More than 27,000 people have joined a fans’ group in honour of the strange-looking animal, who is quickly becoming one of Alabama’s biggest stars.
Pig, who bears little resemblance to the curly-tailed farmyard animal, suffers from short spine syndrome and has bones that are fused together.
Her condition causes her to walk like a gorilla and she often loses her balance, toppling over like a toddler.
But she is not letting her disability get her down and her adventures are chronicled on a Facebook page called Pig the Unusual Dog.
Kim Dillenbeck, who adopted Pig after finding her in a forest, said her pet is “living life to the fullest”.
“She’s missing several inches of her spine (and) her joints, her hips … none of them are in the right position,” she added.
Dr Rachael Hudson-Breland, the vet who treats Pig, said the eight-month-old mutt is given “rock star” treatment at her clinic.
“I don’t think Pig really knows she looks different,” she said.
“She runs around, she plays. The only thing with Pig is … she has respiratory issues, so when she’s running around she gets a little more tired than most dogs.”
Veterinarians warn of rising cases of mystery dog illness
Veterinarians are sounding the alarm as they see a growing number of coughing dogs.
Wendy Brown’s three golden retrievers — Bridge, Dooley and Lulu — are among the dogs who started showing symptoms earlier this November.
“Dooley started doing kind of this huffing and also seemed to feel quite lethargic,” Brown recalled to “Good Morning America.” “Not too long after, Bridge began to exhibit the symptoms. But his were louder, more boisterous. I thought it was his stomach because he made like a retching sound.”
Initially, Brown thought her pets had a typical kennel cough but when their symptoms didn’t subside, she knew it was something more serious.
“The vet started him on a 10-day cycle of doxycycline. Today was day 10 and he is not a lot better,” Brown said.
Brown, an Idaho resident, said she’s still not sure what could have caused her dogs’ illness in the first place.
While research is underway, veterinarians say the mystery illness is highly contagious and can be fatal. Reported symptoms so far have also been typical of a kennel cough and they include coughing, sneezing, nasal and/or eye discharge and lethargy.
“Instead of that dry cough where the dog felt good, it was now this wet cough where the dog felt sick,” Amanda Cavanagh, the section head of the urgent care service at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, told “GMA.”
Experts like Cavanagh said any dogs showing signs of consistent coughing should be brought to a vet to be examined.
“We can ultrasound the lungs to see if there is a problem that is related to pneumonia or the contagious pneumonia that seems to be going around,” Cavanagh said.
Cavanagh also recommends keeping any coughing dogs away from other dogs and for two weeks after the cough goes away.
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