Pig Daddy
New Born Pup
Hi everyone. I have a 4-year-old boar called Jack, who lives with a pair of sows (he's neutered). Everything's been fine with them until around mid March, when we noticed that the weekly weighings were showing Jack's weight falling a bit. We took him to the vet once the net loss from stable peak weight (~1175g) reached about 50g. This vet seemed fairly unconcerned at that, checked his teeth, breathing etc. and said he couldn't see anything wrong. He suggested trying different nuggets, hay brands etc which we did, and gave the number of a more specialist vets a little further out from where we live, to call if we still had concerns.
So a few weeks pass by, with the hay & nugget variety tried (they now have 4 nugget types to chose from), and Jack was still gradually losing weight. We contacted the specialist vet as suggested, who took a blood sample to send away, plus did an X-ray because they'd thought they felt something a little out of the ordinary when they palpitated his abdomen. Ultimately the X-ray revealed nothing, but the blood tests revealed somewhat depressed protein levels, plus something (exactly what I can't recall) that indicated inflammation was present somewhere in his body. These vets certainly seemed equipped & experienced to diagnose by my inexpert estimation.
After the vet had spoken to a colleague, we had Jack back there for a scan, which revealed that the walls of the blood vessels in his liver were thickened, but with cause unknown. She prescribed Milkthistle as (I gather) a protective rather than curative treatment, with a promise she'd investigate the condition and get back to us. This was about 2 weeks ago, at which point Jack was down to 1030g.
During that time the Milkthistle & special attention with a wide variety of different food seemed to be working; the weight loss was definitely halted and he'd even put a modest amount back on to 1060g. However last night we took him out for Milkthistle & a weigh, and he'd lost 30g in the 24h since last weigh. We also noticed that one of his nostrils had a light-yellow discharge with snuffling noise. Whisked him off to the emergency vet and ended up with a (£125) shot of Baytril, and to attend our normal vet in the morning. No suggestion of difficulty breathing or congestion in lungs. We were also advised to separate Jack from the girls for a week, which we have.
This morning we noticed that he was sneezing and some fairly opaque 'snot' was being discharged - and from right nostril only again. We took him to the local vet straight away, and he's now on 0.8ml Baytril 2.5% 1/day for 10 days + 0.13ml Metacam 1/day for 10 days. This vet seemed surprised that it was just in the one nostril and suggested that it could be something he'd sniffed up that was irritating him, rather than a URI, but prescribed the aforementioned anyway. Again, No suggestion of difficulty breathing or congestion in lungs. Mentioned possibility of flushing nose if ABs didn't do anything.
As of this evening Jack is at just over 1000g. But I've only heard him sneeze once since the vets, and there's only a very slight dampness of the nostril rather than a definite discharge as there was before. We're attempting hand feeding seriously now (had not done it aggressively to now as he seemed to be slowly gaining again) but I'm now getting very worried. He will take so much Critical Care fairly willingly, but then really kick up a fuss once he's had his fill, which is hard given our inexperience with hand feeding (I've watched the vid linked from this site, but still a bit clumsy). Will try little & often.
It's worth noting that at no point throughout had Jack shown any signs of illness obviously associated with the weight loss - he was outwardly normal or perhaps a little subdued at times, but not markedly so. However he has periodically displayed the following over the last year or so, but beginning a long time before any signs of weight loss began so I'm hesitant to definitively link any of it, and had until now pretty much dismissed them.
I believe the 'URI' treatment to be all in hand given the signs he is presenting & what's been prescribed, but again any advice about this aspect is very welcome.
From left: Jack, Sophie, Jess
Many thanks
Ed
So a few weeks pass by, with the hay & nugget variety tried (they now have 4 nugget types to chose from), and Jack was still gradually losing weight. We contacted the specialist vet as suggested, who took a blood sample to send away, plus did an X-ray because they'd thought they felt something a little out of the ordinary when they palpitated his abdomen. Ultimately the X-ray revealed nothing, but the blood tests revealed somewhat depressed protein levels, plus something (exactly what I can't recall) that indicated inflammation was present somewhere in his body. These vets certainly seemed equipped & experienced to diagnose by my inexpert estimation.
After the vet had spoken to a colleague, we had Jack back there for a scan, which revealed that the walls of the blood vessels in his liver were thickened, but with cause unknown. She prescribed Milkthistle as (I gather) a protective rather than curative treatment, with a promise she'd investigate the condition and get back to us. This was about 2 weeks ago, at which point Jack was down to 1030g.
During that time the Milkthistle & special attention with a wide variety of different food seemed to be working; the weight loss was definitely halted and he'd even put a modest amount back on to 1060g. However last night we took him out for Milkthistle & a weigh, and he'd lost 30g in the 24h since last weigh. We also noticed that one of his nostrils had a light-yellow discharge with snuffling noise. Whisked him off to the emergency vet and ended up with a (£125) shot of Baytril, and to attend our normal vet in the morning. No suggestion of difficulty breathing or congestion in lungs. We were also advised to separate Jack from the girls for a week, which we have.
This morning we noticed that he was sneezing and some fairly opaque 'snot' was being discharged - and from right nostril only again. We took him to the local vet straight away, and he's now on 0.8ml Baytril 2.5% 1/day for 10 days + 0.13ml Metacam 1/day for 10 days. This vet seemed surprised that it was just in the one nostril and suggested that it could be something he'd sniffed up that was irritating him, rather than a URI, but prescribed the aforementioned anyway. Again, No suggestion of difficulty breathing or congestion in lungs. Mentioned possibility of flushing nose if ABs didn't do anything.
As of this evening Jack is at just over 1000g. But I've only heard him sneeze once since the vets, and there's only a very slight dampness of the nostril rather than a definite discharge as there was before. We're attempting hand feeding seriously now (had not done it aggressively to now as he seemed to be slowly gaining again) but I'm now getting very worried. He will take so much Critical Care fairly willingly, but then really kick up a fuss once he's had his fill, which is hard given our inexperience with hand feeding (I've watched the vid linked from this site, but still a bit clumsy). Will try little & often.
It's worth noting that at no point throughout had Jack shown any signs of illness obviously associated with the weight loss - he was outwardly normal or perhaps a little subdued at times, but not markedly so. However he has periodically displayed the following over the last year or so, but beginning a long time before any signs of weight loss began so I'm hesitant to definitively link any of it, and had until now pretty much dismissed them.
- Pronounced mastication, as though something is stuck in his mouth - I've even seen fine bits of hay protruding which were definitely the culprits on those occasions. He clears it in the end but he has periods where he'll do it fairly often, and then it stops for a month or two and then he'll do it again for a period. Within the last year he's had his teeth checked three times by three vets and ruled out as a problem each time. One of the vets even remarked that his teeth were in very good condition for his age.
- Occasional snuffling like a blocked nostril - same sound as when he was snotty yesterday. First time this happened (almost a year ago) we whisked him off to the vets and by the time he was examined it had stopped completely. I looked around a few posts in search results here and other places, and concluded it was likely something snuffled up while he's rummaging in hay. However the girls don't seem ever to make this noise.
I believe the 'URI' treatment to be all in hand given the signs he is presenting & what's been prescribed, but again any advice about this aspect is very welcome.
From left: Jack, Sophie, Jess
Many thanks
Ed
