Yesterday, I called the vet to talk about The Shush Sister Charlotte, who is still walking very wonkily. And not often. She lists to the side like a sinking container ship. 
But the vet was out for the day and would not be back until Monday. No-one could help me there. Hmm. 
I called the breeder, no joy there either. By then I was feeling a bit annoyed with them all. So I decided to take things into my own hands and looked on the internet and discovered that pigs can take aspirin. Who knew! One and a half per hundred pounds. So I gave her three with some honey. Charlotte woofed it down then went back to her corner. Whether it was the aspirin or just that she is into her third day of recovery ( I refuse to discuss anything other than recovery) but she did move about a bit within the hour and she stood up to eat later in the afternoon. Putting her foot down when she was eating. 
So I think she is ever so slightly on the mend. The mornings are the worst for her though. Stiff I suppose. Ella Dee has suggested arnica and glucosamine. So we will find those too. I swear, between us, using all the knowledge the Weblog family has, and the support and good thoughts from you all, I think we can pull her through ourselves. (That was a muddled sentence but it is too early in the morning for me to untangle it and I am sure you know what I am saying!
The Daily View, a month ago –
And yesterday.
The night temperatures are dropping. Twenty Two F. That is something like minus 4C. Chilly. 
Now I am going to go and grind up some aspirin for our girl (the hardest part is making sure it is Charlotte who gets the pain relief not that Sheila, but so far so good).
Daisy has new milking cups as part of the ever lasting mission to get the most comfortable and efficient milking system for the winter and these cups have a wee area at the top of clear plastic, so we can see what quarter is giving how much milk, it is pretty neat actually. They arrived yesterday. Daisy does not care. Daisy being Daisy just eats, whips me with her tail and tries to kick the cups off when she decides she is finished. Which is usually about the time she is finished but I prefer to take them off myself thank you very much Daisy.
Have a lovely day.
celi
PS. Yesterday I wrote 3, 656 words, good words too I think, which brought my big total up to 12, 487 words. And I found that yesterday I was writing better too. The actual content is improving. I am not allowed to edit but I can already see where I will be deleting, adding and reworking when January comes along. But the story is fun. We just found the husband in a freezer in the back of a removal van! Fantastic. Ah well, we did not like him much anyway!
PSS. If you have a teenager saying what shall I do with my life tell her or him to be a vet. They will never ever be out of work.
The Kitchen's Garden 
79 responses to “Charlotte begins her Slow Recovery. Because I said so.”
Very pleased to hear that Charlotte is stomping about as a pig should do. Excellent. And well done on your word count. I’m snowed under with that U of Penn writing course, plus November Poem-a-Day Challenge, so my hopes for NaNo are mere wisps of smoke now. I think it’s too late to catch up with everything else on my plate. Happy weekend to you, c!
I truly think you have enough writing to do at the moment, don’t even think about this challenge. It is just tons of fun anyway, not serious.. c
Oh good news indeed – aspirin does work wonders for many things, after all it has very homeopathic origins. And hopefully with the arnica she´ll soon be back on her trotters! Your advice to teenagers made me chuckle as we were saying the same thing the other day but substituting the word vet for plumber/carpet fitter/plasterer/tiler – at least, they seem to be eternally busy where we are working right now!
Oh i remember that from when i lived in London, the builders had to be booked months ahead and as for the plumbers.. i think they should teach plumbing in school so you can do your own!! c
so so happy to hear that charlotte is responding to the aspirin. maybe it is just a bad sprain? i hate it when our animals are sick and we don’t know what is wrong with them.
Well the painkiller has got to be helping something! If it’s muscular, you could try fish oil as well but I’ve never heard of it being given to pigs before! Hmm, I’ve just remember another remedy which might work in this case but you’d need to find a Chinese medicine place, dragon juice/tiger balm. It’s antiseptic and a muscle rub and just about everything else. You’re writing so fast! It must be kind of frustrating not being able to go back and edit stuff. 🙂
Actually it is a joy, no worries about punctuation or spelling or even good paragraphing ,, it is all about the story.. I will go back and mark it once I have it all down.. c
Morning, you are up bright and early. I guess the story line should read ” this little piggy ate aspirin”
Wonderful to hear about the flow of words too. off to make parkin, it is bonfire night (well soon it is)
yay Charlotte 🙂
Good to hear about Charlotte, and your story is off to a raging fast start!
