Micro Pig seizures?

[PinkFlamingoFrm]

It seems like there is alot of people on here with pot bellied pigs. My pig isnt a pot bellied pig, shes kinda a random mix of small breeds of pigs. She is 7 months old and about 30 pounds. Her parents were both about 60 pounds at 4, so I'm hoping she doesnt get huge. But I wanted to see if any experienced pig owners had any experience with seizures? She started having them when she was about 3 months and they are random. She will have one a day for a while, and then she will go a month without one and then have 5 in one day. They put her on phenobarbital for them. They mentioned that sodium content in her food could have caused them, so we switched foods and they continued. Someone also mentioned smells, but there are no new smells when she has the seizures, they are pretty much random. Has anyone else had problems with a pig & seizures? If so, do you know what caused them? If its something environmental I would like to get it changed, because I dont like medicating my animals unless it is absolutely necessary.


Here she is

 

[farmchick897]

I don't have any experience with seizures, but just wanted to say she is very cute and good luck finding cause. I would think its a genetic condition but I would try switching to non GMO foods and see if that helps.

 

[PinkFlamingoFrm]

aww thank you, shes lucky shes cute because shes got the biggest attitude that I've ever seen in an animal lol.. I'm not sure what non gmo foods are but the first foods she was on was feed from the feed store, my fiance works there & he makes it, no chemicals, just corn and stuff, but we switched to a bagged pellet. I called the lady that I had gotten her from and she said that the parents dont have seizures and no one has ever called about a piglet having them. If she does have epilepsy, I'll have to keep giving her the pills, I just dont like doing that.

 

[nok13]

tumours? bacterial infection? injury at birth to her head? when she is really really hungry? when she is angry (like the genetic linked epilepsy in, i think it is, in dobermans? cant remember ), when she is startled or scared?
elpilepsy is not in itself a disease rather a symptom or disorder or part of a disorder....

 

[PinkFlamingoFrm]

tumours? bacterial infection? injury at birth to her head? when she is really really hungry? when she is angry (like the genetic linked epilepsy in, i think it is, in dobermans? cant remember ), when she is startled or scared?
elpilepsy is not in itself a disease rather a symptom or disorder or part of a disorder....

nope, they checked her for tumors, and she had a hoof infection at one point, but got penicillin and thats been gone. I havent noticed any type of pattern with them, she must know they are coming though, because everytime she has one she goes under my coffee table to have a seizure. its just so weird and ive never seen anything like it. When it first started, it was when my friend was over, so I'm not sure if the extra people being here could have set it off. But I have noticed lately, she smells like maple syrup sometimes, and when she smells like maple syrup she doesnt have seizures. I know that sounds really weird, but I know if I smell that she isnt going to have a seizure that day. At first I accused my fiance of giving her maple syrup but it must be some type of smell shes secreting. weird.. My first thought when they started was low sugar, because little dogs get sick if their sugar gets too low.. Maybe she has a hidden stash of maple syrup and it is her sugar lol..

 

[nok13]

OF COURSE: ask the vet, there are several diseases that give a person or a goat for instance the smell of maple syrup...goats when they are preeclampsia (before giving birth its like milk fever but not, it has to do with ketones int he blood, actually the smell is more like aceton but since smelling acetone is a genetic thing (not everyone can smell aceton, i had a vet who cant, so i would sniff urine and the exhalations of a sick mother goat)..and this disease in humans:

The disease is named for the presence of sweet-smelling urine, with an odor similar to that of maple syrup. The smell is also present and sometimes stronger in the ear wax of an affected individual. Prior to the easy availability of plasma amino acid measurement, diagnosis was commonly made based on suggestive symptoms and odor. Affected individuals are now often identified with characteristic elevations on plasma amino acids who do not have the characteristic odor.[5] The compound responsible for the odor is sotolon (sometimes spelled sotolone).[6] Infants with this disease seem healthy at birth but if left untreated suffer severe brain damage and eventually die.
From early infancy, symptoms of the condition include poor feeding, vomiting, dehydration, lethargy, hypotonia, seizures, hypoglycaemia, ketoacidosis, opisthotonus, pancreatitis, coma and neurological decline.

