• 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

If Baytril and Sudafed have no effect...

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

threelittlepiggies

Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Messages
180
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Thistleton, Lancs
would it be safe to the consider heart failure in a three year old sow who has seen the vet twice and is now no better respiratorially, losing weight slowly, but still eating and drinking fairly well? She pounces on her greens and tucks in without difficulty but doesn't eat for prolonged periods.

She is slowly shrinking - no abnormal lumps have been detected, dentally she has been passed as fine and her heart sounds are normal. Her chest is apparently clear but she is making mild respiratory effort and occasional breathing noise. No runny eyes or nose, no crustness or dribbling - makes that raspy/graty choke/cough sound occasionally.

On shredded paper, having been off sawdust/straw shred for a week and two cagemates both perfectly well.
Vet offered x-ray. Is there a case for Lasix here?

We are syringing pellet slurry down her now and the pig seems bright but quiet. If that's not too contradictory!

And how do you approach a vet in these instances? Heart failure has not been mentioned - nor was allergic rhinitis. Her temp is 37 deg.
 
The fact that the vet has "examined the teeth and found nothing wrong" means little or nothing, I regret to say.

Can you please give more details of how the vet looked at the teeth, did she give the pig a general anaesthetic?
In my experience a pig that has heart problems quickly becomes very poorly and does not want to eat.
I would still suspect dental problems, from your description of her problems.
 
Last edited:
I would also like to share with you that one of my pigs sometimes has noisy breathing and he has been checked out by a very good cavy vet and he said he was healthy and that it could have been because he had URI when he was younger and it may have damaged his nasal passages or that he just has small nasal passages and thats why he has occasionally noisy breathing, but he isnt losing any weight like your pig.

I thought i would share that with you, but of course if only now she/he has the noisy breathing I'm not sure its the same for your pig? As my pig has had noisy breathing on and off since i had him from the rescue centre. But he is much better now that he is on fleece and not megazorb, so maybe he suffered from a mild allergy as well.
 
AP, the vet looked in with a thing a bit like an otoscope, and the piggy was not anaesthetised. She is quite bright and eating well, but is showing respiratory effort (flanks moving visibly) which I feel may be responsible for the weight loss.
Unless there are some conicidental symptoms running together and a more sinister underlying cause we haven't actually hit on causing the weight change.
 
An otoscope is a useful piece of equipment but it is not the be all and end all when checking teeth, there are some areas which cannot be seen, where there may be a problem. At least she didn't give him a general anaesthetic!
 
An otoscope is a useful piece of equipment but it is not the be all and end all when checking teeth, there are some areas which cannot be seen, where there may be a problem. At least she didn't give him a general anaesthetic!
 
AP, I felt she was thorough and is an experienced vet. Piggy wolfed down cut grass and baby dandelions, diving in with relish and enthusiasm on both occasions (so far) today. However, it is while she is eating she is making snuffling noises, and nothing too audible at rest. I feel a bit sneaky administering the Sudafed and it appears to have some effect.

I have changed the bedding again to fleece in an attempt to reduce allergic irritants, and they live indoors, out of a draught and get vitamin C via tablets every other day.

Any further suggestions would be welcome mallethead
 
I had something similar with my Zippy pig - he's indoors, but developed what seemed to be a URI - I was concerned it might be his heart, with similar symptoms.

He is now on fleece, which has helped, as I think he was allergic to the bedding, even Readigrass sets him off sometimes. I did the baytril up the nostrils thing to get him to snort out anything in case he had a bit of hay stuck up his nose... he was also on baytril as the vet thought it was a URI.

He is still not right - months later - but has a good quality of life, eats and drinks ok. Like yours, he is indoors, no draughts... very odd.

Sorry if that's not much help, but does sound similar. Is she happy in herself?

Sophie
x
 
Yes, Sophie, very helpful thank you. It makes me feel like I'm not going mad. Maybe, as others have also posted about similar, chronic snuffling with no apparent cause and no effective treatment, there is nothing much else to be done.

She's perky, though does sit quietly at times. It's the weight loss that is worrying me.

Having been to the vets and come away a little disappointed that they seem to think there isn't a lot to be done/wrong with her, and doing all the usual TLC things, coming on here to see if anyone else has an anecdotal case similar is the last thing open to me - other than carry on carrying on!
 
In a few weeks time there will be a lot of pigs "diagnosed" with URI........
 
J&G
Absolutely correct!
I think there will be, as ever, pigs who do not respond to Baytril for a "URI"
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top