Have a great day, C!
Great news about Miss Charlotte’s improvement – the wonders of a simple aspirin! Hope she continues and you don’t need the vet (if he would come, that is).
So glad you’ve found some relief for Charlotte’s problem. Remember that aspirin is an anti-coagulent, – don’t let her cut herself and don’t keep it up for too long. I wish I could send you my neighbourly pig-lady-vet.
Wowee for the Nano total. Tillybud is doing well too – we were chatting this morning.
Hi Celi! I hope Charlotte gets better soon. While I think a visit from the vet is definitely in order, it sounds like you have a good solution for now. Chinese medicine (either topical or internal) can be helpful depending on what the diagnosis is. Yes, vets will always be in business. As will ER doctors and surgeons! Same work, different species! Btw, you have inspired me to get back to writing.. I’m attempting a children’s novel that I’ve been thinking of for a while now… I’ll be lucky if I get 25,000 words down as my only writing opportunity is when all the kids have gone to sleep for the night…which is not a regular occasion!! So far I’ve managed the 1700 words in a day…we will see how it goes!
I think that is absolutely wonderful.. writing a childrens novel is perfect. When i am writing usually, I just make sure to write something EVERY day, even two hundred words,, not editing that does not count.. Some new content, even written while stuffing food in your children’s mouths works.. I am thrilled to bits, keep me up to date and let me know how you are doing.. c
Look at you cranking away on that novel! I’m glad to hear that Charlotte is responding to aspirin and rest, no thanks to the vet or breeder.
Celi, I just remembered that Bernadette, the bigger one of our two pigs DID have an issue with one of her legs and that she limped off and on for awhile. We just watched her and she got over it. Jack said that just like a person she may have laid on it wrong or pulled a muscle somehow, and just needed some time to get over it. I’d forgotten about it since it’s been months since that happened. So, I hate to sound redundant of the vet and breeder, but waiting a few days for whatever it is to heal up is a good idea. Also, not letting them get too fat is a good idea too. 🙂
I am more than happy to wait a few days and she gets over it.. that sounds like a wonderful outcome. FOUR pounds of grain each and NO MORE, from now on. I am such a sucker for a little poor me pig face! How are you going with the breeding!?
Very good news!
MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) another natural antiflamatory used by race horse trainers,and usually in conjuction with Glucoamine, might also help! Glad Charlotte is feeling better. Hello Hairy … these 12,487 words are fiction ……. right? 🙂 Laura
Vets, hmm, don’t get me going! I find it strange about your cow vet though. Surely a vet has to train in all animals. OK, some may specialise, but the basic knowledge and threfore a starting point to diagnose another animal’s condition shouldn’t be too difficult. Maybe vets are trained differently in America.
Christine
My vet sister-in-law trained as a large animal vet – she like horses best but did cows, too. It is specialized. Due to illness and age she now does small animals/pet but doesn’t like it as much – farmers/ranchers have a different mentality than pet owners. It’s actually harder to get in vet school than med school. A good field if you like working with people and don’t get discouraged about pet owners who put off pet care until things are so bad.
Sure it’s more difficult to get into vet school – more species to cover! When we first moved to Skye, our local vet treated everything; cattle, horses. sheep, pigs and of course the usual pets. I guess that’s why I find it difficault to understand why Cecilia is having such trouble having poor Charlotte’s condition diagnosed by ANY vet. (It has to be said though, that our current vet ain’t quite so hot!)
Christine
vet school sure isn’t for everyone, but maybe there needs to be more places and some grants to train more vets. The same actually applies for doctors too I think. We only get a doctor out here once a week, on a tuesday. I think the bigger issue is the shrinking of services to the country folk. this goes for Post offices, internet connections, cell phone coverage, grocery stores.. all of it.. c