if u have the money and time (or vets who want to give free services for research, maybe u should try checking her pee over the course of a month, or blood titers... yes, animals, like people, can sense before they have, a siezure. that is why some dogs and pigs btw can be used as epilepsy dogs for certain people. btw, i have a dog who has minor nondebilitating siezures whne he gets very upset (he's fear biter/aggressor to white tall males,so when he attacks, he immediately also has an attack but manages always to get to his bed first. his jaw chatters, and he gets spaced out for a few minutes and then shakes it off) or when there is a female in heat and he has sniffed her....

intriguing i must say... could be changes in something chemical that is triggering her attacks... proteins? sugars? (yp like tea cup puppy dog hyporglycemia) ; the pre eclampsia type thing in goats also has to do with amounts of nutrition vx amount the goat is managing to eat, and happens when they have twins/triplets, its diffferent then the human type with females and highblood pressure etc.
i suspect u need a vet that is speicalizing in endocrinology or swine, together with neurologist (probably major expense but could be a good research project.some vets just like to solve problems , especially if they mostly have run of the mill doggy/cat problems. i worked here in israel that was such a person. a large animal vet with very few large animals (here people with large animals dont use vets too much), and liked to ask one question: hmmmm , now why is that?

good luck

 

[nok13]

sorry i missed quoting the part about the MAPLE SYRUP URINE DISEASE IN HUMANS I STOLE IT FROM WIKI.. but there is lots of info plus a few more diseases that could be checked out.

a quick google shows that that is actually a common question about pot belly pigs, the smell, i mean,just type in the question and see how many answers come up., so might not be related to the siezures, but who knows... sometimes cooncidences arent that at all.
and sometimes they are.

 

[PinkFlamingoFrm]

OF COURSE: ask the vet, there are several diseases that give a person or a goat for instance the smell of maple syrup...goats when they are preeclampsia (before giving birth its like milk fever but not, it has to do with ketones int he blood, actually the smell is more like aceton but since smelling acetone is a genetic thing (not everyone can smell aceton, i had a vet who cant, so i would sniff urine and the exhalations of a sick mother goat)..and this disease in humans:

The disease is named for the presence of sweet-smelling urine, with an odor similar to that of maple syrup. The smell is also present and sometimes stronger in the ear wax of an affected individual. Prior to the easy availability of plasma amino acid measurement, diagnosis was commonly made based on suggestive symptoms and odor. Affected individuals are now often identified with characteristic elevations on plasma amino acids who do not have the characteristic odor.[5] The compound responsible for the odor is sotolon (sometimes spelled sotolone).[6] Infants with this disease seem healthy at birth but if left untreated suffer severe brain damage and eventually die.
From early infancy, symptoms of the condition include poor feeding, vomiting, dehydration, lethargy, hypotonia, seizures, hypoglycaemia, ketoacidosis, opisthotonus, pancreatitis, coma and neurological decline.

if u have the money and time (or vets who want to give free services for research, maybe u should try checking her pee over the course of a month, or blood titers... yes, animals, like people, can sense before they have, a siezure. that is why some dogs and pigs btw can be used as epilepsy dogs for certain people. btw, i have a dog who has minor nondebilitating siezures whne he gets very upset (he's fear biter/aggressor to white tall males,so when he attacks, he immediately also has an attack but manages always to get to his bed first. his jaw chatters, and he gets spaced out for a few minutes and then shakes it off) or when there is a female in heat and he has sniffed her....

