One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered Part 74

Effects of Ill-Feeding Pigs.

I have a couple of pigs, out of about 75 head farrowed last spring, which seem to have the staggers. They are looking fairly well, feed well on pasture and at feeding time are right there making as much noise as the others. They run around as if they had a shot too much.

Your pigs are suffering from acute indigestion, undoubtedly due to improper feeding. Cut down the rations, especially if they are getting grain. Give sick pigs two tablespoonfuls of castor oil each.

Sore Eyes in Pigs.

What is the matter with young pigs when their eyes swell shut? Before they shut they look as if there was a white milky sc.u.m over them.

There is some infection present, and a good cleaning up in needed. The sows and pigs should be dipped in a warm solution of some coal-tar disinfectant, and the quarters thoroughly cleaned and disinfected or changed to a dry warm place. The pigs' eyes should be washed with warm water and a few drops of the following solution dropped into eyes once a day for a few days: Have druggist prepare a 1 per cent solution of silver nitrate. After applying this the eyes had better be washed a few minutes later with water to which a little common salt has been added.

Hog Cholera.

I have a number of pigs which have been ailing for three weeks or so.

They discharge a yellowish kind of manure at times, running of the bowels. The most striking symptom seems to be a partial paralysis of the hindquarters. The hogs will be walking along and seem to lose control of their hing legs. It seems to be spreading to the other hogs and a number have already died. Their appet.i.te is poor.

This is undoubtedly hog cholera. The owner should appeal to the Experiment Station at Berkeley for serum and treat all well hogs and clean up as thoroughly as possible. The matter should also be reported to the State Veterinarian at Sacramento.

Pneumonia in Pigs.

What is the disease which may be said to confine itself, with few exceptions, to young pigs weighing 100 pounds or less? Its symptoms are at first sneezing and a mild cough. These quickly change to hard coughing and labored breathing, which as the disease progresses shows evidence of much pain. The appet.i.te is lost and the eyes become gummed and inflamed. In some cases the pig lingers on for weeks, while in others death occurs almost immediately. Vomiting sometimes occurs.

It is pneumonia and in its treatment "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Once pneumonia gets a foothold in a hog, the chances are so strongly in favor of death that recovery may be considered out of the question. Since remedies are not certain in the cure of pneumonia, it will be found that the prevention of the disease is the only real way to combat it. The main causes of the disease are exposure to draughts, sudden changes in temperature, damp beds, manure heaps as sleeping quarters, and exposure to the disease itself. Pigs in thin condition or weak const.i.tutionally are more liable to contract the trouble than pigs in good flesh and healthy specimens. Good, dry, warm, comfortable sleeping houses, well ventilated and so arranged as to prevent crowding and piling up, will, I think, do more to prevent pneumonia than any other one thing. Some such preparation as advocated by the Government for the prevention of hog cholera will help keep the stock in a good healthy condition, the better to combat exposure. It is the little attentions that keep the herd healthy and in a vigorous condition, and by using simple preventatives, remedies will he found unnecessary. - H.

B. Wintringham.

General Prescription for Hog Sickness.

My hogs seem to be mangy and scabby, but am unable to find any lice on them. They eat well, but vomit a good deal and are falling off in flesh.

They may be affected with a chronic type of cholera, and this should be determined by some one who can see the hogs. Make a general cleaning up of the hogs and quarters, using a dip and repeating in ten days. Hogs have a true mange as well as other animals. A change of feed may also be needed, depending on what is being fed and how the hogs are managed.

Green alfalfa pasture with a moderate feed of shorts or middlings of wheat and ground barley made into a slop would be a good ration.

Evidently there is some digestive trouble here, and a dose of croton oil (3 drops) mixed in a teaspoonful of raw linseed oil for each hog would be beneficial. Charcoal, ashes, salt and a little epsom salts would be of benefit to tone the digestion. The oil should be carefully mixed in the slop.

Pigs Out of Condition.

Of a litter of pigs weaned about a month several of them have itchy scabs on their legs, ears and noses, and those having white feet show reddish spots through the hoofs. They did not get it until after they were weaned. They are fed on soaked whole barley and have alfalfa pasture.

Put the pigs on a slop composed of wheat middlings and barley ground fine, with the hulls removed, and milk, or, in the absence of milk about 8 or 10 per cent of meat meal to which add some good stock food. Dip them with some standard brand of dip or apply crude oil to be sure that they were free from lice, fleas, etc. Give them good, clean, comfortable sleeping quarters and trust to nature to do the rest.

Paralysis of Sow.

During the last few days one of my sows appears to be paralyzed in her hind quarters and now cannot use her hind legs at all. She is about a year old and is due to farrow her first litter in and about six weeks.

It is paralysis due to advanced pregnancy. Give 4 ounces castor oil and 4 ounces olive oil. She will recover after parturition.

Rickets in Hogs.

A fine boar, 16 months old, weight about 380 pounds, well built, with little surplus fat, until lately has been very thrifty, but appears to be losing control over his legs. Can't step over the smallest stick without falling forward and acts like a foundered animal. He carries his back rather arching since this trouble came on. During my absence from home a hired man gave this boar a good beating with a pick handle, and it appears to have been the beginning of his troubles.

This disease is Osteo Rachitis (rickets). The abuse has probably aggravated the symptoms: This condition is due to a lack of hardening principles in the bones. Give 4 ounces of cod liver oil daily and plenty of lime water to drink. It will be all right to use him for breeding when he recovers. In addition to good food and pure water give daily a handful of a mixture of princ.i.p.ally ashes and burned barley (charcoal) with the usual addition of salt, sulphur and soda. This mixture is good: Pulv. dried, iron sulphate, 4 ounces; soda bi-carbonate, 8 ounces; soda salicylate, 2 drachms; pulv. aniseed, 4 ounces. Mix and give one-half teaspoonful twice daily.

Pigs Losing Tails.

We have five pigs, 17 days old, and when they were farrowed they had rings around the roots of their tails, and now their tails are dropping off.

This is caused by interference with circulation before birth. Apply tinct. iodine around the affected parts once daily and if it shows no signs of improvement after one week amputate.

Over-Fat Sow.

My brood sow is awfully fat; how should I feed her so that she don't get too fat? She is bred and it will be her third litter. She was running in the vineyard all winter, and I fed her a handful of barley every day or a few potatoes. Now she has free access to my growing barley field, and I give her half a dozen potatoes every day.