The Limits By Shalion

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The Limits

By Shalion

Pricilla was what they called a “miniature pig,” but she was not what you would call “small” by any means. Her breed hails from a small island called Ossabaw off the coast of Georgia where the population was isolated for many decades. The swine there grew thrifty, able to survive the cycles in the availability of food by being able to store large reserves for lean times. It was for this trait that Pricilla and her kind were selected for the study.

Pricilla lived in a modest pen whose concrete walls were too high to see over. She spent most of her time in there, but it did not

bother her too much for one of the walls was different. It was

transparent and through it, she was able to see her partner, Rosetta. They’d been together as long as Pricilla cared to remember during her short, rather uneventful existence. They’d never been able to touch, but merely being able to see here there on the other side of the plastic provided some comfort. Pricilla, being the simple sort, did not really require much more stimulation than that. She did however notice small differences in their daily routines.

Pricilla noticed that the caretakers seemed to pay more attention to her. She endured the poking and prodding and the sharp stings they dealt when withdrawing blood, but there were the frequent pats and back rubs as well and she would huff low pitched oinks of contentment when they were around, stomping outside of the pen. Rosetta did not receive nearly as much attention. But the biggest difference was in the way they were fed. Pricilla was fed a greasy, moist food from a gravity fed trough, the food constantly falling down to replace itself as she ate. The sow could eat as much as she desired, while her

partner across the plastic wall was fed only measured portions and Pricilla could smell that the dry pellets she got were not nearly as good. The best that Pricilla could figure was that the caretakers liked her better. As far as the sow was concerned, that was just fine. Rosetta after all, did not seem to mind being fed only a

limited amount of a much worse food. As Pricilla ate heavily from her trough and felt the oils squish out of her fare, she thought only that she would be greatly displeased if she were to have to switch to

Rosetta’s diet.

At around six months of age, Pricilla was advancing rapidly from piglet to full adulthood. It was also around this time that she began to notice a slight difference between herself and her companion. They had both grown a lot since they had come to their homes. In fact, Pricilla barely remembered how afraid she had initially been. Looking across through the plastic barrier, Pricilla saw a sow nearly twice as

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long as she had been when they had first met. Her skin was a pale cream, speckled with brown specks. Her abdomen was smooth, bearing small pink dots arranged in two rows down her middle. Her ears were large and her ribs were just visible beneath the nearly hairless skin. Her tummy lifted significantly behind the ribs and her haunches had a hand’s breadth of space between them as she ambled around the enclosed space.

Pricilla was forced to recognize that she seemed to be changing in a slightly different way. For instance, her ribs could barely be felt, let alone seen from the side and her tummy, rather than arching up, remained fairly level with her solar plexus, tapering up only a little. It was soft and the pink dots she sported were spread more widely apart. She was longer too, but not by much. Pricilla also noticed that her neck was much more pronounced than Rosetta’s and she already had a greater curve to her face and lower jaw. This seemed to please the caretakers a lot and she would twitch her ears in pleasure and snort as they patted her and felt how she was filling in her frame. Rosetta received some attention of course, but Pricilla knew that their real objective had to be her. Pricilla took to standing right by the plastic barrier, showing Rosetta how she was progressing. To the heavier sow, it seemed that her companion was lagging behind. Rosetta could only observe her so long before turning away and when she did, Pricilla would make low snorts of contentment before

returning to her much vaunted trough to sate her growing appetite.

Subject No. 15J01280010 Nickname: Pricilla Age: 6 mo Body weight: 28 kg Length: 80 cm BMI: 43.7

Report: Subject is a female Ossabaw miniature pig. Subject has been reacting favorably to high fat, high cholesterol diet. Daily intake has been measured at 2.2 kg and is increasing. Vitals appear normal. Subject has slightly elevated LDL cholesterol and is observably obese. Subject No. 15J01280009 Nickname: Rosetta Age: 6 mo Body weight: 19 kg Length: 76 cm BMI: 32.9

Report: Subject is a female Ossabaw miniature pig. As the non-obese control, subject has been fed on a restricted low Calorie diet. Conditioning remains low, but muscle tone matches nominal development. An increase in diet is not recommended at this

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time. Subject appears to show an interest in neighboring sow and is slightly more active and alert.

In time, Pricilla acclimated and accepted what appeared to be her lot in life. Her world consisted of her four walls and the caretakers who drifted in and out of it, and the food trough of course. Pricilla did not spend much time thinking about the future. Her ongoing

thoughts consisted mainly of reacting to the limited stimuli available to her. Rosetta provided much needed, but limited interaction.

Sometimes, they would stare at each other and exchange low oinks in their respective voices, but there was little if any information exchanged. If anything, eating was Pricilla’s most cherished hobby and she was glad she could practice it whenever she liked, unlike her partner. Perhaps comparing her life to Rosetta’s was Pricilla’s second most cherished pass time.

Both sows continued to increase in size, but while Rosetta only really seemed to stretch out in length, displaying her muscles and many bones under her skin, Pricilla gratefully expanded her girth. The blanket of fat on her only deepened as she matured. Pricilla was grateful for the padding as she found she could lie for hours at a time on her flank comfortably, unlike Pricilla who got up often to move and walk around needlessly in her antsy preoccupation. Pricilla thought that it was more dignified to lie on one’s side or belly until a need arose for a snack or a drink or to use the drain at the side of the pen. Rosetta seemed so anxious in comparison. Pricilla had

already figured out how life was to be lived in this place. The air conditioned, quiet and unchanging environment called for an equally placid composure, or that is how the obese sow felt about it. Though, perhaps the fact that it took a not unnoticeable amount of effort to rise nowadays had something to do with her outlook on life as well.

By the time that Pricilla was a year old, the fact that she and Rosetta were vastly different could not be hidden by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it routinely surprised Pricilla each time that she wandered over to the clear wall how vast in scope was the size difference between her and her cell mate. Rosetta had nearly attained her adult size, or so dim memories of her mother informed the fattened sow. She was very slim for a hog, or so it seemed. Her ribs again were just visible, and Pricilla was of the opinion that she was only a few missed meals away from withering, but the fat layer on her seemed stubbornly constant and unchanging. Her neck had grown larger as well as her nose and ears. For an average swine, her legs were slender and short, but Pricilla lacked any kind of outside reference. Her “tummy” if one could call it that, was an mere void in the heavier sow’s eyes. The tummy was obscenely vacant, rising high behind the rib cage and Rosetta was able to move about without rubbing her thighs together. The nipples on the slender sow’s tummy had grown to

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pronounced structures and there were growing signs that she was becoming sexually frustrated with the lack of any males around.

Despite having matured the same length of time, Pricilla herself had hardly any desire to meet any males. Her philosophy of stillness had advanced from a lifestyle to an art. Pricilla liked to economize her movement, for instance, waiting until she needed to pee to get up to drink heavily from the fountain set in the wall. She also mostly rested by the food trough now, so that she did not have to get

completely up in order to fill her mouth for a snack if she wanted. Pricilla was persuaded to approach life like this since it did take rather a lot of effort to get to her hooves any more.

