Worries...

Okay so I've had enough sleep, so this post might make a bit more sense then the last.

Apparently tis the season for the health issues to appear. I'm not worried about the running lice (I think I mentioned I brought some home from the last show) and it already seems to be clearing up nicely with ivomec and Fido's Free Itch, but what I am concerned about is poor Feather. Poor little guys not even a year old and already Murphy's showing his face. He's suddenly dropped weight, 150g in the past six weeks. The problem is that life got so hectic I haven't been weighing weekly and since he looked and felt the same I thought all was well. He doesn't look or feel like he's lost weight, he just looks and acts like, well, Feather. But he also has some sort of UTI. He's squeaking when he pees, and lifting his butt and each pee ends with a few small drops of blood. So right now he's on Ural, if it is just cystitis he'll be fine in a day or two, if it's not, well then a trip to the vets is in order. My issue is that if it isn't a run of the mill UTI, that leaves two options, stones or kidney failure. Neither are exactly treatable. I still haven't managed to find a vet I can trust up here and I can't exactly drive him five hours back to the Sugarloaf vet hospital, who are one of the few places I would trust to do something as touchy as an operation for stones on a boar. Feather doesn't travel well, it's why I never take him to NSWCC shows. I'd assume an ill Feather would be even worse. An kidney failure is well, kidney failure. Only option is to keep them comfortable and when you can't do that, you euthanise.

The weight loss would suggest kidney failure. He was 850g on Wednesday, 840 on Thursday, and 827 this morning. I dosed him up with critta care and apple sauce (about 20g in one sitting) and then kept an eye on his weight all day, he steadily gained back up to 840g, so that's something at least. All I can do is wait and see his weight in the morning.

Other then that he's the same as always. Bright, bouncy with a touch of pure insanity, the true sheba personality. He's eating like a little pig and has everything he could want in his cage.

I'm praying that it's just a UTI. I can't see how an eleven month old boar could end up with stones or kidney failure, unless it was congenital? It's not like he's been mainlining calcium or anything, he gets the same diet as every other boar I own and they are fine. Only difference is Feather likes to pick the oaten chaff out of his feed and avoids his lupins, which would have no effect on the calcium level of his diet.