I'm writing about our 4.5 year old sow, Flequita. I've learned so much from this forum and am doing my best to apply all I've read here. I'd welcome any thoughts about her current situation. She's taking antibiotics for a bad case of pneumonia and rejecting almost all food and water despite showing some interest in wanting to eat. Before listing out the whole story, here are my questions:
1. What are the main signs we should be looking for that she is suffering and that it might not make sense to continue with the current course (syringe feeding multiple times per day)? We absolutely love Flequita, and a priority for us is making sure that we're doing what's best for her, not for us.
2. At what point is it reasonable to expect her appetite to come back? Only after she finishes the course of antibiotics?
3. Is there anything we may be missing in the workup of her issues? Or does this sound like a pretty standard course of events given pneumonia/antibiotics/bloat/dehydration?
Thank you in advance for any comments. Details are below.
____
Jan 31, 2025 - light whistling sound and some hooting when breathing, diagnosed with small pneumonia via x-ray, no other symptoms, vet said it could be from having aspirated food (she has always had some stuggles with choking sounds when eating too fast). Prescribed doxycycline for 2 weeks, breathing problems resolved, back to normal. She was also found to have a 4mm bladder stone adhering to wall, vet prescribed a natural product (Lepidium latifolium L, P. aérea, .2ml 2x per day) and continued monitoring.
Mar 5 - hooting and whistling sounds return, especially in the morning. X-rays show nothing in lungs, ultrasound didn't show much, no other symptoms of URI. Vets best guess was a.) residual damage from past pneumonia, b.) narrowing of trachea, perhaps from mediastinal fat desposits (I guess seen on echo). Prescribed an inhaler with salbutamol to use as needed to help open airways (administered into a closed box while she's in there with some veg).
For the next few months, her breathing was generally good. There would be some occasional whistling or hooting first thing in the morning that would go away within an hour or so. If that happend more than a day or two in a row, we would give the salbutamol, and it seemed to get better.
May 31 - general checkup, vet said her lungs sound "perfect," no other health issues.
June 3 - notice some hooting in the morning. Administer the inhaler. Hooting seems to get a bit worse the next day, then better the following day, then noticeably worse with more obviously labored breathing.
June 9 - return to vet, chest x-ray and ultrasound show significant pneumonia taking up the majority of her left lung. [FWIW, vet says that at least on x-ray, it appears her bladder stone from before is gone.] Vet recommends hospitalization to stabilze her condition. She spends 5 nights at the vet - we were able to visit for about 2 hours each evening. She seemed very weak, some appetite, mostly for escarole and some hay (especially the flower tops, always her favorite, and some pellets and oxbow vitamin c supplements we brought from home). Vets administered antibiotics, some type of nebulizer treatment, not sure exactly what else. They said she had quite a bit of bloat and administered some drugs for that, which they stopped the last two days and said they saw no regression.
June 14 - returns home with prescriptions for doxycycline, another antibiotic (name not given, I think perhaps b/c local regulations that dramatically restrict what the vet is legally "supposed" to prescribe (only doxy as first line therapy). Also given metamizole, metoclopramide, terbutaline, fluticasone (inhaler), salbutamol (inhaler). Seems to pick up energy at first upong getting home, excited for food, drinking water, eating hay and veggies - more lethargic than usual, but trending toward standard routines.
June 15 - much more sluggish, shows interest in the idea of food, but turns her head away from just about everything. When she tries to eat something, it seems to fall from her mouth (which seems to frustrate her, so she stops trying). We had seen a bit of that during our visits to vet. We start her on critical care late that afternoon.
June 16 - seems even more sluggish and less interested in food/water. We return to vet, thinking she may have a dental or mouth issue making it hard for her to eat. Under sedation, they look at her mouth and teeth and say everything is normal. Blood tests show basically everything normal except slightly elevated liver levels. Tests don't detect any elevated white blood cell counts/infection. Lungs show continued improvement on stethoscope. Vets recommend hospitalization again, but we know how stressful that was for her and decide to take care of her at home. Vets recommend continuing with critical care.
June 17/18 - Things have basically stayed the same. Her weight is at 1130g, which is basically her standard weight. She will occasionally eat just a little bit, but then she stops. She'll go and sniff her hay, have two or three little bites, and then stop. She'll eat a few leafs of green veg and then stop. After that, if you present anything to her, she sniffs and turns away. Low energy compared to normal but has more energy in resisting syringe feeding. Poops are generally small, although trending a bit better (earlier they were super small, dry, and misshapen).
We are going to an exotic vet, and they seem committed and caring. However, they don't always want to get into long explanations (I'm also dealing with a bit of a language barrier). It is very hot here, and we have had to bring her to a family member's house b/c our air conditioning stopped functioning (and even with A/C, it was hard keeping the apartment temp below around 80 degrees F/28 C). I think she may have been very dehydrated, including at the vet, because some of her urine was a dark yellow or even light orange color that I had never seen before. Now that we're giving more consistent critical care, we haven't seen more urine of that color.