Pricilla’s body had widened and thickened and deepened in all directions. Her torso had grown to be very round compared with

Rosetta’s and not just around her waist. Her back arched roundly over her spine and the fat there was dense and firm like the sole of a shoe. Her pale cream colored skin stretched over a vast area, her flanks jutting like hemispheres at her sides. Her belly was

Pricilla’s proudest asset. It dropped low, consuming monstrously the space of her undercarriage. The under-hang was so low, it brushed against the hocks of her hind feet when she moved her leg too far forward. On Pricilla’s abdomen, the two lines of nipples were rarely visible together, one or the other row usually hidden against the floor as her tummy flowed outwards. Standing, the rows were

noticeably bowed outwards rather than parallel, to match the curve of her expanding proportions.

As much as her torso, had changed, however, Pricilla’s neck and cheeks had expanded hugely. The bottom of her fleshy neck was even with her fatty, protruding chest and it expanded like a spare tire in between her shoulders and the back of her head. Her cheeks were round and very, very full, in fact, pressing against the expanding neck flesh behind them to form a crease. There was even a small crease between her cheeks and the base of her snout.

Pricilla was able to catch a slight reflection of herself in the transparent wall sometimes. When she was able to see how far she had advanced, it was a little difficult to even believe that she and Rosetta were the same kin. Yet such were the mysteries of life and Pricilla accepted the fact as she accepted the fact of the pen and her existence entirely.

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Report: Subject’s BMI is showing advanced growth compared to non-obese control. Adipose deposits have grown excessively over the ribs, on the back, abdomen and base of tail. The neck and face have thickened with fat, forming deep creases at the jaw and around the face. Subject remains inert during most of waking hours, only rising to feed, drink or relieve herself. Subject shows a greater reluctance to rise for examination, perhaps indicating low level joint pain or reduced muscle tone. LDL cholesterol is measured at 0.56 mmol/L compared to 0.28 mmol/L of the non-obese control. Sleep apnea appears to be setting in as the sow has been observed snoring loudly, additional equipment is needed to obtain metrics. Resting blood pressure has become elevated compared to control and blood protein analysis shows a spike in liver function. Insulin resistance has been observed where there is none in the non-obese control. Daily intake of food has increased to 10 kg. Recommendation is to reduce the proportion of lard to decelerate weight gain.

Subject No. 15J01280009 Nickname: Rosetta Age: 12 mo Body weight: 34 kg Length: 99 cm BMI: 34.7

Report: Non-obese control remains active compared to obese counterpart. About 75% of wakeful hours are spent standing. Subject appears restless, perhaps due to sexual maturation. More handling is recommended to reduce stress. Subject has been

observed standing at the plastic divider for long periods of time, perhaps out of a desire for social contact. Only very rarely does the obese subject move closer in response. All vitals appear nominal for age group. No recommendation for dietary change at this time.

When Pricilla’s belly began to drag on the floor, she started to become mildly apprehensive about her size for the first time in her life. Again, it was merely reactionary, a note of surprise in the sow’s mind when she found that she could not easily part the skin of her tummy from the floor while standing. But that note came again and again each time she rose for her daily needs, waddling her trotters around her rounded girth while between them, the skin dragged across a larger and larger area and with increasing friction as her waistline

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continued to grow. Walking changed from an mere inconvenience to a real hassle. Pricilla lost her ability to stride completely over time, instead each heavy footstep was laden with effort and took her deliberate attention as she struggled to maintain her balance while simultaneously summoning the strength to hold herself up and move forward while also trying not to step on any folds of her own delicate flesh. Her body felt extremely heavy when standing on four feet. Her pale flesh rose like a curtain from solidly on the floor to above the crown of her head where her back swelled roundly like the body of an engorged tick. There was so much more Pricilla than there was Rosetta and yet, from snout to tail, they were almost the same size. Pricilla at least was comforted in the fact that she did not have to travel an great distances to get what she needed. In fact, the pen where she lived had not felt so roomy in her entire life. With the effort

needed to get up and drag her ponderous body from one end to the other requiring all of her attention and leaving her breathing heavily by the end, the fattened sow felt that she had all of the space she required. In her opinion, the feed trough could even be lowered by several centimeters so that she could more easily eat while lying down, rather than having to lift up her bulky forequarters to get her head over the rim.

While the belly dragging was definitely the biggest issue with Pricilla’s life at the moment, there were other considerations too. For instance, she was annoyed at how her neck had gotten so large and bulbous that it pressed against the lip of the feeding trough when she put her snout in. It prevented her from shoving her mouth in as far as she was used to and made feeding while prone more awkward such that she usually had to sit up completely to feed comfortably. While sitting up, her belly flowed hugely over the ground and pressed

against the backs of her forefeet, so she was spared having to support her entire weight, but it was still a chore. Pricilla’s face had grown even more fleshy compared to Rosetta’s smooth, boney features. Her cheeks pressed firmly against the expanding ring of neck fat behind them and had grown to look like miniature spare tires

themselves. The crease between her jowls and neck was so deep that a caretaker could stick his entire hand into the fold. It was a

slightly irritating space with the wiry bristles that Pricilla grew around her face and neck getting locked permanently into a breathless cavity. But even more troubling than that were the increasing folds of fat around her eyes and brow.

Pricilla’s cheek bones were brimming fully with fat, but she also accumulated it at the sides of her face, resulting in deep wrinkles extending from the corners of her eyes out into cream colored real estate that was formerly empty space. The fat deepened even on top of her skull and forward onto her forehead, making her brow protrude in a way that made her face almost unrecognizable compared to Rosetta. In fact, Pricilla sometimes felt as though the excess skin were drooping

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onto her eyelids, narrowing her field of vision until she noticed and forced her fully open once more.

Though Pricilla had to put up with more inconveniences resulting from her sheer size, she felt that it was somewhat compensated by a surge of interest from her caretakers. By now, she had decided that their only function was to provide services and lavish attention on her and they were doing both tasks aptly, though perhaps with a bit too much enthusiasm. There were more pats and strokes and meaningless words of affection for sure, but there were also many more pinches, pricks and prods. The caretakers would pinch her fat at various locations with calipers and probe her deeply with gloved fingers. They took swabs inside the creases of skin everywhere on her body and stuck cold instruments into all the orifices of her body. They drew blood and scraped off skin samples and worst, they took biopsies of her precious fat in hard to reach locations that would sting for hours. They would part the skin folding around her eyes and shine a bright light into them. They even forced her to drink surgery

solutions with a large syringe forced into the back of her mouth while drawing a trickle of blood through a large vein in her ear. After more exhausting episodes of treatment, Pricilla had to console herself with food to take her mind off the little aches they had inflicted on her. But most unusual was what they began to do with her at night.

