Reasons why sows refuse to nurse: mastitis and malnutrition
Reasons why sows refuse to nurse - mastitis and malnutrition
If the sow's teats are injured or she has mastitis, she feels pain when the piglets suckle and refuses to nurse. The piglets must immediately be taken out and fostered by another sow or hand-fed, and a 10% ichthammol ointment should be applied topically to the affected area of the sow's udder without delay, with sulfonamide drugs given orally; nursing can resume after recovery.
For sows whose nutrition is too poor and whose milk secretion is insufficient, nutrition should be strengthened by feeding galactagogue feeds and galactagogue drugs. Examples include soybean milk, millet porridge, cooked afterbirth soup, cooked large intestine, and also small fish, small shrimp, river snails, freshwater mussel meat, etc. Using 50 grams each of clematis stem (mutong), cowherb seed (wangbuliuxing) and fennel, plus 25 grams each of largehead atractylodes rhizome (baizhu), Chinese angelica (danggui), milkvetch root (huangqi) and codonopsis root (dangshen), decoct in water, filter, and mix into porridge to feed for promoting milk let-down; the effect will be even better.
For sows whose nutrition is too poor and whose milk secretion is insufficient, nutrition should be strengthened by feeding galactagogue feeds and galactagogue drugs. Examples include soybean milk, millet porridge, cooked afterbirth soup, cooked large intestine, and also small fish, small shrimp, river snails, freshwater mussel meat, etc. Using 50 grams each of clematis stem (mutong), cowherb seed (wangbuliuxing) and fennel, plus 25 grams each of largehead atractylodes rhizome (baizhu), Chinese angelica (danggui), milkvetch root (huangqi) and codonopsis root (dangshen), decoct in water, filter, and mix into porridge to feed for promoting milk let-down; the effect will be even better.