Possible injury

Question

Ellie Mae   I have a 5 month old, female potbelly pig. She roamed up at 5 weeks old. We only have one vet clinic that treats pots in our area. Her name is Ellie Mae. Yesterday she jumped off our bed and seemed to have hurt her back leg. She is only limping at times, and that is almost unnoticeable. She is eating fine, going outside walking around, but when she lies down she seems uncomfortable. A certain way she stands it looks like she has a small know on each side, same area and same size, behind both front legs. I am afraid she may have torn something, or this may be normal and she is just standing different because she hurt her back leg. She weighs 80lbs, get Mazuri active adult, and only gets green veggies and fruits in her diet, no junk! Her treats are shredded wheat and cheerios and the baby puff treats. Can you give me some insight on the knots. I did notice them when she was little, but not since then. I usually help her off the bed she just got ahead of me. She has her own bed, but she would rather stay close to me.

Answer
Pigs often injure themselves jumping off furniture. Hopefully, this will be a minor injury and pass quickly. But, as piggy gets older and less nimble, it will be harder for him to get down off furniture and the chance of a serious injury increases.

The treatment for an injury is RICE - Rest Ice Compression and Elevation. Encourage piggy to rest, or at least discourage rough play. Give piggy an easier way to get up, either with a ramp or set of pet stairs made for pets (primarily dogs) to climb in and out of bed safely. They are available from many pet supply stores and on the internet from Drs Foster and Smith.

If you see any signs of unusual swelling or feel heat in a joint, you can try applying ice packs. Some pigs will tolerate it, some won't. Pigs don't like bandages, so it's difficult to apply compression, and forget about convincing a pig to elevate an injured foot. But rest and ice are helpful.

If piggy does not jump down again, piggy should be fine within a week. But, if piggy keeps jumping down and stressing or even re-injuring the leg, healing could take longer.

If piggy continues to limp, limps more often, or the problem seems to get worse, piggy will need to see a vet and maybe get some x-rays. Hip deformations are not uncommon in pigs and start to show up at about age 6 - 9 months.