The Hog Diaries - We can but Hope ...

I admitted this wee one from my vet's today. She's been named Hope, is an emaciated 350gms and is very,very fragile. Her parasite burden is extremely high and she's in BIG trouble. Throughout the day she's been warming up on a heatpad, has had 2 rounds of subcutaneous fluids and treatment for her parasites and mange has started. This evening she has managed to get up and have some SuperSoup aka AD/BabyDog milk mix and has had a big drink of Spark fluids - which is a mix of electrolytes and essential carbohydrates. She's now fallen asleep right where she was sitting to have her drink so I'll go and tuck her up in her blankets again soon.

The next 24-48hrs will be critical. With hoggies we need to hit the parasite burden pretty fast. However the treatment is also hard them when they are in such a fragile state, so she will start antibiotics tomorrow to help with the toxic 'burn off' from the parasites dying .. if she survives the night. 

The whole slide looked like this. A 'storm' of Capillaria

Whilst the temptation to get such a starving creature to eat a lot and quickly is high we have to be really careful because to do so can lead to organ failure. 
This is why the first crucial thing is warmth,  and then careful rehydration. I'm pretty certain she would have died today if not for the subcutaneous fluids.

This wee girl is really trying and is fighting hard to survive. Let's hope the morning brings good news ...