Daisy is gone ...

I am so sad to tell you that Daisy is no longer with us. She was euthanized on Sunday, December 23, 2007 to end her suffering from a very sudden, as yet unknown illness, which began Friday evening.

When I went to the barn to do chores Friday evening, she was slow getting up, and seemed unsteady on her feet. When I gave her her bowl of warm pig soup, she took a few mouthfuls, but seemed to sway on her hind end, leaning against the pen wall.

She returned to her sleeping area, where I tucked her in, then held her bowl so she could eat - which she did with enthusiasm, cleaning up her meal. She was showing reddened colouring on her snout, mouth, and the hairless areas of her stomach.

The next morning, Daisy could not rise. I consulted with my large animal vet, and we decided to start a course of antibiotics and 24-hr worth of antihistamine/pain control. We were unsure as to what was going on, as she had no other symptoms of significance. I consulted some pig friends and more experenced pig owners for their thoughts, but no clear diagnosis was emerging.

In the meantime, I syringed a warm slurry of pig pellets and a stool softener into her mouth Saturday afternoon (which she seemed interested in drinking) and later Saturday night (when she was *not* interested in eating anything). I tried to prop her up sternally with a bale of hay, put a heat lamp over her, and gave her lots of blankets and bedding. Her body temperature was markedly sub-normal.

Later in the day Saturday, she seemed to have difficulty co-ordinating her eating, and was unable to manage food in her mouth. Any touch or movement would elicit whines of discomfort, and I knew she was not responding to the medications.

Sunday morning, I called the vet to the farm, planning to euthanize her - which we did in the end. The vet suspected an endotoxicity (apparently the purple discolouration suggests this) - a toxicity to the by-products of an infection - tho we had no idea as to the source of the infection.

The euthanasia was smooth, despite Daisy's poor blood pressure and obviously diminished circulation. We buried her in a snowbank overnight, before taking her body to the animal health lab for a post-mortem. The pathologists was concerned about rabies, in the face of the neurological symptoms. My vet and I do not think it was rabies, but agreed to the test. I am thankfully innoculated for rabies, so am not particularly worried about this possibility.

The pathologist called Monday afternoon (Christmas Eve) with the initial findings from the gross autopsy - which were pretty inconclusive - tho she did say there was some indication of septicaemia (blood poisoning) - consistent with our suspicions. They are submitting the CNS for the rabies exam, and other tissues for culture tomorrow (Thursday), and we may have more news by the end of the week.

I am so sad that Daisy was not able to complete her journey back to health and happiness. She had made so much progress since coming to us in May of 2007, losing approx 75 lbs.

Interestingly, despite my sense that Daisy's weight loss was allowing her to see better, her eyes appeared to have atrophied to the extent that my vet was not able to identify an eyeball. In retrospect, I suspect that Daisy was simply becoming more comfortable in her environment, and more mobile overall. Perhaps she was able to see some light & shadows ... who knows.

I am so saddened by the plight of over-fed pigs ... so much suffering results. And the condition is completely preventable.