By the time that evening, or at least when the lights were dimmed, came around Pricilla was usually already deep asleep and had been that way for a couple hours. The corpulent sow felt that she needed much more sleep than Rosetta, who after all, did not have nearly such an impressive figure to haul around during the day. But the caretakers, who had previously left her to sleep through the night, would turn the lights back on and huddle into her pen. With big sheets, they would manipulate her magnificent bulk so as to fit her with leather straps about her chest and abdomen which were tightened snugly against her soft, yielding flesh. It was slightly uncomfortable, but not nearly so much that she would have felt the need to get up and try to remove them. But what was worse was what they put over her snout.

The caretakers would place a plastic mask over her mouth and nose which smelled strange and alien, but did not seem to inhibit her

breathing. They tied this on so she could not remove it during the entire night. The clamped sensors onto her ear and even tapped a vein for a constant trickle of blood, but most bizarrely, they inserted thin needles into the flesh of her scalp and clamped them down with tape. Pricilla was only fortunate in that with the expansion of her body, her skin had become slightly less sensitive in some areas.

When this first started happening, she had resisted the foul treatment of her person. But quickly she found that her effort was

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completely futile. Her strength was no match for that of a caretaker, at least when she was trying to rise against both the strength of his arms and the weight of her own body. It was childishly easy for them to pin her on her side and she grew exhausted in only a few minutes, which seemed to be the entire point of the exercise in the end. The caretakers left the instruments attached to her while she became drowsy and nodded off into unavoidable sleep and they would come off again either after several hours of sleep or the following morning, the pattern was never consistent. After a month, Pricilla resigned herself to the new routine and stopped resisting. She hated feeling so exhausted after struggling so pathetically anyways.

It dimly came to Pricilla that around the time the caretakers started taking their nocturnal measurements of her body, her quality of sleep began to diminish. The sow could have connected the

instruments with the disruptions, but Pricilla felt it was a useless thought to have, considering there was nothing she could do about the elements placed on her. Nevertheless, the fattened sow found that she would now wake several times during the night. She did not know why, but when she did, she found that she had to catch her breath, almost as if she had spent a long time waddling as fast as she could. It was distressing having to catch her breath in the middle of the night and she would feel too warm until her breathing had calmed back down and she could sleep once more. Pricilla sometimes noticed that Rosetta was staring at her when these episodes happened, but she never even bothered to oink to acknowledge her. What Pricilla had done to awaken the lean sow and draw her attention, she had no clue nor really cared. Pricilla merely chalked it up as a peculiarity of that sow’s uncomely skeletal frame and excess of energy.

Report: Subject is now more than double the weight of the non-obese control and can be classified as “super non-obese.” Subject exhibits vastly reduced mobility compared to the lean control and typically rises to all feet less than 5 times per day on average. Subject sometimes scoots haunches and lower body along the floor to avoid standing. Full immobility is expected at higher body weight. Preventative action may be necessary to prevent bed sores and skin infections. Cultures from skin swabs inside folds of skin show a growth of anaerobic bacteria and isolated skin fungal growth. This is likely due to accumulated moisture and lack of oxygen in skin fold environments. Since the study is focusing on internal disorders related to obesity in the Ossabaw mini-pig, it is recommended that the skin folds be treated with

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medicated skin powders and ointments to forestall rampant skin infections. Blood pressure has increased greatly compared to non-obese control, which is suggestive of atherosclerosis, suggest an intravascular ultrasound to confirm the condition. LDL cholesterol has been measured at 0.98 mmol/L, less than four times the level of non-obese control. Fatty Liver syndrome is also confirmed in protein analysis of blood, but currently is at a mild stage with no decrease in liver function. Tissue biopsies show both hyperphagia and hyperplasty in adipocytes, indicative of the rapid expansion of tissue. Adipose does not appear inflamed despite increasing obesity. Insulin tolerance also continues to increase in comparison to non-obese sow, subject is now pre-diabetic. Sleep apnea has also been confirmed by

measurements of chest and abdomen expansion as well as nocturnal concentrations of expired CO2 and blood oxygen saturation. An

EEG was used to confirm sleep cycles. Subject appears to demonstrate obstructive sleep apnea due to compression by the weight of adipose tissue on the upper airways. Apneas typically onset during REM sleep and on average 24.6 episodes are observed per hour of REM sleep while 3.8 episodes are observed during non-REM sleep. The apnea is a result of an overcorrecting feedback loop of heavier and lighter breathing in response to rising and falling blood oxygen levels. When breathing is fast and heavy, oxygen levels rise, resulting in a signal to reduce and slow breaths. For unknown reasons, the obese pig is not able to keep a stable cycle and overcorrects with greater and greater force in each cycle, eventually, the weak side of the cycle becomes so weak that the airway collapses due to the mild compression by surrounding fat. When air flow stops, chest and abdominal muscles spasm in a response to return airflow. Usually, this occurs without arousal, but during longer episodes, (t>10s) blood oxygen plummets and arousal occurs, with the sow waking and

shaking her head while breathing heavily. Blood oxygen swiftly returns to normal and the sow returns to sleep. During regular sleep, blood oxygen is averaged at 91% compared to 96% in the non-obese control. During apnea and hypnosis (shallow,

insufficient breathing), blood oxygen has been observed to fall below 80% in 60% of occurrences. In the worst 10% of

occurrences, blood oxygen falls to 50%, which usually results in an arousal. In behavior, subject shows little stress in response to increased sedentariness. There has been a decreased response to test procedures, which has facilitated staff functions during this study in comparison to the non-obese control. Subject has only increased in docility and manageability, perhaps simply due to the increased energy tax in purposeful movement. Despite

hampered mobility, daily intake of food continues to rise, now at an average of 18 kg per day. Recommend replacing 50% of

carbohydrate Calorie contribution with protein and fat to avoid aggravating diabetic condition and increasing Caloric density by

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25%. This will tell us if the sow will decrease intake to match Calorie requirements. Excess fat around the eyes suggests

inevitable mechanical blindness, will monitor for increasing stress and report if necessary.

Report: Non-obese control appears to have reached full adult size. BMI has increased within acceptable parameters despite restrictive diet which demonstrates the thriftiness of the Ossabaw gene stock. No increase in diet is necessary at this time. Non-obese control remains active and somewhat restless compared to obese subject. Subject has been more difficult to work with, though fewer tests have been necessary. Vitals appear nominal and non-obese control shows 0 out of 6 obesity risk

factors being observed in this study. Subject does not

frequently sleep through the night, though makes up for it with short naps during the day. Perhaps this is due to the loud snoring produced by adjacent obese subject.

If Pricilla had been capable of imagining the future, she would not have imagined that she could become so large, let alone live it out day after day. Adapting to her belly dragging along the ground had not been difficult, but as her body expanded relentlessly, the side effects and difficulties with life in general became increasingly hard to ignore.