intriguing i must say... could be changes in something chemical that is triggering her attacks... proteins? sugars? (yp like tea cup puppy dog hyporglycemia) ; the pre eclampsia type thing in goats also has to do with amounts of nutrition vx amount the goat is managing to eat, and happens when they have twins/triplets, its diffferent then the human type with females and highblood pressure etc.
i suspect u need a vet that is speicalizing in endocrinology or swine, together with neurologist (probably major expense but could be a good research project.some vets just like to solve problems , especially if they mostly have run of the mill doggy/cat problems. i worked here in israel that was such a person. a large animal vet with very few large animals (here people with large animals dont use vets too much), and liked to ask one question: hmmmm , now why is that?

good luck

wow thats crazy!! it makes sense though! it seems like her mouth is where it smells but it could be her ears & they say ear wax will smell like maple syrup too.. but her litterbox doesnt smell like maple syrup..hmm thats so weird though.. i had a heck of a time finding a vet to deal with her. I called every vet in a 50 mile radius, they said they didnt deal with "livestock", because the 30 pound pig running around my house is livestock lol.. and the livestock vets told me they didnt deal with pets. I finally found one vet, who checked her for tumors & then prescribed her phenobarbitol. but that was it. he doesnt really deal with them either, but he is the livestock vet for my fiances dads farm so he kinda did it as a favor. I would find a swine vet to research it but I just spent my whole savings on my dogs kidney treatments, thousands and thousands of dollars just to get a million different diagnoses... they still dont know whats wrong (they think her lymes disease went to her kidneys, but if that were the case,they said she would be dead, so they are just confused), but Im not letting them torture her anymore. They wanted me to give her a special diet, which she hates, and it costs $10 a day and they want me to give her an IV of fluids every day, seems unnecessary to me because she looks & acts normal. Ive quit all of that because I didnt feel it was fair to take away her food that she loves and poke her with a needle every night. Id rather her be happy for the last year of her life, than be tortured for 2.. Seems like that maple syrup disease could be pretty dangerous if not treated though, Ill talk to a few of my friends that have pigs & see if they know anything about it.

 

[PinkFlamingoFrm]

sorry i missed quoting the part about the MAPLE SYRUP URINE DISEASE IN HUMANS I STOLE IT FROM WIKI.. but there is lots of info plus a few more diseases that could be checked out.

a quick google shows that that is actually a common question about pot belly pigs, the smell, i mean,just type in the question and see how many answers come up., so might not be related to the siezures, but who knows... sometimes cooncidences arent that at all.
and sometimes they are.

ok, this is really weird, but, i read it on google. It said that a pigs reproductive hormones can smell like maple syrup. She just came out of her first heat, and maybe the maple syrup smell was her girly hormones? I havent smelled it in a few days, maybe her being in heat stopped the seizures? She hasnt had a seizure since her heat started either, I havent smelled the maple syrup in the last few days, maybe it was only during her heat... hmm.. now you got me googling all kinds of crazy stuff lol.. Ill keep sniffing her mouth every day & see if the smells comes back.

 

[greenbrokefilly]

My mother and I both have mini pigs. They are six months old now. Daisy, my piggy, is about 6 pounds and has been having unexplained grand mal seizures for a few months. I called my vet and of course got the whole "there are all kinds of things that can trigger seizures". I was asked about smells, food, changes, but everything was the same. I was told to keep tallies and update them weekly. All of a sudden they stopped for a month or so. Then one day she had several and it hit me. I had just gone to the store and gotten her some more treats and I try to change them up. CARROTS! I had not noticed it sooner because I had been giving her a mixed salad 2 times a day containing a small amount of carrots for some time so it had not been a change. I ran out of carrots and changed it up a bit. So I took her off the carrots and the seizures stopped again. They are triggered differently with each person or animal. I had a dog with food allergies and he would get yeast infections in his ears. My mother has several food allergies(diagnosed and undiagnosed). I recommend trying an elimination diet. It could be just that simple. Try only giving her your mini pig food (we use muzuri) for 4-6 weeks. Then add in 1 thing at a time for a few weeks. Sometimes it builds up over time and then you have a problem. It could also be something more serious and costly. I always say start at the bottom least intrusive and work up. I am not a vet, but this is what my personal experiences have taught me. Good luck