Does anyone raise hogs.

[mini horse mania]

We purchased 12 thirty to fifty pound piglets for breedstock...ok...first day fine and dandy,then the smaller ones died off one each day.we now have 6 left.i know they are at least 8 weeks old if not more.the man wormed with half a bottle of wazine in 5 galloms of water for 30 pigs...you think that could be killing them? Too much?

 

[cretahillsgal]

I don't know anything about pigs, but if Wazine is okay for pigs then I wouldn't think that was enough to overdose them.

 

[RenMac Farm]

k

 

[mini horse mania]

He said 8 weeks, I say more like 12weeks.they,were in a barn with heat lamps stinky,messy,nasty...we got them home and put them in a pen with a wood floor and straw...we even lost one on the way home....some are 30 poumds...all of them died..the fifty poumd onea are left.we have.never had problems with our,pigs.ours weigh about 30 pounds at 7 weeks old and we have weaned them..... still no problems....they have been out in the pen in the yard with temps in the teens and been fine..these pigs,just droop their head and refuse to eat.they laid down and died...he will not return our phone calls....i have a feeling he lost the 10 or so he had left

 

[Carolyn R]

I can not answer with alot of insight to pigs, I have very littleto no experience with them, but I would be very curious if they had resp. issues if the environment was as closed up and filthy as you said. I also know as a general rule of thumb it is not a good thing to worm animals who have compromised immune systems. If you have your own piglets, I would be keeping a very close eye on them, hopefully it is not something that is contagious.

 

[Minimor]

Hogs can be very susceptible to illness--from your description of how they act before they die, and from your description of the facility they came from, I would be inclined to think that they have some infection--viral or bacterial--and that is what is killing them. Your best bet to save the ones that are left is to have a vet come out & look at them.

 

[Matt73]

That's scary

Can't many illnesses be passed from pigs to humans and vice versa? I'd get this checked out....

 

[disneyhorse]

Sounds like an infectious disease... Quarantine each one and try to get a vet to diagnose... Some illnesses can be passed... Swine particularly...

 

[ohmt]

With pigs having such delicate immune systems, I would definitely have them checked out by your vet, especially if you have other pigs.

Did you get a heat lamp on them when you got them home? Since he had them under a heat lamp, a change in temp could have caused them to become immunocompromised, and with them being in dirty conditions, i'm sure there were thousands of bacteria just waiting for the opportunity to take over. I worked in a hog barn on my campus just for 2 weeks and the precautions they take are huge. Biosecurity is a big thing-i had to shower in and out and change clothes in and out and I always had to have boot covers on. Then I had to wash in and out of each room. That just tells you how delicate they are compared to other animals, especially if they're raised indoors.

Good luck!

 

[mini horse mania]

We have them separate from our pigs...thankfully...from what a swine farmer told me,once they are weaned,they dont need a light.he is the only person I have ever seen that had a light on almost bbq size pigs.he has done pigs for about 6 months like this,but the first time he took advice on worming.he did hVe pigs that were coughing,and we avoided those....coughing I was told is a sign of worms,so ?? I will not buy anymore outside pigs....this makes the 2nd bad batch.the first batch died because they were sold to us as weaned...got them home,they wouldnt,eat....come to find out,they were 3 weeks old amd th guy just wamted to run the sow through a sale....we will raise our own....

 

[drmatthewtaylor]

Too far away to know for sure, but I would have the Vet do a necropsy on the dead ones. Pigs do not lend themselves to be easily examined, so necropsies are better and usually provide more information.

Dr Taylor

 

[anoki]

I wouldn't say pigs have *that* delicate of an immune systems (being raised on a farrow to finish pig farm for the last 30 years)....but there is a disease called PRRS (Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome), which is highly, HIGHLY contagious (for pigs, it doesn't cross over from what I know....). Say a farm next door had PRRS, your farm could get it just from being in close proximity to the other farm, I mean, that is worst case scenario, but it is that contagious.

If the herd doesn't have PRRS, they want to keep it that way, which is why there is such a high biosecurity for most pig farms. There are some weird diseases out there in the pig world though, and your one post says one died on the way home, for the size you are saying they are, well, they most certainly were quite ill when you bought them. Like Minimor said, they most likely had some type of infection when you purchased them.

In ALL the years we had pigs here, we never had any diseases 'cross over' and affect us.

~kathryn

 

[stormy]

There are so many things this could be, pigs tend to be stoic and not show many symptoms until they are really ill. Without diagnostics you can just treat symptoms. Most farms when moving pigs put them on medicated food for a couple weeks post rehousing to keep stress related disease issues in check. You could be looking at PRRSV, PCV, M hyo, Strep Suis, SIV or a combination of all and more besides! Did this farm vaccinate for anything??

 

[mini horse mania]

He did not,vaccinate,he just bought,weaner pigs,raised them in a wood floor barn with,straw and heat lamps.the barn was a 14 x14,,he had 50 in there at once...sold twenty,then we bought,13....he said he sold the rest,and none of his died,which I know is a,lie...3 were bad off when we left his farm.the 5,we have left are acting fine now,,,,hopefully,,they will make it.we are feeding medicated feed.i just dont understand why our pigs are so much healthier inless its since ours are in a large pen outside.the only thing I can think of besides diseases,is a respiratory problem from being cramped and in their own feces in a 100 degree barn.

 

[stormy]

Most young pigs are raised in confinement in temperature controlled barns at 80 to 85 degrees. Your pigs stay at home and are not exposed to other pigs.....kind of like kids going to school when you move pigs around, mix them with other pigs or put them in housing that maybe wasn't disinfected after the last group of pigs entered you run a high risk of disease. If you see sick or weak looking pigs in a group you can be pretty sure the whole group has something going on and stressing them by transport and changing their environment, feed, etc. just makes it worse. Sorry you lost so many, not fun!