Chronic Diarrhea

Question
Hello,
I have a 2.5 month old miniature pot bellied pig w/ chronic diarrhea.  I taken her to the vet and received panacor for girardia w/ no change.  I also have been given Albon which has also not helped. She seems to have a good appitite and temprement except for the above mentioned problem. Please help!  I dont know what else to do.  Thank you in advance.

Brian

Answer
Did the vet take a sample and do a culture? Sometimes that's necessary to determine what kind of bug is causing the problem. Due to wild overuse of antibiotics in animal feed, many bugs are becoming immune to common antibiotics. E. coli is a very common bug in pigs and causes chronic diarrhea. If your piglet has not been tested for e. coli, that might be the next step.

Another common cause of chronic, uncurable diarrhea is intestinal blockage. It may sound odd that diarrhea is a symptom of blockage. But what happens is only the soft, liquid diarrhea can get around the blockage to make it's way out of the body. The harder stuff is trapped inside behind the blockage. An x-ray should reveal if there is a blockage or not.

So, if your piglet tests negative for e.coli, then an x-ray might be necessary.

Until the problem is resolved, make sure your piglet gets plenty of water to drink, to prevent dehydration.