posted 8 years ago
I have a three month old piglet who started acting sick this Wednesday. She was fine Wednesday morning but my boyfriend found her laying in the grass that afternoon, covered in ants and not wanting to move. She was doing this weird thing with her breathing where she would take a breath in and hold it for about 5-10 seconds (an uncomfortably long time!) and then let it out somewhat forcefully and she had a fever of about 102.6.
So we took her immediately to the vet where they gave her diphenhydramine (Benadryl), a steroid anti-inflammatory shot(dexamethasone), and a long lasting antibiotic (Excenel) in case of pneumonia. Her fever seemed to have gone away before we even left the vet's office. For the rest of the day she would occasionally get up, walk for a minute, get a drink of water, then lay back down (had her inside the house with use). No interest in food at all.
Thursday morning she was up eating and drinking and her breathing seemed a bit improved (she was still holding it but not for nearly as long).
This morning she seems to have slid backwards a bit. She won't eat and her fever was up to 103. Talked to the vet and we are going to give her Tylan 50 plus just do whatever we can to keep her temp down (cool cloths and whatnot) and keep her hydrated.
Any thoughts on what this could be? I was convinced she just had a bad reaction to the ants but if that was the case, she shouldn't be sliding backwards like this. She just didn't show any symptoms at all of any respiratory or any kind of distress before this. Our vet treats pigs but it's not their specialty and they don't have any themselves. I know, when you have an animal yourself, it's a lot easier to notice signs and symptoms to look out for. I just haven't had any experience with pigs yet so I don't know what to look for myself...any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Oh and if you followed my other thread about my two Kune Kune piglets, this is not the runt, this is the larger female...
