Baby came to Ironwood about 3 years ago. She was under the care of a woman in Arizona when she became ill. The veterinarian that she saw wasn't of much help. Her mom then contacted Mary here at Ironwood seeking advice. Baby was able to see the vet that was helping at Ironwood at the time. Baby was taken care of as best as possible and also ended up being spayed. At the time Baby's mom thought that she would be moving out of state so Baby was moved to Ironwood.
Baby was very overweight to the extent where she ended up walking on her sutures from her surgery and tore them open. Baby had to be stapled and cleaned up. Baby did eventually lose weight but her health never seemed so great. She then developed some pretty harsh cancer sores which you can see are covering her side. She loves her wallow and the sores get very dirty and painful. We clean them daily and cover her with swat but they are still bad.
Lately she's seemed to be going downhill. Tressie, another worker here, and I tried to bathe her yesterday but she can hardly walk. She is very lame and walking is painful. We couldn't get her far and didn't want to make her walk any further. We gave her a mini sponge bath and let her go back to her pen.
As her quality of life has seemed to decrease so much lately and everything just seems too much for her it was decided that it would be best to "put her down".Today Mary was preparing to do so but Baby would not have anything to do with it. She screamed and tossed her head when she tried to apply the mask. Baby was not ready! When a pig is in their last days they normally do not put up this much of a fight. Mary withdrew.
Our plan is to keep her as comfortable as possible, as we were, and watch her. It's always preferred that an animal passes on their own but when they're suffering we can't let them lay in pain. I will update on Baby as more happens. For now, she lays with her blanket and gets extra treats.
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