21/08/2025
Today was check in day with our vet. The final verdict for Briella Mae is heart disease since she is responding very well to the heart med. It's extremely difficult to determine heart disease vs pneumonia even on x ray sometimes. The symptoms are almost identical. A couple small difference that I have noticed over the years, and this may just be anecdotal, is that when its heart disease, there isn't much if a change in their appetite (but even with eating well, there is typically weighloss) and they are less active but not completely lethargic. Pneumonia seems to really hit their systems hard. They typically have little to no appetite and are pretty lethargic to the point of not even standing up. The labored breathing definitely looks the same in both cases though.
We are still going back and forth on the age of Butterfly. I didnt realize that Dr. Ford had noted some arthritis in her hind end until I double checked today. But, I have also seen extremely young mama piggies who wind up with pregnancy/labor related injuries that have also had arthritis. For example, May 2024 we took Danica in with her newborn babies. She had a labor related injury that affected her pelvis and leg (which did clear up over time). She was a maximum of 5 months old and already had arthritis and we know this because she grew into a very large piggie. She's a moose now lol.
So we are on the fence about actual age for Butterfly but have agreed to offer her some recovery food since she has not been eating great since givong birth. She will get a few hours a day in the herd so she can socialize ( incase she is depressed) and exercise a bit to strengthen her hips. But she will also have time in the hospital cage to watch her eating habits, monitor her drinking which is still pretty excessive and watch out for the sludge turning into a stone.
