• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

How Can I Get My Pig To Drink?!

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hamishsmum

Hamishsmum

New Born Pup
Joined
Feb 21, 2013
Messages
11
Reaction score
4
Points
0
Hi All, Hamish had another bladder stone removed on Monday, reading the section in the CCT book on bladder problems Vedra says pigs must be drinking a minimum of 40ml a day to maintain bladder health. I have told Hamish this, but as he's never used his bottle (apart from occasionally for a few months this year- possibly due to all his health issues!), we're not really getting anywhere! I have taken his bottle to him, and sometimes he will have a sup, but nowhere near enough to help.
Can anyone suggest anything that may encourage him to drink more please?
Thanks!
 
Many bladder piggies are not good drinkers in the first place! What you can do, is feed more juicy veg like scissor cut grass, leafy stuff (but not high calcium spinach or cabbage/kale), cucumber and celery in his diet instead and serve it freshly rinsed.
 
I'm having a drinking problem with Mr. Bailee as well since he has been on CIPRO every 12 hours .2ml. Although I have been sprinkling 1/2 teaspoon Priobiotic with Lactobacillus Acidophilus on his mixed veggie bowl which consists of diced yellow & orange bell peppers & endives & italian parsely & diced red delicious apple. Do you recommend syringe feeding him water?
 
First of all lots of healing vibes to Hamish.

We got Treacle our bladder piggie to drink more by adding syringing her extra water with some avipro plus pro-biotic in it http://www.vetark.co.uk/pages/Avipro-Plus_4.aspx it flavoured the water and she couldn't get enough of the syringe lol
 
I think syringe feeding water is needed, a member on another forum I am on has a pig with bladder problems and she is syringe fed at least 40ml a day.

The Avipro is a good idea Lee, ours love it too.
 
Although our gang all drink from the bottle, its usually only a quarter to a third of a large drinking bottle a day between 4 good sized piggies. What they do get daily though is celery (about 2 stalks between them chopped), romaine lettuce (a large leaf each) and plenty of cucumber, usually at least one a day between them. This with the hay gives plenty of fluids (as per vet). The wee's certainly suggest this.
 
Hamishsmum said:
Hi All, Hamish had another bladder stone removed on Monday, reading the section in the CCT book on bladder problems Vedra says pigs must be drinking a minimum of 40ml a day to maintain bladder health. I have told Hamish this, but as he's never used his bottle (apart from occasionally for a few months this year- possibly due to all his health issues!), we're not really getting anywhere! I have taken his bottle to him, and sometimes he will have a sup, but nowhere near enough to help.
Can anyone suggest anything that may encourage him to drink more please?


Thanks!
Click to expand...

I don't think Titch drinks very much either and is at the vet first thing as she is squeaking while weeing again. I thought it had cleared up. Ruby stands for quite sometime sipping water whilst gazing around in a world of her own, and funnily enough she has had the same diet, filtered water as Titch but fingers crossed no problems with Ruby.

I had wondered about giving Titch extra water I said to a friend about it but she warned me about flooding their lungs. Is this true? As it did stop me doing it.

I've been giving Titch a certain amount of watery veg as well to try to help.
 
Syringing concerns me too, especially with it being so soon after his op. Hamish has lots of cucumber so I'll keep on with that and try the flavouring of his water. It's a shame they don't do metacam flavouring as Hamish absolutely loves it (metacam junkie!). Best of luck for Titch, fingers crossed!
 
Thanks for that, it sounds promising so I'll look into it!
 
hi, sorry to hear about Hamish. My boy Oscar has a bladder stone at the moment and is booked in for surgery soon. Neither of my pigs have ever drunk water except i think two times UNTIL i put some Avipro in the bottle now Oscar thankfully drinks it until its coming out of his ears! I only had the Avipro in the bottle a short time before anyone tells me it shouldnt be there, its now just water, but i think it attracted him to the bottle. Hope Hamish recovers well x
 
Sport Billy, I CANNOT thank you enough for the Avipro suggestion! I got some which was delivered on Tuesday, and Hamish seems to love it! His drinking has really improved and I'd recommend anyone else to at least try it! Bladder wise he's healing well, but the after effects of 3 operations this year has left him with arthritis in his spine, so he's a bit wobbly on his back legs. We're working on it with him, though- and the drinking can only be helping, so THANK YOU once again! :))
sport_billy said:
First of all lots of healing vibes to Hamish.

We got Treacle our bladder piggie to drink more by adding syringing her extra water with some avipro plus pro-biotic in it http://www.vetark.co.uk/pages/Avipro-Plus_4.aspx it flavoured the water and she couldn't get enough of the syringe lol
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top