Lily's Medical Thread
Oh. Scratch that, I checked on her again and she's... worse. More blood, but more worryingly I took her out with the thought that it might be good to offer her Critical Care/Pedialyte and she's looking lethargic. I checked her gums and they look pale. I guess she's probably not going to make it through the night.
I think for Lily it would be more stressful for her if I took her somewhere to be euthanized- at this point I don't think there's anything that can be done to cure her. I scrapped the CC idea and just started offering her bits of lettuce- she took a few, so maybe she's not as bad as I thought? Though the lack of voracious devouring leads me to think her time is imminent. She's very timid and at the bottom of the social ladder in the herd, so I have her sectioned off by herself in the cage so the other pigs are near and she's not alone, but they're also not able to harass her for the lettuce bits I'm leaving her. Hopefully that's what she'd prefer right now. I'm going to resist the urge to hold and pet her since she's always hated being touched. Going to offer lettuce throughout the night and check on her every quarter to half hour until she's passed. If she makes it till morning, I'll call the vet and see if they think any differently (and maybe get her some metacam in case that might help). I think. I hope I'm doing right by her. :(
I guess I'll change the cage too in case it's an infection? Is a UTI or endometriosis contagious to my other pigs, if that's what it is? I guess this is a question I can call my vet about in the morning, my brain is just kind of all over the place right now, sorry. Got a colicky newborn to care for on top of this, life is crazy.
I think for Lily it would be more stressful for her if I took her somewhere to be euthanized- at this point I don't think there's anything that can be done to cure her. I scrapped the CC idea and just started offering her bits of lettuce- she took a few, so maybe she's not as bad as I thought? Though the lack of voracious devouring leads me to think her time is imminent. She's very timid and at the bottom of the social ladder in the herd, so I have her sectioned off by herself in the cage so the other pigs are near and she's not alone, but they're also not able to harass her for the lettuce bits I'm leaving her. Hopefully that's what she'd prefer right now. I'm going to resist the urge to hold and pet her since she's always hated being touched. Going to offer lettuce throughout the night and check on her every quarter to half hour until she's passed. If she makes it till morning, I'll call the vet and see if they think any differently (and maybe get her some metacam in case that might help). I think. I hope I'm doing right by her. :(
I guess I'll change the cage too in case it's an infection? Is a UTI or endometriosis contagious to my other pigs, if that's what it is? I guess this is a question I can call my vet about in the morning, my brain is just kind of all over the place right now, sorry. Got a colicky newborn to care for on top of this, life is crazy.
I ended up falling asleep around 4:30 or 5 right after checking on her, and she must have passed pretty soon after that because at 7 when I woke up again she was gone and already stiff. I think rigor mortis usually takes a couple hours to set in, right? But anyway... I think it was probably as peaceful as it could be. As I was checking on her I kept finding her laying down like she was trying to make herself comfortable- adjusting her head and sticking a leg out, that kind of thing. So hopefully that was indicative of her being pretty at ease and not just the hypovolemic shock- I know she wasn't feeling great but I didn't find her hunched, poofed, and squinting at least.