My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

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Cortaro
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My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by Cortaro » Fri Feb 01, 2019 5:22 pm

So this is what happned. He was a perfect piglet, we picked him up from the show breeder everything was perfect. We got his ear tag done on jan 6th and about 5 days later he went off feed and appeared to be sick. So we took him to the vet and sure enough he had a fever, lethargic, pain to move no congestion or gunk at all. So the vet out him on antibiotics. & banamine. He took his entire course and no more fever ,but still very poor appetite and wouldn't really get up unless forced to get up. Back to the vet he got a shot of Bo-Se and b-12, and was prescribed LA-200. For 14 days. Vet says he has polyarthritis, and the LA-200 should help any remaining infection and pain. HE is on day 2 of the LA-200. He just lays around. Hopefully this med does the truck, but I'm skeptical at this point. I want to do what's most humane for him the weird part of the whole thing is our other pig is perfectly fine, so whatever it was was not contagious to our other pig. He is 4 months old. He seems to be more comfortable flopped over to his side. We have to hand feed him food and water. He doesn't even have the strength to get up and walk over to his food or water. This is third year in 4H and we really don't know what to do about this pig. There is absolutely nothing wrong with our other pic so whatever it is is clearly not contagious. How can we help him?

BerkBabe
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Re: My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by BerkBabe » Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:19 pm

A diagnosis of polyarthritis sounds like it could be Mycoplasma Arthritis. What was the first antibiotic that the pig was on? I think Lincomycin is typically the antibiotic of choice for that. I had a young boar at one point that my vet thought may have had Mycoplasma Arthritis as he was very tender on his feet, didn't want to stand up, off-feed, lethargic. We used Excede on him, and I kept up with Excede every 4 days for about 3-4 weeks. I had to hand-feed him. He came out of it and was perfectly fine after that. Regarding an anti-inflammatory, my vet doesn't like to use banamine for any more than 3 doses because I think it can be hard on their systems. She'll switch to meloxicam after that if an anti-inflammatory is still needed. Anyway, that's just my experience.

If it is mycoplasma, it is contagious. However, just like us, we may be exposed to a bacteria, but not get sick.

Good Luck! I hope your pig starts to feel better.

Cortaro
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Re: My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by Cortaro » Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:59 pm

The 1st antibiotic was enrofloaxacin. We gave him 3 ml daily for 10 days. I wish I knew how to upload a video to this website I took a video of him today but even his squeal is barely there at this point when he tries to squeal hardly any noise comes out. He's just breaking my heart. Should I ask the vet to test him for that other thing that you just said? I wonder why he didn't. This is the second pig we've gotten from this particular breeder that had an issue. We never had an issue with any of our other pigs. I just really don't know what to do with this little guy.

Cortaro
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Re: My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by Cortaro » Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:06 pm

https://youtu.be/TZCZlX3Icx8 I uploaded the video to YouTube hopefully you can view it. That's all he does is lay there flops one side to the other but mostly stays on that side he's on. In this video it's the most active he's been since he got sick.

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Re: My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by BerkBabe » Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:58 pm

ugh, the poor thing. Is that him breathing that I hear? That's pretty labored. That first antibiotic you used (Baytril) is good stuff. Also, I don't think there's a specific test for the mycoplasma arthritis. It's a diagnosis based on symptoms. If that's his breathing, it sounds like he has something more than just polyarthritis. It sounds like a respiratory issue too. Baytril would be good for that, I think, as would Excede or Draxxin. If I were going to switch antibiotics, I would probably try Excede or Draxxin next. (again, I'm not a vet nor examining your pig). If it were me, I would probably ask the vet for something like Excede or Draxxin. Are you still using banamine? My vet doesn't like to use banamine for more than 3 doses in a situation, but for a guy in your case, she might keep up with it, or use meloxicam.

There's a vet that follows this page (Hogdoc), maybe he'll see your post soon and respond.

Cortaro
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Re: My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by Cortaro » Sat Feb 02, 2019 10:02 am

Is it possible for pigs to get valley fever cocidiomycosis? I tried googling it but not much was available, we are in AZ.

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Re: My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by BerkBabe » Sat Feb 02, 2019 7:56 pm

Never heard of it.

CLVR
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Re: My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by CLVR » Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:02 pm

From my understanding, that was quite an excessive amount of enrofloaxacin. It can cause cartilage damage if overused. I hope that isn't the case. I would try Lincomycin and Dexamethasone personally

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Re: My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by futurepigbreeder » Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:54 am

I had a similar experience last year, one morning I came out super early to feed when I went in to feed my little sisters pig she didn’t get up, this wasn’t abnormal for her she doesn’t like to eat early in the morning, we had a day trip that day and when I got back I went to clean pens only to find her dead lame. She refused to put any weight on the leg and the pain seemed to be located in the hock, her temperature was at 105. I immediately started her on banamine and dex and put her on probiotics to keep her gut health in check, i also put a cold laser on the area. I got her fever down but she still refused to walk on that leg. At first I thought she had been stepped on by her littermate that shared the stall with, but after about five days with no improvement we started to think something more serious had happened. After I did some research on her symptoms I assumed it was mycoplasma arthritis and ordered lincomycin immediately while waiting for it to come in I kept her on dex and and started on penicillin. There was no improvement with the penicillin but when we got her on the lincomysin we started to see major improvements she slowly started to use the leg again and by the time the round was up she was using it completely although she kept a slight limp that she still has today. If we had treated sooner I believe we would’ve been able to recover her with no permanent damage. My advice is the same as CLVR’s, try her on lincomycin and dex as soon as possible and try to keep her eating and drinking.

As for your pigs breathing is he coughing at all?

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Re: My pig can't walk, we have tried everything

Post by dbknoppdvm » Fri May 10, 2019 11:42 am

What ended up happening with this pig?

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