What are the signs of a sow before illness strikes? Detect early and prevent early

Pay attention to the warning signs of reproductive disorders in sows, and remember the five-point mnemonic, namely “dirty around the eyes, blood at the hair roots, dirty ear pinnae, dirty back, and cold ear tips”.

Based on the severity of these five phenomena, we can judge the sow's body condition and health level.

First is dirty around the eyes. When a sow only has the problem of dirt around the eyes, with excessive secretions around the eyes and severe tear staining, it indicates that the sow's health problem is at an early stage. This is mainly caused by liver damage in the sow and the accumulation of toxins in the body. This indicates that we should guard against reproductive system disorders caused by poisoning in sows, so as not to affect the subsequent reproductive processes such as estrus, mating, fetal development, farrowing, and lactation.

Next is blood at the hair roots, dirty ear pinnae, and dirty back. As toxins accumulate more and more in the sow's body, phenomena such as blood seeping from the hair pores, blood spots on the ears, and a dirty back will gradually appear on the pig's body. This is mainly due to weakened liver function leading to reduced prothrombin and capillary rupture. At this point, the sow's health problem is already at an intermediate level. Such sows will show reactions such as low farrowing rate, return to estrus, and miscarriage. When identifying this, we must pay attention to distinguishing it from pore bleeding caused by eperythrozoonosis, so as to avoid the occurrence of antibiotic abuse.

Finally is cold ear tips. When a sow shows this phenomenon, it indicates that the body's microcirculation has already been blocked, and blood cannot flow to the extremities, so the problem is now at a severe stage. The sow will develop uterine cold, which weakens the proliferation of the uterine wall and the secretion of mucus when the zygote implants, affecting implantation and the nutritional supply to the fetus, just like inserting seedlings into asphalt road, they definitely cannot survive. Such sows often have normal estrus, but a high return-to-estrus rate and a low farrowing rate.