How to Treat Stunted Pigs: An Introduction to Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Therapy
Stunted pigs are underdeveloped piglets with stunted growth, also called "little old pigs", "runts", or "hedgehog pigs". These pigs only eat feed without gaining meat, causing great waste of manpower, feed, and pen space in @#@227@#@ production as well as economic losses.
1. Symptoms
Stunted pigs have rough, disordered hair, are thin and small in build, with arched backs and sagging bellies, large heads and thick tails; some are anemic, eat normally but grow slowly, and some have alternating constipation and diarrhea; scabies or internal and external parasites are often present.
2. Causes
(1) Genetic factors. Boars and sows bred too early or through inbreeding. (2) Congenital malnutrition. Fetal underdevelopment caused by malnutrition of the sow during pregnancy; milk-stunted pigs caused by improper feeding and management during lactation, insufficient milk from the sow, or early weaning. (3) Improper feeding and management of weaned piglets, with growth retardation caused by nutritional deficiency. (4) Diseased stunted pigs caused by parasitic infection or other diseases leading to decline of metabolic function.
3. Treatment Methods
Measures such as deworming, strengthening the spleen and stomach, promoting blood production, regulating metabolism, and strengthening feeding and management are adopted to promote normal growth and development.
1. Western medicine treatment: Mix vitamin B12 500 mg and inosine 100 mg and inject intramuscularly, for 3 consecutive days. On the fourth day, inject levamisole 10 mg per kilogram of body weight intramuscularly for deworming. After another 3 days, inject adenosine triphosphate sodium (ATP) 2 mg, vitamin B12 500 mg, and one ampoule of boronate intramuscularly.
2. Traditional Chinese medicine treatment: Choose any 1 of the following prescriptions.
Prescription 1: Take equal parts of Polygonum multiflorum (He Shou Wu), white peony root, Eucommia bark, medicated leaven, malt, and Sophora flavescens, mix and grind into powder. For sick pigs weighing 15 kg or less, administer 20 g orally per day; for those weighing more than 15 kg, administer 60 g per day, divided into 2 doses and mixed into feed, for 10~15 consecutive days.
Prescription 2: Take tangerine peel, magnolia bark, Omphalia lapidescens, and nutgrass galingale rhizome 50 g each, and hawthorn 150 g, and grind together into powder. For those weighing 5~8 kg, administer 80 g orally per day; for those weighing 10~15 kg, administer 120 g per day; for those weighing more than 20 kg, administer 240 g per day, mixed into feed, with 3 days as 1 course of treatment. Generally, 1 course of treatment can produce noticeable effects; for severe cases, another course of treatment may be used.