Still no definitive results on dead piglets

The preliminary lab reports have come back on our two dead piglets.

The vet phoned to say that both piglets had acute pericarditis (inflammation of the sac that covers the heart) leading to cardiac tamponade, but the Scottish Agricultural College laboratory was unable to isolate the causative agent.

Further cultures are being done.

The vet said confirmed that if the agent had been bacterial, then she should have found pus in between the sac and the heart. She found blood with no pus.

Also, she said that if piglets had something like Glässers Disease there would have been other clinical signs found during the autopsy, such as abscesses, fibrin on other organs, lesions and the like. She found none of these and the lab was unable to isolate any of the more commonly found infective agents.

The vet added that if the agent had been bacterial the second piglet should have been recovering as it had been treated with antibiotics before it showed symptoms.

She said if the agent was a virus then steroids could be used to reduce the inflammation but otherwise we’d have to hope that our surviving piglets could fight it on their own.

If the surviving piglets do  develop pericarditis or cardiac tamponade, the vet would be able to detect them by listening to the piglets’ hearts with a stethoscope.

If the vet hears a rubbing, grating sound then pericarditis is likely.

When pericarditis is severe, the build-up of fluid is so great it puts pressure on the heart, stops the chambers filling normally, and prevents the heart from pumping blood around the body.

This is the condition known as cardiac tamponade and it is rapidly lethal. It leads to rapid, severe breathlessness and death.

The vet said it would be possible to relieve cardiac tamponade by using a needle and syringe to drain off the fluid between the sac and the heart, but it would be high risk as the animal would need to be sedated and a fair degree of skill would be required.

So while we wait for further cultures to be grown, we’re maintaining the three-day antibiotic regime for Daphne, the sow, and her remaining piglets to cover the possibility of bacteria being the agent.

We’ll continue to keep them isolated in an outbuilding away from the other pigs and monitor them closely, being prepared to consider getting the vet out to relieve a cardiac tamponade in the sow if necessary.

Daphne is simply too valuable to lose.

However, of the surviving piglets develop cardiac tamponade I’ll put them down as the cost of veterinary treatment would exceed their value.