When To Stop Critical Care

[MommaPig]

My Minnie has been on Critical Care around the clock for almost 2 months. It all started with a UTI which turned really nasty after three different antibiotics within three weeks didn't do the job. The vet sent out cultures and we finally found the right antibiotic which she just finished 2 days ago after being on it for 24 days. During that 24 days we also had a bloat issue which has been resolved thanks to Cisapride. The Cisapride was also stopped on the same day as the antibiotic (on the cisapride for 14 days). So she has been med free for 2 days now and holding strong. During the past 2 months it has been back and forth between refusing to eat or drink and starting to eat/drink again. Over this past weekend (still on the antibiotic and Cisapride), she stopped eating and drinking again, so back to the vet again we went Monday morning. The vet said that she may be addicted to the Critical Care. Today is the first day that that she has started drinking water... a good amount too and she has been eating hay (timothy and botanical). I also caught her eating a few pellets (which I was not offering previously due to the bloat). She ate the green pepper and cucumber that I offered this morning (small amounts still due to the bloat). Her belly is feeling soft and she has good poops. Here is my question... When do I stop the Critical Care? She has been doing really well today but I am hesitant to celebrate yet. I don't want to give her so much Critical Care that she doesn't want to eat on her own... but I don't want to stop the Critical Care and her belly freeze up again. She has been getting at least 12-18 ml of Critical Care mixture in a sitting every 4-7 hours depending on how much she was eating at the time. Do I give a lower dose of the Critical Care just as frequently or the same dose but less frequently? I gave her 14 ml of Critical Care almost 7 hours ago and she has been chowing down on hay and sucking down water the entire time it took me to write this I am nervous about taking her out of her cage and giving her Critical Care while she is eating so much on her own. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[chesca_27]

At the moment, I would wait a couple more days so she's completely in the clear before making any adjustments as the effects of meds can take a few days to wear off. Weigh her daily to keep track of her weight which will show you how much she is eating.

If she is coping well with eating and is maintaining a good weight, I would start by making the feeds a bit smaller and see how she copes. I always weigh between each feed, so I can gauge roughly how much to give. Oreo hated Critical Care so I could never get him to eat more than 15ml a day, but he loves pellets so he had those softened.

Could you try mixing up some Critical Care (not too sloppy) and just putting it in a small bowl in the cage for her to eat herself? It encourages them to feed themselves and that way she is still getting some, but with this you could do less feeds with smaller feeds, as long as she is eating all of it. Hamster bowls come in very handy for this. Please weigh her regularly so you can see if she is actually eating it or not.

 

[MommaPig]

At the moment, I would wait a couple more days so she's completely in the clear before making any adjustments as the effects of meds can take a few days to wear off. Weigh her daily to keep track of her weight which will show you how much she is eating.

If she is coping well with eating and is maintaining a good weight, I would start by making the feeds a bit smaller and see how she copes. I always weigh between each feed, so I can gauge roughly how much to give. Oreo hated Critical Care so I could never get him to eat more than 15ml a day, but he loves pellets so he had those softened.

Could you try mixing up some Critical Care (not too sloppy) and just putting it in a small bowl in the cage for her to eat herself? It encourages them to feed themselves and that way she is still getting some, but with this you could do less feeds with smaller feeds, as long as she is eating all of it. Hamster bowls come in very handy for this. Please weigh her regularly so you can see if she is actually eating it or not.

Thanks for the advice I just gave her another 12 ml dose... I'll keep up with 12 ml every 6 hours for the next few days as long as she is still eating. So would you say that it is a good idea to keep up with the feeding every 6 hours and maybe lower it progressively 2 ml every day as long as she is eating and keeping her weight? I have been weighing her and she has been maintaining between 910 and 920 grams for the past few days. Her usual healthy weight is between 970 and 990. When she was doing pretty bad her weight got as low as 830. I would love it if she would eat the Critical Care on her own but she is not a fan anymore. She liked it for a while and was even getting excited about it, but I think she is over it now and I have to force it... where as my other piggy will lick the mixing bowl after Minnie is done I'll give it a try anyway and hope she gets the taste back. Again she has been eating hay, drinking water, did good poops and pees all while I am typing this! I'm really trying not to get too excited but this is the best I have seen her in almost 2 months

 

[DM030819]

Critical Care is used to maintain a piggys weight when they aren't eating for themselves.

As she is eating hay now then I'd start to reduce the amount and weigh her at the same time of day to judge if you can reduce more. Eating hay is a great sign as she'll start to wear down her teeth with the grinding of the hay.

Good luck!

 

[chesca_27]

I would say you can start reducing it to 10 ml 3-4 times a day if she really doesn't like it. Eating hay is a very good sign and it sounds like she is on her way to making a full recovery. Minnie's weight sounds good for recovery .

What pellets do you give her? She might prefer her regular pellets mashed, especially since she is getting so much better. I always try and mix a bit of Pro-C in as well. Oreo adores it but only enjoys CC sometimes.

If she lets you, check her front teeth to see if they are getting too long. I would have a vet check the back teeth. This only because she hasn't been eating as much for herself and their teeth can often overgrow in this period of time.

 

[MommaPig]

I would say you can start reducing it to 10 ml 3-4 times a day if she really doesn't like it. Eating hay is a very good sign and it sounds like she is on her way to making a full recovery. Minnie's weight sounds good for recovery .

What pellets do you give her? She might prefer her regular pellets mashed, especially since she is getting so much better. I always try and mix a bit of Pro-C in as well. Oreo adores it but only enjoys CC sometimes.

If she lets you, check her front teeth to see if they are getting too long. I would have a vet check the back teeth. This only because she hasn't been eating as much for herself and their teeth can often overgrow in this period of time.

I give Oxbow adult pig food but she is not big on pellets. She will eat a few but then pushes the bowl over with her nose (have tried using the heaviest bowls I can find). Her diet mostly consists of hay and small amounts of veggies twice a day, since she is so prone to bloat (had it 4 times throughout her life). She does get Oxbow vitamin C tabs broken up but since being sick she is reluctant to eat them. I keep giving them in hopes she will start eating them when feeling better.

Her teeth were actually just checked. When they were trying to figure out is she has a stone in the beginning of the UTI issues, she was put under for an ultrasound and the vet filed her teeth down then. He said they were not really that long but cleaned them up anyway.