we will need to try and get you to visit a commercial piggery to alay your ideas
with both indoor and outdoor pigs if they are well feed all a pig does is eat sleep and s**t they are like us and do not want to get cold or undully wet pigs that are constantly rooting are HUNGRY[
Thanks for the offer, Robert, but I used to work on a commercial pig farm years ago (and also have a degree in agriculture), so I do have some idea o what a commercial pig farm is like, although I'm sure, as with all things, there are commercial pig farms and commercial pig farms. Labels are always dangerous.
Now I'm back I've just got to add a bit here
I think you get 'good' pig keepers and 'bad' pig keepers - it doesn't really matter whether the pigs in question are indoor, outdoor or 'pets'. There can be 'good' commercial enterprises, there can be 'bad' smallholding practices - I've spoken to folks both sides of the fence and each thinks the other is the one who's doing it wrong
I know I'm doign it right though, so all's good
Antibiotics & medications in general - I would have considered myself a fairly 'alternative' person in my lifestyle
Looking for natural cures and holistic approaches wherever possible, not wanting to be a person who pumps their stock full of drugs. But..... I don't think there's any harm in giving an anti-biotic post farrowing,(although it's not something I do routinely - only if there has been an 'intervention' or problem) in the same way I don't think there's any harm in giving oxytocin during farrowing. These aren't needless drugs used to bulk the pigs up and promote faster growth or boost profits, they are drugs which are there to prevent problems, hopefully before they arise. And when it comes to a newborn litter not getting milk, or facing the risk of losing their mum (and having to be bottle fed) there's no question of giving the shot(s). But everybody has their own ideas of what they want to do, and how they want to do it