i did some looking around at allexperts.com and found this answer to a question about a pbp losing its balance (i will put it in quotes)... "Pigs have narrow ear canals that are easily blocked, and blocked ears can affect balance. Lack of balance can also be caused by neurological problems like stroke or salt poisoning. Antibiotics will not fix any of these problems. Make sure her ears are clean but do NOT squirt liquid into the ears and do NOT allow the vet to flush them with water. Both cleaning techniques can cause the ear canal to plug with water, making things worse and causing deafness. A blood test will help your vet determine if this problem is caused by an infection, and if so, which antibiotic is best." i hope your oinker gets better and hopefully, antibiotics will help if it's a simple ear infection that is causing loss of balance. fyi, if you feel so inclined, you should post some pics of your piggy in the gardenweb pets forum. i do occasionally and the other folks there love seeing them. :)

Oh geez--how terrible! :( I'm so sorry this happened. Why do people who don't actually own the animals insist on feeding them things?! Keeping my fingers crossed and sending 'get well piggies!' thoughts their way. It sounds like you are already doing everything you can, I can't add any advice. Velvet ~:>

I rented a house with a small back yard. The property manager stated that he placed bark in the 10x10 area that was unpaved that was guaranteed to kill all manner of weeds for at least 18 months. This made it pretty much impossible to grow anything in that area, so I didn't try to plant anything whatsoever. I enjoy barbecuing very much. I usually use Kingsford Charcoal to grill my steak, lamb, chicken, and whatever else, and I had done so for most of the two years that I lived at the unit with only a few exceptions. I placed the charcoal into a caged compost pit along with weeds plucked from the front yard and vegetable scraps among other consumer bi-products which are acceptable for such purposes as gardening. After dumping the, alleged, toxic charcoal ash, "waste" into the compost heap, I noticed that it started to leach out into the rest of the yard. I never worried about this since I read that the ash from past volcanoes actually helped to restore the environments they once destroyed. Of course these are two different circumstances , but carbon is a major bi-product of both events. It took around 6 months then started to notice the weeds that started to grow in the same place that was once toxic to all plant life. They grew uncontrollably in the area. At this point I think it is fair to say that the weeds owned that yard when I moved. I attribute this fact to carbon's ability to bond to other elements; thus, cleansing our environment. I wouldn't use Charcoal brick ash in my vegetable garden, but I think that carbon should play a role where toxins are present in the environment. Furthermore; ones ashes from a fire place should be completely safe to use in ones compost heap.

Good advice on pigweed control. This is an annual weed, fairly easy to pull and cultivating/disturbing the soil will only bring more seed to the surface to germinate. It does not deter me from using composted manure in my gardens. A case of the benefits outweighing the downside by a long shot. It is common for manure to contain both pigweed and lambsquarter seed. Why? is a mystery to me. Both of these weeds are pioneer species....coming in on barren/disturbed soil...like in gardens. Our livestock graze on pastures and fields that do not contain any pigweed....yet the manure always has a tremendous supply of these seeds. In moments of lofty thought, I ponder this great mystery! LOL. My current weed problem is sow thistle. I have never had this before in any of my gardens and this year it appeared by the millions. I think every bird within a hundred mile radius feasted on this seed and then came directly to my gardens to dump their load. Sow Thistle is one bad weed. It has a tap root that can go as deep as a meter. It starts out as a little prickly rosette and, I swear, in less than a week it is a full grown plant setting and distributing its dandelion-like seed all over the place. You can't pull it because of the tap root. If you break off the root it comes back again from the root. Unusual for an annual. I am losing the battle on controlling this noxious weed despite spending countless hours digging it out. Just when I thought I was making progress against the Purslane...this awful thing shows up....sigh. Jan