One morning, when Pricilla was feeling particularly thirsty, she attempted to rise to her feet to waddle to the faucet. She attempted to and failed, once, then twice, then three times, and then four times. After the fourth attempt she was completely winded and had to sag back onto her expansive rump, her belly trying to force itself forward between and against her two four legs. At first, Pricilla did not comprehend what was happening, but as she repeatedly tried to rise, reality slowly dawned on her dull consciousness. It had already been many days since the last time she had bothered to get up and the last time had been so laborious that she had been loath in trying up until this point. In lieu of walking with her great belly dragging heavily on the smooth floor, each step a chore and a deliberate graceless calculation, she had taken to scooting her rump and gut on the floor. She either hefted her great weight with assistance of her fore legs in a sitting position, or when that was too onerous,

squirmed on her belly like a slug, using the muscles in her torso and her thin, short limbs to steer and support a minimum of the great mass of her. It was hard, and it took a long time, but she was spared the

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pain of actually supporting her bulk and it was effective enough a means of locomotion for her environment. But this morning, when the distance to the faucet was almost the full length of the pen, she could not summon the strength to get to her feet, no matter how hard she tried. In the recent past, she had been able to, with effort, heft her weight high enough to lock her knees and be able to support the weight for several minutes at least. But now, as she attempted to rise, the weight was so massive that her muscles stalled halfway

through the motion. She lost momentum and inevitably, her legs

collapsed slowly, or not so slowly, back down. Pricilla was breathing heavily and her heart was thundering in her ears by the time the

realization that walking would no longer be a part of her existence. And she was even more desperate for that drink, though the faucet lay what seemed to be leagues away in the fattened sow’s eyes.

Looking up, she saw Rosetta again staring at her through the transparent wall. Pricilla blinked several times to clear the moisture away from the surface of her eyes and opened them wider to see more clearly. There she was standing, her four hooves graceful and light on the cement floor. For the first time, Pricilla felt a pang of envy. Rosetta was not encumbered with so much excess flesh, movement was effortless for her and here Pricilla was, thirsty and exhausted and unable to reach the water she craved. Despite her breathlessness, Pricilla bellowed aggressively at Rosetta. Rosetta flinched, but did not turn away. Pricilla imagined that she sensed her complete impotence in this situation. The fattened sow gave up the display, she did not want to draw attention to the likely fact that her impotence would not at all improve, even if the clear wall had not been there. It did not take more than a couple days for Pricilla to give up on trying to stand entirely.

About a week after these events, the caretakers made some modifications to Pricilla’s environment. Nearly all of the

modifications were welcome to the super obese sow, and long overdue in her opinion. They seated her on a thin, dense mat, with rear end located near the drain. The trough was no longer filled, instead Pricilla was given large bowels of water and moist food which rested in front of her face. Whenever she emptied one or the other during the day, or during the ongoing apnea observations, it was filled back up right away so she could now eat at her leisure. Soon after this configuration was reached, Pricilla forgot about the pain of

attempting to haul her heavy self around the pen. The only movement she felt any need to do now was to roll over from one side to the other throughout the day to relieve pressure on the skin and allow it to breath. This was not too difficult to do with the muscles in her body and some leverage of her legs, despite her vast girth. More than that, however, the caretakers began to lavish her with powders and creams which they shoved into the various creases and folds around her body. It relieved some intense itching she had been feeling of late,

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though it did provoke some cold burning in certain areas. She liked especially when they rubbed her vast belly down with ointment and then dried her with towels. She was so soft, and loved the contact with the caretaker’s strange nimble hands which pressed deeply into her thick, fatty layers. The ointment cleared the redness that had been growing between her thick, rubbing thighs and the square feet of reddened stretch marks which marred the surface of her otherwise pale hide. Her nipples had also been abused by rubbing against the

concrete floor and only now it seemed that they were recovering. The change of lifestyle could not have come at a better time. Rosetta would see now that she did not need to gallop about like a fool. Rosetta if anything was foolish for there was no where to go anyways and Pricilla did not see anyone willing to rub her down with creams or powders or ointments. And still, thought Pricilla as she dumped the contents of yet another bowl into her eager maw, she was practically starved while she had never had want of food in her life.

The state of affairs now seemed to Pricilla as if it could go on forever. However, her body seemed to responded by piling on weight at an even faster pace. Her diameter increased in all directions quite rapidly, expanding out to either side while the swell of round fat on her back rose yet higher. Even her belly and chest fat grew into a great mattress, so that when she rested on it, her knees and elbows could not reach the floor. Her neck expanded so that it rested on the ground most of the time and her jowls increased so much that she

needed a lot of powder between them and her neck to keep them dry and clean. Without the checkmark of motion, however, Pricilla would have hardly noticed the changes, except for one important development. Her face grew ever more fleshy, the wrinkles piling on wrinkles in a

complex tangle below the round swell of her brow which seemed to grow lower and heavier daily. Pricilla’s vision worsened noticeably each week and it was harder and harder to counteract as the area around her eyes grew more heavily congested. To be able to make out any images at all, she had to blink many times to clear away the moisture that accumulates under her lashes and then she had to lift her brow as much as she could to widen her field of vision. But despite her efforts her field of view slowly closed. She reached the limit of how much she could stretch her brow muscles and the heavy slab kept creeping downward. After a while, her lids were compressed so much that she could not effectively blink away the moisture and the world became watery and devoid of definition. Not long after that, the light faded almost completely. Subject No. 15J01280010 Nickname: Pricilla Age: 24 mo Body weight: 186 kg Length: 124 cm

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BMI: 121.0

Report: Subject is almost fully immobilized by excess fat deposits located everywhere on the body. Subject appears only willing and able to shift from side to side a few times per day which facilitates permanent installation of biosensors. If weight continues to increase, it may be necessary to manually roll the sow from side to side to prevent formation of skin sores. Preventative treatment has reduced the risk of skin

infections dramatically and the subject has an improved body odor which should be feasible to maintain through further BMI

increase. Mechanical blindness has set in, but the ability of the subject to feed herself does not appear diminished; will monitor for signs of stress or depression. No corrective action recommended at this point. 5 of 6 obesity risk factors have developed into advanced stages. Subject’s sleep apnea has worsened, particularly when sleeping on the side. Some apneas have lasted as long as 15 s with non-synchronous movement between chest and abdominal muscles. Arousals have increased from an average of 0.5 episodes per hour of sleep to 2.8 episodes per hour of sleep. Total apneas and hyponeas have increased to 46.7 episodes per hour of REM sleep and 8.9 episodes per hour of non-REM sleep. Some of the episodes of apnea manifest with lack of effort from either chest or diaphragm muscles, characteristic of Central sleep apnea rather than obstructive sleep apnea. Central sleep apnea is characteristic of congestive heart failure. If the condition continues to advance, it may be worth while to administer blood thinners and steroids to prevent premature or unexpected cardiac arrest. Also recommend applying a positive air flow apparatus to prevent sudden and unexpected death from hypoxia in the even that an apnea episode becomes too severe. Blood oxygen levels average 89% during non-apnea, non-hyponea breathing. The subject may need additional oxygen to assist breathing. Some fluid retention is noticeable in the paunch and lower extremities, which also indicates chronic congestive heart failure. Since the sow is for the most part immobile, swelling of the fatty tissues should not be a large risk factor in the short term. Fatty liver remains chronic, but there are no signs of liver failure yet. Insulin resistance has increased to

diabetic levels without visible symptoms, Recommend prescribing Metformin to increase insulin sensitivity so that other

conditions can mature without excessive aggravation by diabetes. LDL cholesterol has risen to 1.09 mmol/L compared to 0.27 mmol/L in the lean control. Subject is at high risk for accelerated atherosclerosis, aggregated by the diabetic condition, but bad cholesterol has not increased as much as overall body weight an may stabilize in the future. Daily aspirin is recommended to reduce the risk of sudden heart failure in the near term.

