This is Nadine, a 305g female hog that came in yesterday afternoon. She was seen out during the daytime, limping, with a cloud of flies around her.
She smelled strongly of infection, and was dehydrated.
We quickly noticed that she had a large puncture wound near her right armpit, and the skin was torn from a large section of her chest. The whole area was full of leaf debris and other material, and was full of infection and decaying tissue.
We cleaned the whole area and removed as much pus and infected tissue as possible, flushing with liberal amounts of sterile saline solution. Antibacterial barrier ointment was applied topically to the whole area to help keep down infection.
She was given subcutaneous fluids, pain relief and antibiotic injections and placed into an ICU with food and water.
It looks very much like she had been impaled on something and had managed to free herself.
I’m pleased to report that she cleared her food bowl overnight, and the wound had very little infection when we checked her this morning. The smell has also very much reduced. The wound was flushed again and she was given more pain relief and antibiotics.
We will keep a very close eye on her, and she will remain in an ICU for at least the next 48 hours.
