CAMP SKIPPING PIG  SANCTUARY

   

Swilber arrived on January 12, 2002, from Baldwinsville, near Syracuse, NY. Starved beyond belief, I was shocked when he came out of the car. I'd spoken to his people several times and we'd emailed each other to arrange his arrival, but I never had any suggestion that his condition was life threatening. They were well educated, articulate professionals and sounded like caring owners on the phone. I'd actually postponed his arrival until after the holidays to give me time to prepare a stall for him. Another couple of weeks and he'd likely have died. When talking to his owners, there was no indication that he was so ill...only that they were selling their house and buying a condo and he "had to go because you can't sell a house with a pig in the basement". At 3 1/2 years, he'd spent his life in the dark, on concrete, with no sunlight, exercise, or good diet. To get him outdoors he had to be carried up the stairs, so he never got out. Though they supposedly were feeding him a potbellied pig feed, it either was of poor quality or he wasn't being fed nearly enough. Swilbur's weight when he arrived was only 44 pounds, just 1/3 what it should have been...an ideal for him is 130! He was so weak that when he'd put his head down to eat, he'd tip over. He also had a tusk growing over half an inch into his face. This didn't happen overnight, nor did his weight loss, so one can only assume that his seemingly well educated owners were in fact uncaring, non-observant and ignorant. Perhaps he'd been sold to them as a "micro-mini" and they were told to feed him tiny amounts to keep him small, I don't know. But with immediate veterinary care and a good healthy diet, Swilbur blossomed into a beautiful, happy fellow.  His tusks need to be monitored because they tend to grow close to his face. He also hates being confined and his transition from his outdoor summer lot to his winter stall is never a happy time for him, but he hates the snow and he doesn't have a condo in the south for the winter, so we deal with it. He gets a larger stall, plenty of blankets, hay and a heat lamp, and outdoor access when the winter weather allows.

 Swilber has developed arthritis in his right shoulder and on and off he'll become quite lame on that leg. The x-rays show signifigant deterioration in the shoulder joint. The opposite shoulder is still in good shape so an old injury may be the culprit, possibly a fall down the basement stairs at his original home. With the rescued pigs it can be difficult to know their history and what may be of concern "down the road". We keep his weight down to help relieve the stress on the opposite front leg, but eventually that, too, may develop arthritis because he carries 95% of his weight it during a flare-up. At this point we're trying to manage his pain in a variety of ways, with Tramadol being the most useful medication. Fortunately his lameness isn't constant and for the most part he walks sound and doesn't require any medication at all.

 Sadly, on March 5, 2009 we lost Swilbur after a brief illness.  Over the years we'd found that when Swilbur became ill, he became very, very ill. It wasn't often, but any problems he had became life threatening and required intensive nursing. Likely he had an immune deficiency and was more susceptable to things that probably wouldn't phase another pig. Because this recent illness had come on suddenly we asked to have a necropsy done. It showed that Swilbur's liver was in very bad shape and his bowel was covered with small pencil eraser sized ulcers/abcesses. Up until just two days before he died he'd been eating fine and not showing any real signs of illness. He hadn't been climbing his gate to beg for his meals, but that I attributed to his arthritis. We know he wasn't exposed to any type of toxic items and there'd been no dietary changes. A possible cause is cancer, but we opted not to have any pathology work done. We're very sad to have lost him so quickly, but are grateful for the opportunity to have loved and cared for him for the past seven years. Swilbur was about 10 1/2 years old. 

GO TO WWW.TEACUPPIG.INFO to get the facts about micro-mini and teacup pigs!