How to prevent and treat pica in pigs? A detailed explanation of practical methods
When pigs crave and eat things they normally do not eat, it is called pica. Pica is a symptom caused by metabolic disorders and nutritional deficiencies, and it generally tends to occur in piglets and sows raised indoors. There are many causes of pica, and it mainly generally occurs in young pigs and sows.
1. Causes: improper feed formulation, lack of vitamins, minerals such as phosphorus and calcium, and certain elements such as iron, copper, manganese, cobalt, or inorganic salts. Other conditions such as chronic gastroenteritis, osteomalacia, and parasitic diseases can also cause it.
2. Symptoms: young pigs like to gnaw soil, pen wood, sand and stones, lime on walls, and moldy bedding straw, and they often have indigestion or diarrhea. Over time they become emaciated and anemic, with dry or loose feces, reduced appetite, and poor growth. Sows generally eat the afterbirth after giving birth and bite and eat piglets. Sick pigs are timid and easily startled, with rough coats; in some cases body temperature is elevated, pulse is accelerated, milk secretion is reduced, the back is arched, teeth are ground, and the animal gradually becomes emaciated and weak; after a long time it often becomes weak but does not die.
3. Necropsy: anemia and emaciation; subcutaneous, mesenteric, perirenal, and coronary fat is almost completely consumed, glands are atrophied, the gastric and intestinal mucosa shows chronic catarrh, and bones are osteoporotic, thinner, brittle, and easily broken.
4. Prevention and treatment:
Feeding management should be strengthened, feed formulation improved, and minerals and vitamins appropriately supplemented. Do not feed acidic feed. Once a sick pig is found, in addition to giving more green fodder and yeast and providing sufficient nutrition, if osteomalacia and rickets are found, bone meal, calcium carbonate, and vitamins A and D can be added to the feed. Pigs can also be given the opportunity to come into contact with fresh soil. For pigs without complicating osteomalacia and rickets, sodium bicarbonate, salt, or artificial salt can be tried at 10-20 grams per pig per day, and plant ash can also be used for treatment (50-100 grams per 100 kg body weight). Other treatment methods include:
① 250 grams of aged lime and 1500 grams of cold water: place them in a jar with the cold water, stir, then take 3 large tablespoons of the upper clear limewater and feed it to the pigs mixed with feed.
② Several jin of river snail shells: put them into the pen and let the pigs eat them on their own.
③ Fir charcoal soaked in salt water: place it in the pig pen and let the pigs eat it on their own.
④ Old roof tiles and charcoal: put them into the pen and let the pigs eat them on their own.
⑤ Atractylodes macrocephala, Alisma orientale, white peony root, green tangerine peel, and licorice 10 grams each; tangerine peel, Poria cocos, and charred Sanxian (hawthorn, malt, tangerine peel) 15 grams each: decoct in water once and administer by drenching (suitable for pigs weighing 30-50 kg).