How to prevent runt pigs? A detailed explanation of practical technical points

There are many reasons for the formation of runt pigs, including congenital factors such as inbreeding or early mating and improper feeding and management of pregnant sows, which result in low birth weight and weak vitality of piglets; there are also acquired factors, such as insufficient milk from the sow, malnutrition, early weaning, delayed supplementary feeding, severe nutritional deficiency and diseases. The following measures can be taken to resolve runt status and fatten them.

(1) Deworming and clearing the stomach. When there is no disease and the weather is clear, skip one feeding at noon, and at 8-9 o'clock in the evening when the stomach is empty, grind 15-20 mg of albendazole or levamisole per kg of body weight into fine powder, mix it with a small amount of concentrated feed and feed it once. Two days later, dissolve 1 kg of quicklime in 5 kg of water, and after settling, mix the clear lime water with swill and feed it to the pigs once a day for 3 consecutive days. For runt pigs in relatively good condition, you may also skip one feeding and give only some 0.9% light saline or a small amount of mild laxative, such as artificial salt, Glauber's salt, etc., to clear various toxins in the gastrointestinal tract of runt pigs that restrict their growth and development.

(2) Strengthening the stomach and promoting digestion. To completely remove runt status from pigs, it is necessary to bring about a major change in their digestive function. You can use 1 tablet of rhubarb soda per kg of body weight of the runt pig (content 0.3 g), not exceeding 10 tablets, grind it into powder and mix it with feed, feed twice a day for 3 consecutive days to strengthen the stomach. At the same time, combine with 50 g each of hawthorn, malt and medicated leaven (amount for one dose), decoct the juice and mix it with swill, feed twice a day for 5 consecutive days to promote digestion. Practice has proved that runt pigs treated in this way have a strong appetite and greatly enhanced digestive function.

(3) Careful rearing and meticulous management. Green feed should be cleaned, drained and properly cut fine. Coarse feed such as bran should be processed and crushed before being mixed in proportion with relatively comprehensive compound feed and fed raw, and 0.5% oxytetracycline powder should be added to the compound feed to enhance the disease resistance of runt pigs.

(4) Add "stone-sulfur salt" to the feed. Take equal amounts of quicklime, sulfur and table salt. First fry the table salt until yellow, pour in the quicklime and fry together for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool, then add sulfur, grind all together into powder, and put it in a bottle for later use. Pigs weighing less than 25 kg are given 5-8 g per day, and those over 25 kg are given 10-15 g per day, until they are ready for market. This not only supplements minerals but also stimulates appetite, and is an indispensable important measure for fattening runt pigs.

(5) Intramuscular injection of vitamin B12. Ten days after deworming and clearing the stomach of runt pigs, inject 2-4 ml of human-use vitamin B12 intramuscularly per pig every 3 days (available in various pharmacies), for 7-10 consecutive times, which has a special effect on promoting growth and strengthening physique. In addition, cleanliness and hygiene should be maintained, with ventilation and air circulation. After the condition of the runt pigs improves, promptly administer one "triple vaccine" against swine fever, swine erysipelas and swine pasteurellosis.