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Author Topic: scouring piglets  (Read 4917 times)

patmci

  • Joined Jun 2009
scouring piglets
« on: June 20, 2009, 02:37:29 pm »
Hi i am new to pig breeding but i have kept pigs for about a year before. I have 2 gloucester old spot sows that are only 1 year old but have had there first litter 2 weeks ago. They both had litters of 6. The first sow lay on 1 and then about a week later 2 died of scour. 1 went very quickly about 2 days it survived before it died. The other piglet lasted nearly a week but i found her dead yesterday. Up until now the other sow has had nothing wrong with her litter but today i have found 4 out of the 6 scouring. The vet gave some antibiotics to the other 2 but they didn't help. Does anybody have any suggestions how to stop the other piglets dieing. I have all the piglets that are left sold so i don't want to dissapoint the people who ordered.

Regards Patrick

rustyme

  • Guest
Re: scouring piglets
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2009, 02:55:22 pm »
hello Patrick,
                I have never tried it with pigs , but see no reason why it wouldn't work for them. I have looked after calves that went down with scours and some pulled through while others didn't even though they were treated by the vets. In the end I fed them comfrey , some ate it wilted others ate it wilted and sliced into very small strips. All those that had the comfrey made it through perfectly fine . The scours stopped within hours of having the comfrey, you can also put it in a liquidizer then strain it , then add the liquid to a 50/50% mix of water and milk ,if they are taking it from a bucket or bottle. This treatment was something an old farmer told me some 30 odd years ago , I have since read the same treatment in Lawrence D Hills book on comfrey. I don't see any reason that it would harm the stock , so worth a try at least ? Hope that helps ...


cheers

Russ

patmci

  • Joined Jun 2009
Re: scouring piglets
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2009, 04:04:37 pm »
Thanks Russ
                  Should i leave the piglets on the mother or take them off. Would it be ok if the piglets that are not scouring get some of the comfrey. Could it have anything to do with the fact that the sows are always free range even in the winter and now i have them in in stables. The stables are big at 15x10 but the fact that they are not out have a bad affect on the piglets. 

rustyme

  • Guest
Re: scouring piglets
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2009, 04:23:07 pm »
as I say I haven't tried it with pigs , but farmers were doing all sorts of tests with comfrey , all reported in LDH's book , and some were feeding huge amounts of it to pigs daily without any bad side effects. So I can see no reason it will harm any of the pigs, just don't go from pig nuts to all comfrey in a day , that would be pushing things a bit to fast . I know with the calves I was looking after , some were with their mums , some were fed with a bucket, but all were given the wilted or chopped comfrey , and all recovered well. In the main i have found that it has been calves inside that have had scours , same with pigs I have known about , but those outside that I have looked after have never had them . That doesn't mean they never get it !! just the ones I have had anything to do with have been fine if they were outside. With the weather as it is now, in the UK , it should be ok to have them outside . The more fresh air they get the better, they don't need to be in now , unless they are in for other reasons ? They really only need cover from sunshine and heavy rain now. Scours can have different causes I know , but one thing I do know is that warm closed in areas, are more prone to causing and spreading it than fresh air. There are many pig keepers on the forum who have no doubt had pigs with scours , and they will have their own way of dealing with it . No doubt things have improved since I looked after stock , but comfrey does work and is free if you have some growing near you .

Cheers

Russ

Hilarysmum

  • Joined Oct 2007
Re: scouring piglets
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2009, 05:08:03 pm »
I have never had scouring but Russ' posting sounds very sensible.  My pigs love comfrey.  I hope you dont mind my jumping in on this topic but have found that outdoor sows farrow better outdoors.  Less stress on mum means less trauma on the piglets. 

Farmer

  • Joined May 2009
  • Sidway, Staffordshire
    • Farmeats.com
Re: scouring piglets
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2009, 10:36:23 pm »
Hi Patrick,

Sorry to hear about your problems...the main thing is to keep the pen(s) clean and free from draught, erect a piglet creep in each pen and put a heat lamp about 18" above them...dose both the piglets and the sows with amoxcyillin or ampicillin (check with the vet for dosages) I prefer to inject but you both can be administered orally...its important to disinfect your footwear and wash your hands before moving from one pen to another and after treating the animals...if possible build a new enclosure and strip out and thoroughly clean and disinfect each pen...remove any feaces, waste food, wet straw daily...add comfrey to sow feed if you like (I've never tried it, but sounds a good idea).

Hope things improve soon...good luck

Farmer
 :farmer:

Tullywood Farm

  • Guest
Re: scouring piglets
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2009, 06:47:57 pm »
How are the piglets ?

One thing that may help you in the future, you can keep a sow and her litter in for the whole ten weeks before weaning if you wish, as long as they have room for exercise indoors and enough space to eat, sleep, and poo in different corners.

One thing we do, and it really gives both the pig and the piglets a boost, is put two shovels of soil from the field that they are used to being in, every four days, the sow will eat it, and from this she will get all the nutrients she needs.

Once big enough the piglets will enjoy this too.

Your Sow may have had mastitis (could be spelt wrong)?

Did you get the vet out?

Hope you didn't lose any more piglets

good luck with your piggies - Joe and I have lotsa experience with GOS, and any advice we can give you are welcome to - just aks.

regards
Julie

Tullywood Farm

  • Guest
Re: scouring piglets
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2009, 08:08:56 pm »
Just a couple more things to keep in mind is the small wee piggies have very little or no Iron in there blood when they are born and get very little from mammy's milk.
Perhaps ask the Vet about Iron injections for the Piglets.
 Also ask about Vitamin E as this can help to prevent The porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) . It preferentially infects and replicates within mononuclear phagocytic cells (i.e., macrophages) located within the mucosal surface of the respiratory tract.
DON'T panic I am just trying to help the above two problems are Mainly associated with indoor commercial herds and the latter is mainly found in America but it is found to be a problem from time to time in all pigs.
If you want anymore info Please do not hesitate to ask.
Kindest regards
Joe

Higgins11

  • Joined Nov 2008
Re: scouring piglets
« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2009, 03:23:12 am »
one thing to remember also ..............never............NEVer ...............NEVER .....handle the scouring pigs and then go to the pen with the ones that are not............Scours can be transfered VERY easly from litter to litter if you are not carful

Clean out that stall...........pressure wash it with HOT water if possible ........spray with a 10% bleach solution to kill the disease and maybe the rest of the pigs will not get it

do NOT pull the pigs off the mother.they need all the nutrition they can get right now to fight off the disease. Weaning them will weaken there immune system

 

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