Subject is at high risk of death during general Anastasia and so far we have been unable to procure an anesthesiologist willing to

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assist with an intravascular ultrasound and other desired invasive tests. It may be necessary to wait until necropsy to observe the development of heart disease and the other obesity risk factors. Daily intake of food averages at 19 kg per day, so the subject has not reduced volume of intake in response to

higher Caloric density. However, this is after a peak of 22 kg per day 30 days ago. The decrease occurred shortly after the onset of mechanical blindness, which may or may not be a stress indicator. Recently the subject’s stomach volume was measured at 8 L by measured funnel feeding, which is more than double the volume of non-obese control. Clearly the subject completely distends her stomach multiple times per day as room is made by food dropping into the lower digestive system. The impetus to feed multiple times daily may also be decreasing by fat tissue hormone concentrations increasing so that hunger is suppressed, but this seems unlikely as the body is already super saturated with lipid tissue. Increased handling and physical contact will be administered in an effort to increase food intake to maximal levels. If subject sustains growth at current rate without

plateauing, she may be an excellent candidate for extreme obesity research. Although obesity is related to many risk factors, it is sill poorly understood how obesity itself impacts the body. By advancing obesity as much as possible while preventing death from complications, perhaps new information can be gained about obesity’s impact on the body directly. If growth is sustainable in the long term, recommend increasing feed to maximum Caloric density and prescribing hunger inducers to assist with intake volume so that weight will increase in the least amount of time possible. Subject No. 15J01280009 Nickname: Rosetta Age: 24 mo Body weight: 60 kg Length: 119 cm BMI: 42.4

Report: The non-obese control continues to show none of the risk factors related to obesity and no symptoms of sleep apnea or congestive heart failure. In behavior, she appears to have become less anxious around handlers. It also helps that we are reducing the frequency of invasive tests performed on her. She continues to spend long periods of time staring at her obese counterpart despite the fact that the obese subject can no longer see her. Occasionally, they have been observed exchanging vocal sounds, perhaps to reassure one another. I have not discouraged the practice for purposes of reducing stress for both subjects. Vitals continue to be within average parameters. Weight and size appear to have stabilized. Recommend a 5% increase in daily

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Calories and an estrogen tablet to reduce mood swings associated with the sex cycle.

The pain that Pricilla experienced with the loss of her sight did not fade nearly as quickly as the reduction and loss of her mobility had months ago. Every time she tossed her head left or right, she could feel the slab of fat sway on her face, concealing the world from her eyes. Worse, she leaked tears constantly since they were unable to evaporate from the surface of her eyes. They needed to be wiped away often by the caretakers, and when they did, the would would

lighten again as they lifted her brow. Pricilla only had time to take in their faces and the shape of the world beyond before the moisture was wicked away and the fat was allowed to crowd back around her face, sealing her in. It might have been easier to adjust if she were

completely blind, rather than being reminded daily that her eyes were fully functional, just buried under encroaching fat. The eating

remained as easy as ever thanks to her sense of smell, though her neck continued growing larger. Sometimes she accidentally knocked the bowl forward and out of reach with the dense, hanging tire of fat under her snout. Before, Pricilla had been proud to glut herself to her full ability and contentment, especially when Rosetta was clearly unable to do the same. But now that Rosetta had been effectively removed from her life, she did not feel the same enthusiasm that she used to.

Pricilla’s appetite might have decreased further if it had not been for the caretakers. Their touches and pats had in the past been mostly business-like with only the occasional rubs that seemed more than what was needed. Lately, however, there was even more contact than before. After the lotions and powders were applied to her creamy hide and she felt soft and clean, she received luxurious belly rubs for the first time, up and down the vast expanse of her. She would lie on her side and they would start at the top of her flank, where her side crowned high over her thick shoulder at the point where her ribs ended and she was at her widest. Their hands would follow the shallow valley of soft, fatty meat towards where her hind leg was supported on a big pillow of belly fat that went under and behind it all the way up to the trotter. Pricilla was big, but she felt truly vast as their hands swept over her and she was reminded of her own dimensions. Two caretakers had to service her tummy at a time, one stroking the thick fat pad of her paunch while another ran two hand down the firmer fat coating her ribs down to the soft pad which jiggled at her solar plexus. Her nipples were thick and caught pleasurably between the fingers of the caretakers as they ran their hands down her lower abdomen. Pricilla thought that vision would not have increased her pleasure with the experience. After so much

stimulation, Pricilla usually worked up an appetite afterwards and she enjoyed the effect. After all, eating was her favorite pastime.

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Rosetta had not completely disappeared from Pricilla’s life. She did sometimes hear the other sow make deliberate sounds in her

direction. She never sounded encouraging though. Pricilla still harbored some jealousy towards the lean sow however from the last clear memories she had of her. Somewhere in her heart, despite all of the attention and care heaped on her as a result of her body’s

development, she resented the loss of her mobility and sight. Rosetta was really only a reminder of what she had lost. Pricilla would

respond rudely whenever Rosetta made her voice heard, but even this she was somewhat grateful for. Having someone she could despise in life help keep her from sliding into a complete torpor. Pricilla was, after all, feeling less and less energetic these days.

To say that the fattened sow slept poorly would be an

understatement. It seemed impossible to get a full night’s sleep without awakening anymore, even after they replaced the sleeping mask on her snout with a different one that seemed to push air into her nostrils. In fact, it was hard to go even an hour without suddenly waking in a breathless frenzy. Pricilla could feel now as she was falling asleep, her trachea slowly collapsing under the weight of her neck. She knew this because her breath would get wheezy and start to whistle as she relaxed her breathing. She was only able to get to sleep at all by relying on the machine they strapped to her fattened face each night to force her airway open. Even that, though felt like a mildly uncomfortable stopgap against a larger problem.

