[alisstuf]

Hi Everyone
Any body had a constipated gilt, if so what do you recommend.
Think shes still stressed from move, arrived saturday, drinking and eating small amounts, tried to tempt her with melon , tomatoes, sweet corn. She strains for about 5 mins and produces small hard stools, she is sleeping a lot so if I get her up and make her walk about a bit do you think this would help. It always works for the dog!
Any suggestions please 
Ali

[Hilarysmum]

Actually Hilary was once constipated - the vet tried antibiotics and other injections until Hilary took exception to being used as a porcupine substitute and physically removed the vet from her field.  After that we spoke with Pig Paradise Farm who were amazing and who told us to use copious amounts (as in as much as you can get down the sow) of liquid parafin.  Not easy to get down Hilary who balked at anything resembling medication.  Lost a lot of soup spoons in that field.  Anyway it worked.  Since then have resorted to pessaries for the boar (sp??) (but not with Hilary am not that brave).  Both worked.

[gavo]

Any oil will help ie cooking oil mix it with some feed and any lovely tastey[sweet foods you can] Lactulose for humans is sweet and sticky and is more palatable they generally love sweet things you should be able to buy this in the chemist.Fruit juice like pineapple again nice and sweet also help as do prunes and any fruit in general .If you are finding it hard to get her to eat much i would try to get the consistency as sloppy as possible we put fruit and veg through a garden shredder but for small amounts a blender would do the job.Add as many of the above ingrediants in to together as you can in a bucket mix well and serve. You can give the fruit juice just as a drink either as they do seeem to like it.

[alisstuf]

Excellant, thankyou both. I'd forgotten about liquid parafin, my dobermans I had over 20years ago used that for them, the old stuff is normally the best, dog I have now suffers from the opposite !! YUKK !! Still find Kaolin & morphin best cure but the VET does not agree 
Also have loads of fruit, never thought to puree it, will do that now, she can have some for supper
 Great help guys 
Ali

[Eve]

A load of bran might do it, too. We had a 25kg bag of leftovers from a mill nearby - we naively thought it was going to be like giving them muesli but oh no - it was so incredibly fine it was just like sand! Even just a bit of it emptied the pigs in no time. Let's just say that Marigold gloves are a god sent! 

Good luck,


Eve 

[manian]

hi
one of my girls was constipated.
she is now fine. I spoke to the vet and as I couldn't find any liquid paraffin, we gave her lactulose and exlax on the first evening. then lactulose twice a day (5-10mls) and then exlax evey other day. she was nearly sorted after 3 days and fine after 5

[alisstuf]

I'm sure these pigs are trying it on with me  Went to feed and check them this morning, little ones are fine as usual, got to next pen and there was my 'constipated' pig, up and waiting at the trough looking as happy as you like in the pouring rain! If I didn't know better I'd think she was laughing at me 
Anyway all is well
Thinking of naming the Gilts as they're keepers, I have a few ideas but need to run them past the family. Watch this space 

[Hilarysmum]

  The joys of pig keeping   

[conman]

i have used vegetable oil to clear blockages on different animals and it does work well, but in my search for a different approach i came upon an article that recommended using crushed up rhubarb roots apparently they were used as a form of laxative in the middle ages and knowing the way pigs dig for roots i'd guess they'd eat a root if ya just threw it in with them. i haven't tested this my self so i cant say for sure if it will help but it could be worth a try if you have rhubarb growing