HELP my 1st Pig

[frustratedearthmother]

Mine do fine with hog panels too - no hot wire here. (even though Cowboy has tested my patience a few times and I've threatened!)

 

[Mini Horses]

Agree potbelly for sure. Now...you wanted to start an area for a melon patch? 4 hog panels, her inside. Roots & grass will disappear! Pigs cannot sweat. Thus the mud packs and mud holes also keep them cool. You may be cool enough there very soon...LOL

You know that you can cook a lot of fat from a chunk of meat. So, you will still have pork, just skim the fats. Better than most "road kill" ... good find.

 

[CrealCritter]

Went to Rural King and picked up a bag of swine feed 16% protein. She's eating and drinking now which is a real good sign. I looked for swine dewormer but all they had was goat, cattle and horse. I'll check again early next week.

I have her on the north side of the poultry house where this time of the year it's most always shady. Grand daughters will be here soon to see "piggy"

Thanks everyone you all ROCK. In all honestly I probably would have drove right by this pig - if it we're not for you all. I knew you all would help me do what's right, so I turned around and rescued the pig.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I have a friend who has used horse dewormer for her pigs, but I don't know the ratios, etc. so if you can find pig specific that's easier for sure! Glad she's eating!

 

[CrealCritter]

Wow, well done! It's a nice looking pig.

Some tips… For starters put that water bucket in the ground, or you are going to have a VERY muddy pen and refills needed 10x a day

Go to your co-op/feed store/farm store and ask them for some commercial pig food. You can supplement that with just about anything kitchen scrap wise, vegetables, fruit, even meat and weeds from the garden. Pigs will eat nearly anything. Feed it twice a day, as much as it will eat in 20 minutes. You can give it snacks like weeds etc in-between.

Make sure it has some shade, even if it's not hot by you, pigs are prone to sunburn, which is why they love mud bathing so much, it protects their skins and keeps them cool.

I see it's tail is not curly, which is a sign of good health, but it could just be stressed. Get some dewormers into it asap, just in case. Check if it's skin is o.k. Not too dry, no skin ailments. In South Africa we used to rub used car engine oil all over the pigs if they were mangy or scabby. This would eventually get rubbed off, or fall off, leaving their skins beautiful and healthy underneath.

That's all that comes to mind at the moment...

Wow - thank you!!! Her skin looks good didn't see any scabs, dryness, fleas or ticks - of course it's kind of hard to tell since she is pretty muddy.

 

[Beekissed]

She does look a little on the thin side, doesn't she? I'm betting something for parasites and good food will set her on the right track.

Does she seem nice enough when you go in to feed and water? Not aggressive at all? Wonder where she comes from...

 

[CrealCritter]

She does look a little on the thin side, doesn't she? I'm betting something for parasites and good food will set her on the right track.

Does she seem nice enough when you go in to feed and water? Not aggressive at all? Wonder where she comes from...

She is kind of afraid of me. When I go into the pen she goes to the furthest corner away from me. I think someone dropped her off and she's been in the wild for several days if not a little longer. I'm kind of surprised the coyotes didn't get her we have a lot of coyotes around here.

 

[sumi]

Glad we could help! From what the others said and the new pics, it does look potbelly (not a breed I'm very familiar with - I raised and butchered pigs for the table only) and pregnant is possible… But that'll be really awesome too! Did you know (the average) pigs are pregnant for 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days? Cool hey? And easy to remember.

Now… deworming her (I love Google):

Ivermectin(name brand Ivomec or Noromectin) –Treats, mites, lice, and a variety of internal parasites. Use 1% injection solution labeled for swine. With a small syringe, dose 0.2 cc or ml per 10 pounds of body weight to mix with pig's food. Your pig will need 2 doses, 14 days apart.

(I checked and you can safely deworm her, if she is pregnant.)

Also, if she is pregnant, you can definitely feed her a bit extra. To fatten up a pig quicker I found soaking crushed corn (chicken scratch corn) overnight in boiling water and adding a bit (say 1 part to 4 parts corn) dry dog kibble before feeding really helps! Not too much, or she'll get too fat.

I forgot yesterday, it's not that common, but pigs jump and they can jump pretty well too. (And run bloody fast once they're out) Keep that in mind with her housing.

 

[CrealCritter]

Update... DW has named her Pork Chop she continually opens the door to her pen and wonders around the chicken yard with the chickens. She goes back in to her pen to get muddy, sleep, eat & drink in the shade. I'm going to pickup a few 5' x 16' stockade panels and make her something she can't bust out of so easily. But other than that she seems healthy and happy. It's hot and dry so I need to keep spraying water in her pen to make it muddy for her.

Our chickens are even laying in the shade with her. But yesterday when I put her in the chicken yard they were freaking out ( I call that "setting off the chicken alarm" when they freakout like that) which happens when they hear or see something new.

Latest Pictures

I'm really glad I decided to rescue this pig. I can almost be sure it would have become coyote chow if I hadn't.

Thanks again to you all for giving me the confidence needed to bring pork chop home.

I'll say it again - you all ROCK!

 

[Beekissed]

Another way to return her to health, while also saving on feed and fattening her up more quickly, is to ferment her feed. It's easy, really. Just place her feed in some water overnight and it will have started to ferment, especially in these temps. The next day, save back a cup or so of the feed to inoculate the next day's feed and do it all again...this will cause it to ferment quicker and more deeply by the next day.

She'll be better able to digest it and the nutrients will be more available to her, her feces will smell less, and she will have some great intestinal flora going on.

All it takes is that one little step...wetting the feed the night before and backslopping(using each day's fermented feed to jumpstart the next day's feed).

Pigs are monogastric animals, so they have a little more trouble digesting grains than those animals that have multiple stomachs, like cattle, goats, sheep , or specialized bowels like horses and rabbits. Fermenting the grains first helps them utilize all the available nutrients more readily, changing the sugars to amino acids, which are used immediately on a cellular level.

https://jasbsci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2049-1891-6-4

https://www.pig333.com/nutrition/fermented-liquid-feed-for-pigs_378/

http://www.allaboutfeed.net/Home/General/2010/1/Pigs-benefit-from-fermented-liquid-diets-AAF011461W/