Shoulder injury, hospital stay and now pooping issues - Advise please!

[Ktangela]

Hi All,

I was hoping that you guys would be able to give me some advice?

My beautiful 5 year old boar, Mr. Scruffy developed a limp, although he was eating, pooping and talking like usual. We took him to a rodentologist who initially thought he had broken his shoulder.

She advised Butorphanol (?) which is an opiate of some sort for the pain and an overnight stay pending x-rays of the shoulder. She said that that may require a general anaesthetic or some sort of gas sedative for the X-ray depending on how well behaved he was.

Because he's such a gentleman, he let them take 3 x-rays without any drugs and established there was no break, but there may be a soft tissue injury around his shoulder. They prescribed Metacam for the pain and some Zantac because the X-rays showed his tummy had slowed a bit.

When I went to collect him on Thursday night and I thought he looked off. He had red rings on the whites of his eyes and he wasn't particularly alert. I was told this was probably a combination of the drugs and the strangeness of a hospital stay. The vet nurse said he'd been fine during his stay, though I noticed untouched cucumber in his food bowl.

I brought him home, broke out his fave veg, sat him on my knee and was concerned that he was a bit floppy and uninterested in the veg. I checked him bottom and had a lot of poops in his pouch, so I helped him get them out. The smelled awful!

I put him in his house and he perked up to see his girlies though I didn't let them near him. I then thought a good night in his favourite bed would perk him up. Friday he didn't seem much happier although he has nibbled at veg. I also noticed that he smells appauling. There were only about 5 poops and he hadn't really moved about much, so his back end was wet. I cleaned him up, changed his bedding and cuddled him a bit and he perked up.

Now I am concerned that he has even less poops. When I squeeze his pouch, he wees a bit and it smells awful. He is also breaking wind quite a bit.

The vet wont be available again till Monday, which leaves me with the non specialised vets and I am really worried about him.

He eats a little bit of cucumber and hay and that's it. I am concerned he is quite backed up. I am also not sure I am getting the poops out.

Any ideas how I can encourage normal pooping? I am not even sure what caused it - was it the opiate?

I'd be reaalllly grateful for any help getting the Scruffalo back to normal.

 

[PottyForPiggies]

It sounds like Mr. Scruffy has some impaction issues: they are very common in older boars. I can't say how they have started, but here is the GuineaLynx page offering advice on how to deal with it
http://www.guinealynx.info/impaction.html

The best thing you can do is get him lots of hay to keep his gut moving, and weigh him frequently to check for any loss. If he is not eating enough on his own, then syringe feeding is necessary. Oxbow Critical Care is excellent for syringe feeding; if you can't get access then you can always soften some of his nuggets with warm water and syringe him those.

I can't be of any more help but I'm wishing you all the best x

 

[Suzygpr]

If Scruffalo isn't eating for himself you will need to help him. 120ml of syringe food over 24 hrs. After every 5 ml of food give 2-3 ml of water. As SD has already explained - Critical Care or Recovery Plus are the ready made syringe foods - you can make your own by softening nuggets with a warm water, leave to soak for 10 mins, mash with the back of a fork. Many pigs will eat it off a spoon but if not add more water so that it can be given by syringe.

This link may help if you are not experienced in syringe feeding, it also shows how to adapt a 1ml syringe for feeding more easily.
http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html


As he has wind and soft poo I would not be giving him any more veg at this point. Please get on the phone to the vets if you feel he is deteriorating - all operate emergency cover so you will be able to get help out of hours.

HTH

Suzy x

 

[Ktangela]

Oooh yeay! Post Critical care feeding we have about 20 well formed, drier poop pellets and lots of hay munching! He also doesn't smell as bad and seems perkier overall.

We are coming around, do we think?

 

[Pebble]

This is certainly sounding promising. What goes in (or doesn;t go in) is manifested 24hours later in poo output. Eating hay is most definitely a very positive sign.

Wind/small or no poos/smells are all indicative of a slowed down gut - NOT to be confused with impaction where the gut functions normally but the poos can;t be expelled properly owing to poor muscle tone and normally prevalent in older boars.

The opiate will have slowed down his guts and now they are restoring their rhythm, helped by the zan-tac and the extra feeding. Hopefully he should be eating normally within the next couple of days and the extra feeding can stop. keep the zan-tac going for a couple more days afterwards though.

Well done!

HTH
x

 

[Pebble]

Also - as Suzy has already said - stay off the veg for at least a week and the introdcue slowly one y one in very small quantities - starting with grass/dandelions before moving onto high carb (carrot/corn) or leafy greens (lettuce/spinach/cabbage etc)

x