Walking the Pens : Identifying Pigs for Treatment(Part 2)
Many diseases throughout pigs’ wean-to-finish lives affect them very quickly, and some can cause death within 24 hours. So, we need to allocate time to closely observe each pig every day and treat pigs manifesting early symptoms of illness. How much time to allocate depends on the age of pigs in your barns as certain age group might need more attention than others. It cannot be overemphasized that each pen must be entered and every pig observed each day. Once your eyes are clinically trained it takes less than a second per pig. Every pen, every pig, and every day needs to be our focus.
Times to Look Harder for Sick Pigs
One period needing extra attention in every system, according to Pfizer Animal Health, is the first two weeks post entry in a nursery or finisher or wean-to-finish barn. Movement causes undue stress to pigs and mixing different litters together in a pen environment exposes pigs to additional diseases. In fact, some farms will want us to keep litters together and separate them from other litters when faced with certain disease challenges. The pigs’ immune system will likely be able to protect them from the stress and exposure but in certain cases it does not. These are the pigs that will need to be identified and treated.
For in-barn technicians who walk pens to identify and aggressively treat individual pigs, the first two weeks often reduce the amount of treatment they need to give later on. Good treatment in the first two weeks also reduces the number of fallouts and no-value pigs or “junk pigs”. These are pigs that never make it to market because they are afflicted with any of a variety of disabling symptoms ranging from severe lameness to anorexia.
Other time periods during the group’s life that may require increased treatments are system dependent. It is important to look for pigs that need help every day. Your veterinarian or production service person will help you figure out specific time when more intensive observation and treatments may be necessary.
PUTTING A NUMBER TO IT
It is also important for us to quantify or count the number of particular symptoms we are observing when we go through the barns, Pfizer Animal Health specialists recommend. As we look for sick pigs, we need to assess how many pigs in each category of illness we are seeing and treating in a barn. For example, in this barn we are seeing about 1-2 loose stools per pen.
Depending on the farm’s history, this may be enough to start a water medication. Typically, your veterinarian will give you farm-specific guidelines on when to start water medications. This particular farm will have a Salmonella-caused diarrhea if pigs are stressed early on. This veterinarian has requested that water medication be started as soon as they are seeing 1-2 loose stools per pen. On another farm, it may be common for a little bit of looseness to occur on a diet change and history may dictate that water medications are unnecessary.
What are necessary in both scenarios are daily observations and early individual treatments for sick pigs. Rough guidelines for a particular symptom would dictate that when a problem is in the range of 5%-10% or greater, it may be time for a mass treatment.
FINDING THE SICK PIG
Many troubled pigs can be identified by behavior. The tale-tell signs of sickness are as follows:
• Sick pigs at any stage may be lethargic. They may prefer to be closer to the wall or feeder.
• When you enter the pen and watch the pigs move, sick pigs may appear to get pushed to the side or stumble when the pigs rush to the corner.
• Their flanks may be slightly sunken because of reduced feed or water intake.
• Their eyes may be dull or exhibiting a black exudates and ears could appear more lifeless.
• Some sick pigs may have swollen joints or a stiff gait.
• Other pigs may have diarrhea or cough or belly pumping or navel infections.
These symptoms sound like they would be easy to find. But sick pigs will try to hide these from us.
We’ve seen on television documentaries tigers singling out the weak antelope in a running herd. The instinct of all prey species is to hide their weaknesses so the predator does not see them as the weakling and single them out. Pigs tend to do the same. They will perceive humans walking into
the pen as predators.
Prey species like pigs have eyes positioned more to the side of their head so they can see behind them as well as in front, while predators have sharp eyesight and eyes positioned on the front of their face. Predators see details and movement, while preys see in front and in back and instinctively pick out motion, particularly quick motion towards them, instead of details.
Hence, our stance, the fact that our eyes are on the front of our face, and our height, the way we approach a pig to treat it, will make the pigs perceive us as predators. This makes our observation more difficult because we are looking for symptoms that pigs are trying to hide. Very sick pigs are easy to find but they will not respond well to our therapy. Early sick pigs, on the other hand, are difficult to find but they respond well to early therapy and we can prevent them from becoming no-values or “deads.”
To sum out, it is our responsibility as technicians to provide these pigs with what they need. Pigs displaying the first symptoms of illness need immediate treatment or they may die. Successful technicians look for these signs on a daily basis and aggressively treat the pigs displaying early signs of illness with the prescribed therapy. Therapies include injection, feed medication, water medication and timely, humane euthanasia.
