Symptoms and Prevention and Treatment Techniques of Pica in Pigs, Omnivorous Mammals

Pica in pigs refers to pigs gnawing on soil, rotten wood, bricks. Eating “inverted food” and other foreign matter. The cause is due to a lack of inorganic salts and vitamins in the feed, suffering from gastrointestinal diseases, osteomalacia, parasitic diseases, etc.

Prevention:

Mix the feed reasonably. If there is a lack of vitamins, supplement with some green vegetables and green feed. If there is a lack of inorganic salts, give 0.5 percent to 1 percent salt by total amount, 20 to 50 grams of bone meal and shell powder, or orally administer 5 to 20 mg of cobalt chloride, once every 4 days. If there is a lack of trace elements such as iron and copper, feed some trace element additives or scatter some soil in the pen for them to eat.

Treatment:

1. Add one handful of plant ash per sick pig daily, mix it into the feed and feed it, for 5 consecutive days.

2. Put fresh ginger seedlings into the pen and let them eat freely, for 5 consecutive days.

Appendix: The pig, an omnivorous mammal. It has a stout body, short limbs, a relatively long snout, a fat body and short limbs, a gentle temperament, strong adaptability, and fast reproduction. It has colors such as black, white, dark red, or black-and-white spotted. It can mate 5 to 12 months after birth, and the gestation period is about 4 months. The average lifespan is 20 years. It is one of the five livestock. In the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, it is Hai. There are many allusions and customs about pigs. Humans have a very long history of raising domestic pigs, but it only became widely known to the world by the 16th century. The pigs raised in China are the direct descendants of the earliest pigs domesticated by humans.