The weight kept piling on without pause as Pricilla maintained her appetite and her stomach continued to stretch in volume. Not moving resulted in long stretches of time where it felt as if there was little change interspersed with surprising realizations of how much bigger she was. One day, when the fat over her eyes was being cleaned, she was able to look down and see her foreleg for the first time in several months. The limb was engorged with fat and had horizontal creases not just at the elbow, but over the trotter and halfway between those creases as well. Pricilla had been able to feel the fat jiggling on her fore leg, but did not imagine the huge

increase in volume. She also had not expected the sheer increase in the thickness of her torso in relation to the leg, which appeared less than half of its original length since so much of it was swallowed by upper arm meat which sagged over the elbow as well as the larger shoulder meat which expanded over that. Afterwards, with some experimental movement, Pricilla could feel that her leg had been

subsumed partially into a soft hollow under the heavy, dense and round plated of shoulder meat over it. Testing its full range of motion for the first time, Pricilla found that it was severely restricted from what it once was. She had not noticed until now since all she used that leg for any more was to assist in rolling either left or right. It was still useful for that, but with each passing week, she had less and less leverage as her belly deepened and Pricilla found herself

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resting inch by inch higher off the ground. Her hind legs did not seem to be as bad off un terms of congestion, but they were bowed out around the swell of her abdomen, which took up a tremendous volume now. When she was careless, they were more likely than not to catch a roll of belly skin between the hard trotter and the mat which pinched. Behind her too, her belly kept swelling outwards behind her hind legs. The powders used on her kept the many folds of fat there dry, but when she urinated, the liquid inevitably flowed down the bowed out surface of the fatty shelf ballooning directly under her privates. It was uncomfortable and the caretakers could never arrive soon enough to dry her.

The equipment that was attached to the fattened sow increased and more and more of it was simply left installed rather than being

removed immediately after their arcane tests. Pricilla became so heavy to move that the leather bands were left on her chest and belly all the time, only loosened so they did not chafe. With more

caretakers around her daily, some tests when completely unobserved by the blinded hog. When they drew blood from the skin on her back, she was likely as not not to feel it at all, although she most definitely did feel it when they took fat biopsies and worse, muscle biopsies. Those would ache for days, but they did not do them often. One test that was particularly uncomfortable for Pricilla was when they would force a funnel into the back of her mouth and fill her up with a

creamy liquid measured in cups which she was forced to swallow between desperate breaths. It made her hearth race uncomfortably in her

clotted chest when this happened and they made her feel so full that she wanted to vomit, but somehow was unable to. Each time this was done to her, she was able to swallow more liquid than the previous time, and this for some reason got the caretakers excited. The only good thing was that the sense of fullness did not last long and Pricilla was able to fill herself up with a denser meal afterwards.

Pricilla, super obese as she was, had not considered the

possibility of being too fat to roll over. Yet that reality seemed to be on her horizon. The act of rolling over went from a relatively simple operation to something far more taxing and arduous. Her girth expanded to a greater size than ever, such that the bottom swell of her tummy while on her side swept well past the bottoms of her hind trotters and were just even with the bottoms of her front feet. While on her side, it was impossible to reach over the expanse of her tummy with her one unpinned hind leg; she could only stab the trotter into her exposed belly flesh, but she had little interest in doing that. Rolling over involved using only the muscles of her torso to roll first onto her belly while her forequarters remained on the flank. It was hard doing this and it took over a minute sometimes before she could feel her free foot touch the mat over the intense swell of her abdomen; and only her foot could touch the mat, the belly fat was so deep she was unable to reach further past it. When this happened

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Pricilla felt sweet relief as air and blood flow returned to the leg that had been entirely trapped under the heavy blanket of belly fat. Pricilla was totally unable to move the trapped leg when she was on her side and after a few hours, the limb would ache after being

compressed so long, necessitating this operation even more frequently than in the past. At this point, she was usually getting winded, but she could now use the leverage of both hind feet to rotate her

forequarters onto her chest. Likewise, there was relief when her pinned foreleg was rescued, though these she usually retreated into the hollow of soft fat where her elbow was so the compression was not usually as bad. It was still slow and difficult. So much heavy skin and fat dragged on the mat no matter how she moved.

After getting onto her chest and belly, Pricilla would normally break for at least an hour, it took a very long time for her to catch her breath nowadays. When she relaxed her hind legs, they bent and went upwards, with a roll of fat under each trotter from where the belly pressed against the inside of each leg constantly. It was comfortable at least and Pricilla could hold the pose for hours. In fact, this was usually how she slept. But her neck had enlarged so much that despite the height increase, the bottom still swept the floor, more heavily now that in the past! The bottom of the huge tire she wore prevented her mouth getting at the food bowl anymore. She could only reach it while resting on one side or the other. And while Pricilla noticed that it was slightly easier to breath while resting on her stomach, even the skin of her belly began to ache after a while of sitting like that. Rolling back onto her side was not as easy as tipping over due to the sheer wideness of her flanks. She had to force herself, like a bean bag filled with dense iron sand. The hind leg on either side could provide only a little tip assist at the start anymore. It was still slightly easier than getting onto her belly since she had her front feet to help when she planted them against the mat; when she did, she could fee additional fat rolls from the ankles of each trotter pressing on the ground as well. The muscles of her back and flanks had to do the heavy lifting and again, only after she was settled on her side could she allow her forequarters to rotate in turn. It was an unspeakably more difficult and complicated process than she ever imagined it would be and it became harder every week as her weight increased and the girth of her titanic gut rendered her hind legs yet more vestigial.

It got to the point where the caretakers noticed her distress. They kindly offered assistance in tipping her when she began the

motions. Their help was well received as well as the contact of their hands pressing so hard into her soft meat that she sometimes wanted to squeal in the delight of the sensation. The effort they used again was another measuring point for Pricilla to understand how large her body was, which was already getting so vast that she could not reach the ends of her dimensions with her limbs. It was when she was being

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handled like that that she could forget for a little while how ill she has been feeling lately and the increasing lack of energy that fogged her mind during waking hours and during the long, punishing nights. The feeling of being so large and soft in their caring hands made Pricilla feel that her purpose was being fulfilled.

Report: Subject has the second highest BMI of all unrestricted high fat diet subjects in the study and is half the age of that subject. Since the subject is so young, it is recommended that we take this opportunity to follow through with my previous recommendation that this subject enter into an experimental diet designed to maximize body condition past the upper bounds of the initial experiment. Other Ossabaw subjects have stabilized their weight at far lower BMI’s which means this subject likely has genetic stock suitable for future obesity models. Eggs will be collected for future insemination as pregnancy would place too much stress on the subject’s delicate constitution. Subject has been observed having difficulty with even basic movement. This will be an opportunity to install more sensitive equipment without risk of dislocating the equipment during movement.