1. What are the main signs we should be looking for that she is suffering and that it might not make sense to continue with the current course (syringe feeding multiple times per day)? We absolutely love Flequita, and a priority for us is making sure that we're doing what's best for her, not for us.
2. At what point is it reasonable to expect her appetite to come back? Only after she finishes the course of antibiotics?
3. Is there anything we may be missing in the workup of her issues? Or does this sound like a pretty standard course of events given pneumonia/antibiotics/bloat/dehydration?
Thank you in advance for any comments. Details are below.
____
Jan 31, 2025 - light whistling sound and some hooting when breathing, diagnosed with small pneumonia via x-ray, no other symptoms, vet said it could be from having aspirated food (she has always had some stuggles with choking sounds when eating too fast). Prescribed doxycycline for 2 weeks, breathing problems resolved, back to normal. She was also found to have a 4mm bladder stone adhering to wall, vet prescribed a natural product (Lepidium latifolium L, P. aérea, .2ml 2x per day) and continued monitoring.
Mar 5 - hooting and whistling sounds return, especially in the morning. X-rays show nothing in lungs, ultrasound didn't show much, no other symptoms of URI. Vets best guess was a.) residual damage from past pneumonia, b.) narrowing of trachea, perhaps from mediastinal fat desposits (I guess seen on echo). Prescribed an inhaler with salbutamol to use as needed to help open airways (administered into a closed box while she's in there with some veg).
For the next few months, her breathing was generally good. There would be some occasional whistling or hooting first thing in the morning that would go away within an hour or so. If that happend more than a day or two in a row, we would give the salbutamol, and it seemed to get better.
May 31 - general checkup, vet said her lungs sound "perfect," no other health issues.
June 3 - notice some hooting in the morning. Administer the inhaler. Hooting seems to get a bit worse the next day, then better the following day, then noticeably worse with more obviously labored breathing.
June 9 - return to vet, chest x-ray and ultrasound show significant pneumonia taking up the majority of her left lung. [FWIW, vet says that at least on x-ray, it appears her bladder stone from before is gone.] Vet recommends hospitalization to stabilze her condition. She spends 5 nights at the vet - we were able to visit for about 2 hours each evening. She seemed very weak, some appetite, mostly for escarole and some hay (especially the flower tops, always her favorite, and some pellets and oxbow vitamin c supplements we brought from home). Vets administered antibiotics, some type of nebulizer treatment, not sure exactly what else. They said she had quite a bit of bloat and administered some drugs for that, which they stopped the last two days and said they saw no regression.
June 14 - returns home with prescriptions for doxycycline, another antibiotic (name not given, I think perhaps b/c local regulations that dramatically restrict what the vet is legally "supposed" to prescribe (only doxy as first line therapy). Also given metamizole, metoclopramide, terbutaline, fluticasone (inhaler), salbutamol (inhaler). Seems to pick up energy at first upong getting home, excited for food, drinking water, eating hay and veggies - more lethargic than usual, but trending toward standard routines.
June 15 - much more sluggish, shows interest in the idea of food, but turns her head away from just about everything. When she tries to eat something, it seems to fall from her mouth (which seems to frustrate her, so she stops trying). We had seen a bit of that during our visits to vet. We start her on critical care late that afternoon.
June 16 - seems even more sluggish and less interested in food/water. We return to vet, thinking she may have a dental or mouth issue making it hard for her to eat. Under sedation, they look at her mouth and teeth and say everything is normal. Blood tests show basically everything normal except slightly elevated liver levels. Tests don't detect any elevated white blood cell counts/infection. Lungs show continued improvement on stethoscope. Vets recommend hospitalization again, but we know how stressful that was for her and decide to take care of her at home. Vets recommend continuing with critical care.
June 17/18 - Things have basically stayed the same. Her weight is at 1130g, which is basically her standard weight. She will occasionally eat just a little bit, but then she stops. She'll go and sniff her hay, have two or three little bites, and then stop. She'll eat a few leafs of green veg and then stop. After that, if you present anything to her, she sniffs and turns away. Low energy compared to normal but has more energy in resisting syringe feeding. Poops are generally small, although trending a bit better (earlier they were super small, dry, and misshapen).
We are going to an exotic vet, and they seem committed and caring. However, they don't always want to get into long explanations (I'm also dealing with a bit of a language barrier). It is very hot here, and we have had to bring her to a family member's house b/c our air conditioning stopped functioning (and even with A/C, it was hard keeping the apartment temp below around 80 degrees F/28 C). I think she may have been very dehydrated, including at the vet, because some of her urine was a dark yellow or even light orange color that I had never seen before. Now that we're giving more consistent critical care, we haven't seen more urine of that color.
