What to do when piglets have diarrhea? Prevention and treatment measures and medication

Piglet diarrhea is swine dysentery, also called swine bloody dysentery. It is a serious intestinal infectious disease caused by Brachyspira hyodysenteriae.So what should be done when piglets have diarrhea? What medicine should be used? What are the prevention and treatment measures?

What should be done when piglets have diarrhea? What medicine should be used?

1. Disease characteristics:

Under natural conditions, only pigs become ill. Pigs of all ages and breeds can be infected, but it mainly affects piglets aged 2-3 months; the morbidity and mortality rates of young pigs are higher than those of adult pigs; sick pigs and carriers are the main sources of infection, and the occurrence of this disease has no obvious seasonality; due to the presence of carrier pigs, the disease is often spread through the movement of pig herds and the buying and selling of pigs. Carrier pigs often do not become ill under normal feeding and management conditions, but when unfavorable factors that reduce the pig body's resistance, insufficient feeding, lack of vitamins and stress factors are present, they can promote the onset of disease.

2. The most common symptom is diarrhea of varying degrees. Generally, soft feces are passed first, gradually changing to yellow watery feces mixed with mucus or streaked with blood. When the condition is severe, the feces passed are red and pasty, containing large amounts of mucus, blood clots and purulent secretions. Some pass gray, brown or even green pasty feces, sometimes with many small bubbles and mixed with mucus and fibrinous pseudomembranes. Sick pigs are listless, have poor appetite and are fond of drinking water, arch their backs, become dehydrated, have a tucked abdomen, walk unsteadily, kick at the abdomen with the hind legs, have rough and dull coat hair, rapidly become emaciated, and in the later stage have fecal incontinence. The area around the anus and the base of the tail are soiled with feces, they are unable to stand, and die of extreme weakness. Most sick pigs have a normal body temperature. In chronic cases, the symptoms are mild, the feces contain relatively large amounts of mucus and fragments of necrotic tissue, the course of the disease is longer, with progressive emaciation and stunted growth.

2. Drug treatment:

Mequindox (MAQO, 3-methyl-acetyl-quinoxaline-1,4-dioxide) 5mg/kg, orally, twice daily, for 3 consecutive days as one course of treatment, or 0.5% mequindox solution 0.5ml/kg, intramuscular injection; dimetridazole, neomycin sulfate, furazolidone, lincomycin, tetracycline antibiotics and various other antibacterial drugs all have certain efficacy. It must be pointed out that this disease is prone to relapse after treatment, and only by adhering to the full course of treatment combined with improved feeding and management can good results be achieved.

What are the prevention and treatment measures for piglet diarrhea?

In recent years, with the continuous development of the pig industry, there have been more and more farmers, the scale of breeding has continued to expand, and the level of breeding has continued to improve. However, despite the continuous development of the pig industry, a series of problems that give farmers headaches still exist in the breeding process. For the pig industry, the most common and most difficult problem to solve is piglet diarrhea. So how should we carry out prevention measures in the breeding process? Improvements can be made from the following aspects.

1. Do a good job in breeding stock selection and management

“A good boar benefits one litter, a good sow benefits a whole slope.” In the development of the livestock industry, this has become a familiar saying, and doing a good job in breeding stock is the key. In the process of selecting breeding stock, all inbred bloodline breeds must be resolutely rejected as sires and dams. If the dam line is fixed for breeding on the farm, the sire (boar) should be replaced every year. This can, to a certain extent, improve piglet immunity and growth speed.

2. Do a good job in suckling piglets with colostrum

Piglets are born without antibodies to protect them from disease invasion. At birth, the sow passes these antibodies to the piglets through colostrum. Colostrum is the first milk produced after birth (in the first 24 hours), and it is especially rich in antibodies, antimicrobial peptides and other bioactive molecules (including growth factors).

Therefore, colostrum is very important for the nutrition, growth and development of newborn piglets.

Colostrum, especially the colostrum secreted initially, contains large amounts of protective antibodies (also called immunoglobulins). Sufficient and timely consumption of colostrum by piglets is the main factor in controlling early disease and death. It is also believed that colostrum may play an important role in reducing losses associated with post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome

(PMWS).

3. Adjust the pig house temperature well

Newborn piglets have relatively weak body temperature regulation ability. Generally, the most suitable temperature is 28-32°C, and the critical temperature is 26-35°C; while the most suitable temperature for sows is 18-30°C, and the critical temperature is 16-27°C. Diarrhea caused by inappropriate temperature is the least easy to notice, so special attention should be paid to temperature regulation. In addition to setting up an independent insulated box in the pig house, a thermometer should also be hung to grasp real-time changes in the pig house temperature.