Recommend installing a catheter for solid and liquid waste and IV for fluids and administration of medication. Consultation is needed for possibility of breathing stint and insertion of

feeding hose to reduce further mechanical complications of weight gain. The obesity risk factors that subject displays are

becoming increasingly severe and difficult to manage

simultaneously. Fluid accumulation appears to be increasing despite the use of steroids, but the number and severity of sleep apneas has remained constant with treatment of positive air flow. Average blood oxygen while sleeping has decreased to 85% and has been measured at 90% while awake. Oxygen gas will be used to counteract the chronic hyponea. Blood sugar responded well to Metformin initially, but while sugar remains under control, insulin tolerance is increasing again. An insulin pump may be required if the condition worsens. Still unable to confirm an anesthesiologist for investigative surgery. Recommend to assume diagnosis of chronic congestive heart failure and administer appropriate medications. Liver may be contributing to tissue swelling, but blood samples show no accumulation of toxins. Some protein signatures of adipose inflammation have been detected, likely due to retained fluids. Strongly recommend rotating subject side to side regularly so that pools of fluid do not collect in lower regions. So far, subject displays strong

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resilience to such a high BMI. The value of subject’s gene-stock may be quite high for future endeavors.

Report: Non-obese model put on significant weight after dietary increase. Recommend reduction of Calories by 8% to stabilize body weight. Subject shows little change compared to obese subject. Behaviorally, she shows intense interest when obese subject is being treated, but the staff does not have additional time to socialize this subject. No significant signs of stress have been observed. She does not show as much interest in

vocalizing any more as in the past. Vitals remain nominal.

Pricilla detested the tubes they inserted into her body, but there was literally nothing she could do about them. By the time they hooked her up with plugs in her anus and ureathra, the fattened sow’s body weight was more than she could manage by herself. Just as her leg muscles had failed her many months ago, the muscles of her body became simply insufficient to affect a complete rotation and then really any significant motion at all. She became subject completely to the whims of the caretakers who dutifully rolled her side to side to relieve the intense pressure of her own weight, but she no longer had any control over it. Her hind legs became totally worthless. She could reach nothing else but her own belly fat with her trotters and they were forever pressed outward by the round, soft expanse, even when lying on her side. Her abdomen dominated her features and made most movement impossible, but her forequarters also saw a surge in growth. The complex of rolls and creases expanded over her haven of mobility, enclosing around her fore legs like warm, heavy socks made of her own meat and draping so heavily around her neck that even moving her head side to side became depressingly exhausting. And more, her cheeks bulged around the base of her snout even more, pressed forward since there was no space left behind them by the growing neck meat. The slab of brow fat over her eyes climbs so low that it rested on the bridge of her snout. It was beginning to feel like she was enclosed in a bubble of fat, with only her nose

protruding for want of air.

Something like a depression began to set in again, but it was too late to curb her appetite any longer. The caretakers must have

noticed her difficulty in eating, so they decided to help with that as well. Pricilla was funnel fed exclusively now, since there was no feasible way that she could use a bowl anymore. Her moist food had been replaced with a semisolid gel that tasted mostly of lard; which

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Pricilla didn’t mind at all. It went down well enough, but now

instead of merely eating her fill multiple times a day, she was pumped full to bursting each time. Her eyes would water more than usual under the slab of skin and fat that covered them and though she did whimper occasionally, the caretakers did not seem to notice. They bloated her four, sometimes five times a day if they were working late. A thick tube carried away the mess from behind her. Pricilla’s life seemed utterly beyond her control now. It was a fact that

sometimes terrified her deeply and yet seemed coldly inevitable if she took a detached view on the matter. Pricilla suspected that she would shortly be dead if not for the assistance that the caretakers

provided, and aside from her health complaints, she was never in any real discomfort. No one inflicted pain on her for no purpose and she did enjoy not messing on herself once the catheters were installed. The discomfort they caused even faded over time until she forgot about them completely.

She must have started putting on weight at a prodigious rate, even compared to her earlier gains. It was sometimes hard to tell, but as time went on, she could feel the increasing difficulty that came when rolling her soft, fattened form over from one side to the other. Pricilla thought that the meat of her was becoming more pliable as well. It was easier and easier for the caretaker’s hands to sink deep into her as they pushed and shoved against her figure. It was delightful to feel, but Pricilla was unaware of her increasing process to bruising which was especially evident when she was left for too long on one side or the other. Huge stretches of skin could

purple to a deep hue from the stress of being sat on by so much weight, but only the caretakers and Rosetta were aware of the effect.

Pricilla was mainly aware of her continuing gains by how much her fore legs were disappearing into her torso. She had already reached the point where her fore legs were straddling the thick mattress seated under her chest. What she was observing now was the

disappearance of the last vestiges of mobility left in the limbs. The upper arm fat increased until it was a round swell of soft fat that was only visible from under the heaping mound of shoulder fat due to its sheer size. It was so heavy and thick, it prevented nearly all motion except the give in the fat itself, but as the fat continued to grow thicker and heavier, the effort to push into that yielding flesh grew and grew. The upper leg fat sagged over the lower leg well past the elbow and over three quarters of the way to the ankle. The lower leg itself had swollen to encompass nearly the whole trotter so that Pricilla could touch the skin of her wrist by bending her trotter slightly. The skin there was very jiggly, almost like a skin covered water balloon, but equally as heavy as the rest of her vast fat

reservoirs. The mass and volume of the lower leg kept her from

bending her elbow very much against the descending sleeve of upper arm fat and the shoulder joint was practically useless not only from the

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weight of the upper arm, but the shoulder fat which was collapsing over it and slowly swallowing the whole limb itself.

While her forelegs were becoming completely immobilized, Pricilla technically retained a greater range of motion in her hind legs, but those were equally as useless, as they were eclipsed entirely by the size of her abdomen. The belly extended past the reach of her

trotters and forced her legs constantly apart so that the soft, fatty skin was always brimming at the insides of her thighs and legs. The fattened sow usually held them bent in a semi-fetal curl and only occasionally bothered to stretch them. When she did, however, she could feel how her gut only increased in wideness further down from the hip and it took effort not to scrape the hide there with a sharp hoofed trotter. The haunch itself ballooned hugely until the lower sweep of it pressed against her hock in its normal resting position and slowly began to press it downward into a more elongated position. Not much fat at all collected on her lower leg, leaving her able to bend them at the knees and ankles, for what little that was worth.

As her paralysis advanced, time seemed to lose all sense of meaning. The only reliable means of telling when it was night and when it was day was when they replaced the smaller nostril gas hose with the full snout positive air flow mask. Pricilla tried to get more hours of sleep in when her airway could be forced open, but at this point, her sleeping was becoming so disturbed and unproductive, she started to drift between wakefulness and restless sleep at all hours of the day. Perhaps this was to her benefit for Pricilla never felt as though she had gotten enough sleep and could nod off at almost any time, though she would usually awaken with breathlessness shortly after losing consciousness. If it had been otherwise, she might have grown excessively bored now that she was no longer in control even of her eating habits. A lot of the time, Pricilla seemed to exist in a waking dream. She imagined hands fondling her, caressing the huge expanse of her body. She remembered the feeling of stuffing her mouth into a big trough of food and swallowing delightedly. She even

remembered Rosetta. It became a haze of confused images, broken by spells of clarity when she was actually being handled or when light would invade her dream world every time the skin and fat was lifted from over her eyes. But really, the outside world seemed to matter less and less as Pricilla was literally swallowed by her own,

increasingly vast internal world.

