Morgan-Meeks is a pig that I got from a 16 yr old from craigslist. She posted an ad that said she needed to find new home for all her animals. I emailed her & Morgan came home on August 28, 2004 (thanks again Swannie for your help). Morgan was just 2lbs when she came to live with us. She was a very dominant pig from the beginning and I had trouble at first getting her and my other girls to get along. Even during floortime with plenty of veggies & KM hay they fought!
Well after a few months and plenty of words of encouragement from SusieQ and Bride of Chad, I finally decided to just take the plunge on January 1, 2005. I thoroughly cleaned Rayna & Persephy's cage then put them all together. At first there were a few minor squabbles until Morgan had showed the other two that she was the new boss of the 2x4. After the intro period, they all got along great. Well occasionally Morgan would steal veggies from the other two.
On January 28, 2005, I noticed something was a amiss with Morgan. She had bi-lateral hairloss and a bit of crusty stuff on her nipples. I had thought originally that it was mites since she had just moved in with Rayna & Persephy and I figured it was a mite outbreak from stress. I had done 3 topical applications of ivermectin 7 days apart for 3 weeks. She was still active, eating, peeing, pooping, etc. I made an appointment at the vets for Tuesday, February 1st.
The vet examined Morgan and felt that it was definitely cystic ovaries and a spay would be needed. I signed the paperwork and left Morgan there to undergo a spay that afternoon. However, when I came home I had a message on my machine from the vet. I called back to find out that they were postponing her spay because when they drew blood from Morgan, Morgan had collasped onto her side and was unresponsive. The vet held her and talked to her until she came out of it in a few minutes but he felt better to hold off on the spay for another week so she had time to recover from stress. Morgan also developed a large swelling at the injection site that worried the vet. The vet felt it was best to keep her overnight for observation just in case.
I picked her up on Feb2 and took her home. I weighed her at home and she was down 1oz. I attributed it to stress. She was also very quiet whereas she was my loudest wheeker before. I attributed this quietness to the vet visit and staying there overnight On Feb3 I weighed her and her weight was back up 1oz to 2lbs 4oz. She was still quiet but was otherwise active and eating. On Feb4, Morgan seemed fine and was still active.
I awoke on Feb5 to a nightmare that would continue all day. I found Morgan fluffed up in her pigaloo with her eyes receding. I called the vets office and was told he would call me back. While I waited for him to call, I handfed her 13cc of pellet mash. I called back and was told he was busy. I started calling around to other vets at 12pm. The one exotics hospital in Brooklyn referred me to the vet I was already seeing. I called back my vet's office and asked to speak with the exotics LVT. Morgan's vet came on the phone. Originally he wanted me to not bring her in and just handfeed Morgan to maintain her until Tuesday when she could be spayed. I insisted on bringing her in to be looked at.
When we arrived at the vets, they examined her teeth, did x-rays, gave her fluids & reglan. The x-rays showed that Morgan had severe GI Stasis. The vet gave me Critcal Care, syringes to handfeed, and metacam. I brought Morgan home at 5:30pm and gave her the metacam and got her to eat 20cc of CC. She still wasn't pooping at 8pm. I gave her simethicone drops to try and help relieve the gas. She started pooping at 10:30pm when I was had to handfeed her again. She only had one well formed poop then the rest was very watery. It just looked like brown water coming out of her. She refused to eat and I got only 10cc of CC into her.
When I picked her up to clean her off, she had a seizure in my hands. She came out of the seizure and she seemed okay. I held her in my lap in her cuddle cup and petted her. I told her it was okay if she needed to leave me. The other pigs were wheeking and she was unresponsive to them. I called the emergency line for the vet. At first a regular cat/dog vet called me back so I told him the situation and he said he'd have Morgan's vet call. She started having more seizures when her vet called. She had already had 7 seizures when the vet called. He had me put pancake syrup on her gums in case she was seizing from low blood sugar. After I put the pancake syrup, she stopped seizing and her body started twitching. Her breath was moving fast then slow then fast again. He told me to rush her into Manhattan to the vet hopsital there but I told him that she wasn't going to make it. He told me that he would call back in a few minutes. After I hung with him, I woke up my husband and then Morgan started coughing. She coughed 3x then stopped breathing. Her legs continued to twitch then stopped. She was gone.
When the vet called back I told him what happened. Now I'm bringing her body back for a necropsy to find out what happened. I await some answers for my poor little baby. Hopefully I'll have closure.