Our Pig about 9 months old

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I have many questions about our 9 month old pot-bellied pig. Over the week of Thanksgiving and this weekend she has been fine great like usual. This morning I came home from church to find her in the backyard on her side unable to get up. I checked her leg because I feared it might be broken. Her leg seemed okay there were no marks, scratches, blood or anything on it. I tried to help her up but she fell back into my arms. I rolled her over onto a blanket so I could see her better. I checked her water bowel and she had tipped it over so she hadn't had water. As soon as I saw this I brought her water and seeped it into her mouth. I continued to give her water and held her up she slowly  could stand by herself she was just very weak. She started to sip the water off of the ground and seemed to be regaining her strength. She finally ended up walking around but it was difficult she would walk to the corner of the house and stand there. She would run into the wall like she didn't even see it, her one eye was very red. We took her to an animal hospital who said they don't really do pigs but would see her. They put her on IV's because she was dehydrated and then gave her a medicine for ulcers,nausea and any kind of infection. When we got her back to take home we put her in the car on my lap and she pooped and peeed we were very happy because she does this normally in the car or when she is scared. (She did not do this on the way to the vet) So we thought she was gettting better. We got her home and used one of those baby syringes to give her pedialite, milk, water. We tried some wet dog food and she didn't want it that is like something to not turn down. Then she started walking around again very slowly and rocking back and forth or just standing there still looking very weak. She walked into the dresser and the door. And she is acting like she can't see. We don't know what is wrong now and if it's possible she could be blind. And why or how would this happen all of the sudden. Please help us. For now we are trying to get her to rest and not get hurt from bumping into things. As I said she was an amazing pig, very nice, happy, energetic, always running around adventurous the whole bit and all of a sudden this morning this all started. Please help us. thank you so much.

ANSWER: I am not a veterinarian and can not make a medical diagnosis over the internet.

In my lay persons opinion, this sounds like some form of poisoning, possibly salt poisoning. Salt poisoning occurs when a pig eats a lot of a particularly salty food. The extra salt causes dehydration and extreme thirst. When the pig drinks large quantities of water to relieve the thirst, the brain swells. The symptoms are seizures, rocking back and forth, and pressing the head against things. But, I am not a vet so this is just a guess.

If your vet is willing to learn and talk to other vets, the Duchess Fund www.duchessfund.org has a medical database of case studies of pot-bellied pigs, and a panel of vets who are willing to work with other vets. I know there are cases like yours in the database.

Also, there is a Yahoo Group called PigInfoAndChat. In this group are several people who've had similar experiences, a couple of vet techs, and others who specialize in caring for special needs pigs. It's a welcoming group and I'm sure they can give you more advice and suggestions based on their personal experience than I can.



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QUESTION: Thank you so much for responding so quickly. As I said we took her to the animal hospital yesterday and it was very expensive and haven't seen really an improvement. We've been giving her liquids through a syringe. If she does have this is this cureable or treatable. What do we do? What can we do to help her?? Will she get better? We are going to call around vets today and try to get her in but we don't have much money and yesterday now seems like a waste since they didn't really know about pigs and didn't seem to help her. Please help us. I can't find the forum. Do you have a direct link to the research on the dutchessfund because I can't find those articles either. Thank you.

Answer
The Duchess Fund main page   http://www.duchessfund.org/
database (you might have to join) http://www.duchessfund.org/system/log_in.asp

Piginfoandchat  http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/PigINFOandCHAT/

I wish I could give you a definite answer about her condition, but I am not a vet. My only suggestion is to let her rest for a few hours, and try offering her something to drink later today, like Pedalyte (not sure how to spell that) for infants. Assuming that she does have salt poisoning (This could be wrong), I have seen pigs recover completely, but it is a slow process.