Help, please!

[TC]

I have raised pigs for 2 years, (Yorkshire & Hampshire) and I have never had a sick one, until yesterday. Yesterday ,I noticed one of my Yorks (she is 3 months old) down. She is in a large pen with her 2 sisters, and both of them are seem perfectly fine. I have their mom in another pen, several acres away and she too is fine. Anyway, she has normal bowel movements, but she won't eat. She is shivering, as if she is cold. The temps here have been around 40 degrees during the day, and the lower 30's at night. That is cold to us here in Texas. She has large shelter with a least a foot of hay for bedding, however, I have no heat lamps in there. I see no injury, nor does she seem to labor to breathe, and no coughing or nasal discharge. She is just laying there, shivering and when I raise her up, she just lays back over. I have felt her skin, she feels warm and I have covered her up to make sure she isn't cold. As I said, her sisters are the same size and weight and are not acting this way at all. My vet doesn't have an answer, pigs are not something he knows about, he said. I gave her a shot of LA200 and Vit B12 this morning, in hopes it would help. Sorry to rabble on, but trying to give as much info as possible in hopes that someone could help me. Thanks so much.

[Siryet]

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in.../toc_50000.htm

[John Schneider]

This is where a rectal thermometer comes in handy. You can tell alot by the actual temp. of your pig. She should have other symptoms being as sick as she seems. It would help to know if she was running a fever or not.

Here's another place to try too!

http://www.thepigsite.com/discussion...mSel=PigHealth

Please let us know how it turns out....

[Misty]

I would do what you have done, only I would mix tylan and LA200. I would also do as John suggested and take a temp. I am not a vet, and I am telling you what to do. I just have done this with AMAZING results. How much does she weigh? I have given weanling pigs a total of 10cc. 5cc of each mixed in a syringe. About three different injection sites. All in the neck in the muscle.

[TC]

Thank you so much for the replies. She didn't make it, she passed away about 3 hours after I posted this. She never showed any additional symptoms, but I do believe she was running a temp, thus causing the shaking. This morning her sister are still fine, but i'm terrified that maybe it was something contagious . I have never heard of Tylan, do you get it at the feed store or from the vet. I raise goats as well and have always used Penicillin or LA200. Does the Tylan work better? That was the first time, I had ever had to give a shot to one of my pigs, but I have used antibotics on goats many times. I feel terrible that I didn't save her, hopefully I did all I could do to help her. It was just so sudden, and unexpected.

[John Schneider]

Well, that is too bad. It would sure be worthwhile to keep trying to figure out what went wrong. Like you said, what if it continues throughout your herd? With all the on-line help nowadays, I am sure somebody will have an idea what happened. Sorry.

[Lost-Nation]

DARN, so sorry to hear you lost her! Knock wood when I say I've never had any illnesses in my pigs b/c I wouldn't know how to go abt treating a sick pig, either! But . . . temperature swings an animal's not used to sure can bring on the maladies! It's hard for me to imagine a pig not being able to "handle" 40* days & 30* nights since I'm here in MI where we had "severe temperature advisories" last night w/ an actual temp of 5* & windchills of -15. Brrrr! My pigs are NOT one bit spoiled & were all just fine this morning, squealing at the tops of their lungs b/c I apparently wasn't moving quickly enough, waddling around in my 100 layers of clothes, getting their corn to them, the hardy little things, LOL.

Anyway, just a guess from what I notice in all of the livestock supply catalogs, but it sure seems like there are many, many drugs for pigs to combat various upper respiratory issues, so . . . maybe they're pretty susceptible to that sort of stuff, eh? Especially if having to endure strange weather?

From a goat person's standpoint, I think your description sounds like maybe something along the lines of that nasty, sneaky interstitial pnuemonia where you notice a goat's a little "off" but you don't think it's anything serious since you don't notice any worrisome symptoms . . . then the next time you check just a couple/few hours later, the goat is at death's door - are pigs susceptible to that, too? I have no clue what's usually used on pigs, med-wise, but I think the LA-200 would seem like a pretty logical thing to reach for since the only thing you observed symptomwise was the lethargy & a possible temperature . . . so something like that would combat an infection AND hopefully nip any upper-respiratory possibilities in the bud, too, right? I'da probably done the same thing you did considering what little you had to go on, symptomwise . . . how could you have known otherwise?

My experience w/ insterstitial pneumonia in goats wasn't due to cold - just due to some drastic temp. changes &/or humidity changes. Actually seems like the few times I've dealt w/ it have been in Summer! You usually don't see any of the symptoms we'd usually look for when trying to figure out what's wrong w/ a goat who just seems a little "off" - no weird poops, no colored snot, no raspiness in the lungs, no unusual-sounding rumen activity . . . oftentimes not even running a temp - the goat just doesn't feel well. If you're like me, you don't like to reach for the meds unless necessary, so . . . since "off" doesn't usually mean anything serious, you merely make a note to keep an eye on the goat . . . maybe give some type of immune-system-booster like Vitamin C & maybe some Probiotics in case of digestive system upsets . . . next thing you know, it's just a couple/few hours later & you have a down goat that suddenly HAS developed symptoms - serious ones! - & might not even be save-able.

Frustrating!

Anyway, I don't know why I'm blathering on & on since this is a pig we're talking abt & I know zippity do da abt pigs, but . . . thought that if you're worried abt this being something potentially contagious, researching upper respiratory maladies in porcines might be something to consider.

Again, sorry to hear you lost her.

[beeman97]

TC ,,
,if you can i would send that hog out to the state vet who will do an autopsy on it & tell you what killed it ,, here in NC they do it for free for any farm type animal ,, & they charge a small fee for personal pets like dogs & cats,,,
It would be extremely good to know if what she had is contagous or not,,, it sounds pretty serious considering it took her out in less then a 24 hrs, freeze the carcus if you cant take it right away so that it wont starrt to decompose before you can take it ,,, the fresher the better for acurate results
Good Luck
Rick

[midkiffsjoy]

This is where being in Texas comes in handy. You can send your pig to A&M for an autopsy. When my scramble heifer died of Red Water, it was sudden and A&M did the tests. We'd have never known and lost the whole herd to it since it's so rare that the common vac we used didnt work for it.

[Goat Freak]

Sorry to hear that you lost your little pig, i hope and pray that it is NOT contagous, and that the rest of your pigs will remain happy and healthy. Good Luck, bye.