Diarrhea

[Ziggy&Herald]

My oldest boar started having diarrhea today. It is very runny, he has no control over it at all. It's not a dark black, but does have a pretty bad odor. He is very lethargic, and off his food. So far, this is the treatment that has been started.

We did a fecal slide, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. We have set up a culture of his feces, but that will take a little time to get the results back. In the mean time, he has been put on bene-bac and baytril. The antibiotic is a precautionary step in case it turns out to be E-Coli or something else bacterial. He was given fluids sub-Q and I have been instructed to give CC and pedialyte by syringe. He has access to hay and pellets if he decides he wants them, but has had no interest so far.

He does suffer from impactions and his last cleaning was last night. All looked fine then. He is best estimate about 4 yrs old. When I adopted him back in May, he weighed 3 pounds 8 ounces. I have been trying to cut his weight back and his last weighing last week was 3 pounds 1 ounce. I weighed him today and he was at 2 pounds 12 ounces. So he has had significant weight loss over the past week.

I guess I'm just hoping from some input as to whether his treatment sounds right, and if not what other things could be done. I do have 4 other boars, but did not take healthy poos from his cage mates to the vet. She decided it was best to go ahead and give some sort of pro-biotic, which is why the bene-bac was started. Would it be best for me to just use the poos from his buddies, or will the bene-bac work just as well.

[salana]

I would not pick baytril as my antibiotic of first choice for diarrhea. I would go with Flagyl (metronidazole) or possibly Albon or Bactrim.

I've found that the more probiotics, the better. I would give healthy poops, special poops if you can steal them (interrupt the pigs when they go under for a butt-fudge snack), benebac, and even acidophilus capsules from the drugstore or health food store.

The subcues, syringe feeding, and Pedialyte all sound good. Syringe feed at least 60cc of pellet mash or Critical Care every day. B vitamins can also be supplemented to give him more energy and appetite.

[Ziggy&Herald]

Thank You Salana. The antibiotic was one of my worries. Especially since Baytril can be upsetting to the stomach anyway. I have given Bactrim to the pigs before, I think it will ease my mind to switch to one of the others. I had not thought of Albon though. I use Albon in my cats.

Thanks so much for reassuring me. I'm just worried sick.