggie who was prescribed Fortekor (1/4 tablet daily).

Skye had a very irregular heartbeat and a heart murmur. She had become very lethartic and tended to just sleep all the time. Within a day of starting the medication she improved greatly. I truly believe that Fortekor extended her life by about 18 months. She was about 3 1/2 when she began to show the symptoms and lived until she was just over 5.

I would just poke the 1/4 tablet into Skye's mouth and she would crunch it up and swallow it.

 

[Abi_nurse]

Ive never had (touch wood) a piggie with a heart problem but i can give you a little bit of info just not personal experience I'm afraid.

Pimobendan is a tablet and is a drug trade name called Vetmedin, usually used for dogs with heart problems (cogestive heart failure, valve diseases or DCM - where the heart muscle is weak and does not pump adequatly) and if I'm right in saying helps to give the heart a bit more oomph with each beat.
Fortekor is a drug called an ACE inhibitor, its a complicated drug, but helps to lessen the load on an already weaker heart. Both are good drugs but your vet will know much better on which would be best to precribe.

Ive never actually given a tablet to a piggie. But like said above, i know that you pop them into the side of there mouth and they usually quite happily crunch it down. (much easier than the cat lol)

The clinical signs all depends on exactly what side of the heart is effected, its a complicated process. General signs are: lethargy, unwilling to exercise/move around, blue tinging to the lips/tongue, in some cases respiratory distress, in some cases swelling of the abdomen due to excessive fluid buildng up. But i think in a piggie you should see some changes, even if not all of these.

I hope this helps a little bit, even if i havent had a heart piggie before.
Good luck with it all.

x

 

[Char-x]

hello!

Have a pig with dental problems which has been treated every few months by my vets. Around a week ago I noticed a swelling on her jaw so took her to exotic specialist to get her teeth done and have a look at the swelling. Teeth are now fixed but shes been diagnosed with a heart murmur. Shes going to have investigations into the jaw swelling and radiographs to assess the heart enlargement with a view to being put on meds - most probably Pimobenden.

Just wondered if anyone else is on heart meds?
Are they tablets - if so how do you give them?!?
What were your pigs clinical signs of heart failure?

Thank you
Ellie
xx

As Abi_Nurse said, Pimobenden is Vetmedin (better known as this in the piggy world). Usually though from my experiance (and I don't and won't talk for any other animal other than piggies) Fortekor is the choosen med of choice, and when this needs a boost then Vetmedin can be added in for this. Vetmedin isn't usually the core med used - if that makes sense?

Frusol (Furosemide/Lasix) is usually also given to the owner if fluid is an issue, and this can be increased and decreased dependant on the pigs fluid at the time. For example Gypsey would hoot when her fluid was up and so her doseage was increased. It is best to keep it as low as possible, but obviously where it is needed then increase slowely until symptoms surpass (usually within 1-2 hours of giving it). Gypsey was usually on 0.25ml x2 daily, which when she would take a turn for the worse I would gradually increase and keep on for three days when she steadied.

0.7ml x3 daily, for three days is the maximum safe dose we found. This is much higher than is recommended on both Lynx and other vets, but this was what was worked out with a heart specialist. This was only used when she was in a bad way. It is quite a flexible medication in the sense that if you give 0.3ml and the symptoms do not ease at all, then few hours later they can safely have another 0.2/0.3ml etc.

Fortekor the maximum dose was 5mg in tablets a day. Again best to start as low as possible.

Heart pig symptoms vary in every single pig, so what one persons experiance may be, will not necessarily help at all. Gypsey's signs were slightly red/swollen back footpad, heavy sleeper and the biggest and most alarming sign was her hooting during the early hours.

Is your piggy indoors? I think this is quite important for heart pigs, I know if Gypsey had been an outdoor pig she would be dead within weeks because they need monitoring to know when to adjust meds etc. You need to be on the ball in the change in them.

 

[Pebble]

Muffin was a heart pig with fluid in the abdomen and swollen front paws. She also had respiratory problems and heavy breathing (but no hooting). Her sister had died suddenly the previous year from what looked like a heart attack (and she too had grown to be a big squidgy lady).

There were no obvious sounds when listening to Muffin's heart and it took an Xray of the heart/lungs and the article from guinea lynx to introduce my vet to his first heart pig.

She was prescribed fortekor (1mg/kg) and frusemide (2mg/kg) twice daily (but sometimes the frusemide could be increased to anything up to 10mg/kg for a few days if her breathing started to labour. As said above you do need to monitor closely and adjust the meds in consultation with the vet)

In terms of giving the meds, I find having to break up tablets etc a rather inaccurate method and you can;t guarantee the pig will eat them so I grind all my tablets in a pestle and mortar, add the right volume of water and dose accordingly with a syringe. The solution is kept in the fridge for a max of three days before making up a new batch.

So in Muffin's case: I used to grind one 20mg fruseamide tablet together with four 2.5mg fortekor tablets and add to 5ml of water. This gave me a 4mg/ml and 2mg/ml suspension respectively and I then gave (pig weight in kilos/2) ml. i.e. for a 1.4kg piggie, she got 0.7ml which effectively gave her the 2mg/kg frusemide and 1mg/kg fortekor dosages required.


HTH
x

 

[ellie_jo3213]

hello, haven't been on here for a while and only just read your posts! sorry for not getting back sooner!

A week after the heart murmur diagnosis my mam took her to the vets for possible radiographs for mandibular swelling and heart enlargement, and when the vet examined her there was no heart murmur! silly piggy. Thinking it might have been a stress induced murmur like cats get. It wasn't very audible at the time so probably would have been grade 1 or 2/5.

Anyway possible treatments were discussed with my mam, but she didn't really understand any of it when I asked her about it!

I'm at the vets for more placements at Christmas so will find out everything then.

In the meantime, Pig is doing really well! she's not getting any nuggets now as she tended to starve her self all day until she got her rations of nuggets, she didn't eat veg or hay, and had to have a few dentals a month apart.
Its been 2 months and she's eating hay and veg with no teeth problems evident.

Going back home in 3 weeks so will be able to check her over and listen for any heart murmurs. Trouble is their hearts beat so fast its really hard to hear a murmur!