Eventually, her cheeks began to encroach down the length of her snout, from the sides and below. Even the fatty blob over her eyes melted slowly down the bridge until half of the original length of her snout was hidden from sight. By then, Pricilla was sucking at her oxygen hose during the day like a life line and only barely able to tolerate the nights when the fat clotted her airways. She was not feeling well at all, and her body’s dimensions had grown so much it

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was hard to even keep a solid image of herself in her mind’s eye, despite the frequent contact by caretakers. A small feeling of dread began to eclipse Pricilla whenever she imagined the future.

Report: Subject’s weight gain has increased greatly in response to change in diet and daily intake has increased to 25 kg per day with use of funnel feeding. Body lipid measurements record 88.1% lipid for total body weight, but our instruments are not capable of measuring a precise value for accumulated body fluid, which may contribute as much as 20% of subject’s total mass at this point. Obesity risk factors continue to increase in severity across measurable metrics. Congestive heart failure is now advanced by observing the quantity of fluid which now pools

rapidly in lower regions of the body without adequate rotation of subject, the pebbly sound of subject’s breathing, which indicates fluid build-up in the lungs, and the onset of Central Sleep Apnea symptoms. The obstructive sleep apnea has been largely

counteracted with positive air flow, however, central sleep apnea has been observed where there are long pauses between muscle contractions between each breath. This is characteristic of congestive heart failure. Subject still has chronic hyponeas as well which have begun to manifest during the day as well as the night. Oxygen has been implemented to increase blood oxygen saturation, but this may become inadequate as body weight continues to increase. Blood sugar spikes have been observed despite Metformin prescription. An insulin pump will be attached to the subject to help stabilize the condition in response to feedings. Fortunately, the subject appears to be completely immobilized at this point, which aids in the installation of additional equipment. The staff have had increasing difficulty in shifting the mass of the subject, especially as the hide demonstrates increasing sensitivity to pressure, likely due to fluid accumulation and inflammation of fatty tissues. To avoid damaging Patient’s skin or allowing skin deterioration by fluid pooling, it is recommended that we acquire a a hydraulic bed for tilting the patient at regular intervals. Requests for deep fat tissue biopsies (L> 50 cm) have been received, but must be

procured cautiously to avoid infection. Subject’s healing

ability is observably diminished as a result of diabetic syndrome and poor blood flow. We will soon inject subject with a

radioactive dye which will allow a map to be made of new blood vessels grown by angiogenesis to supply new regions of fat with blood. Egg harvesting occurred with no visible side effects and

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other Ossabaw females have already been implanted with fertilized eggs. With the official study ending at 42 months of age, I believe it is clear that subject has an excellent gene-stock for representing 5 of 6 obesity risk factors, which is more than any other large lab animal. Observations on subject’s condition and additional experiments are planned until subject expires of natural causes. A necropsy will then be performed. Three

surgeons have been volunteered to assist with the necropsy as it is expected to take considerable work to process the enlarged carcass. The liver, despite displaying stress protein signatures from accumulation of fat, continues to be resilient despite the extreme BMI. The EGG shows that subject sleeps in short cycles not dependent on a day/night sequence. The average cycle lasts about 0.5 hours before interruption by an arousal and total sleep time is just under 20 hours a day. Subject appears most active and alert when being handled, which is to be expected. Some arrhythmia has been observed as a result of advancing heart disease, typically synchronizing with weak and strong breathing cycles, becoming more erratic as breathing weakens until an arousal is forced. A pacemaker could manage the condition, but it is unclear whether subject could survive such a surgery. Blood tests have shown signatures of skeletal muscle die off, likely due to atrophy of the limbs encased in fat. It is unknown if the various stress hormones excreted in the blood will have an negative impact on the subject’s overall health. No digestive maladies have been detected at all. Recommendation is to continue funnel feedings to stretch stomach and increase daily intake. IV fluid should be increased by 20% to account for increasing body mass despite the fluid retention. Short term prescriptions may be enacted depending on how subject’s health deteriorates in the last 6 months of the study and beyond. Subject No. 15J01280009 Nickname: Rosetta Age: 36 mo Body weight: 64 kg Length: 119 cm BMI: 45.2

Report: Non-obese control shows slightly reduced weight as expected, though overall condition remains inside ideal

parameters. Physically, the control appears to be in perfect health. As the study advances into the last 6 months, it is recommended that rather than sacrificing the control that she be used for breeding stock. There may be some sympathetic response in relation to the neighboring obese subject that may improve results for artificial insemination. I will await confirmation or rejection of my recommendation.

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Every half an hour, the world tilted and Pricilla’s rounded, soft body flowed to the other side of the bed until the flank caught up against a raised cushion there. Left and right, left and right she went until the motion lost its meaning and the original pleasure she felt with living hands pressing on her yelling bulk. Granted, it was still much needed. Pricilla’s skin was more delicate and soft than ever. It was possible to bruise her by pressing a hard thumb into her and any minor crease in her beg fabrics would result in a dark line across her pale expanse that would take over a week to fade. If the caretakers were not so good at preventing any pressure points from stabbing into her naked flesh, she would have been permanently black and blue all over. As it was, however, she seemed to be becoming a match for even their skill and machines to handle.

Pricilla’s proportions had increased to mostly fill even the very large bed she was laid on. It was now the case that rather than

coming to a stop on her side, her flank bumped up against the raised edge that kept her from tumbling off the tilting contraption. As a result, her belly was largely under her all the time and Pricilla would feel aches of the skin and tissue there which faded and resurged with an irrational tide. At times when she was inspected and manually rolled over, the skin between her rows of teats was darkened to a savage purple which itched when exposed to air. Salve was rubbed on it occasionally, but the air and relief of the pressure of her body mass could not be provided regularly. It truly seemed to Pricilla that somehow her body was not really capable of sustaining itself anymore. Of course, the sow was not aware of the many measures the “caretakers” performed to preserve her, but the sheer mechanical aspects of her body could no longer be denied, not when the very integrity of her skin appeared to be compromised by the sheer abundance of her flesh.

The lack of adequate rotation caused other minor problems as well. Where the fluid pooled, mostly on her lower abdomen and her cankles, sometimes her skin would weep a thin amber liquid. When this happened, the skin had to be dried and usually an absorptive pad was placed on the area. This would happen on and off in different areas of her body as the fluid migrated as a result of the tilting.

For the most part, however, Pricilla was aware of her breathing which had become a daily struggle. It felt as though she could never get enough air into her body. Worse, sometimes Pricilla could almost feel the weight of her bulk pressing down on her chest, making it harder to draw deep breaths. More often, she breathed shallow and more rapidly to compensate, but this was exhausting in itself. Good sleep was a distant memory, almost as soon as she dropped off, her breath would catch in her throat despite the mask or else she would awake in a fit of gasps, her beleaguered heart racing so fast that it