Pig Farming Techniques: Four Acupuncture Therapies Available for Treating Sick Pigs

Acupuncture, that is, the method of preventing and treating disease by means of needle piercing and moxibustion, is a wondrous treatment method in traditional Chinese medicine. In fact, not only can people treat illness with acupuncture, pigs can also be treated with acupuncture.

The four acupuncture therapies commonly used to treat pig diseases are as follows:

1. White needle therapy. The acupoints pierced by this therapy are generally located in relatively plump muscle areas, between the dorsal vertebrae, at joint bones and other places, with no thick, dense blood vessels distributed there

The angle of needle insertion is divided into three types according to different acupoints: perpendicular insertion (at 90 degrees), oblique insertion (at 30-45 degrees) and flat insertion (at 15-25 degrees). The depth of needle insertion depends on the size of the livestock or poultry. When inserting needles on the back spine, be careful to avoid injuring the internal organs. The needle sensation response is obtained by accurately piercing the acupoint and by needle manipulation techniques, and can also be determined by whether the pig shows phenomena such as arching the lower back, raising the tail, local muscle contraction and skin twitching.

White needle therapy is often used for digestive system disorders, muscle strain and sprain, peripheral nerve paralysis, infertility in female animals, and for pricking yellow swellings to let the yellow fluid and toxic liquid drain out.

2. Blood needle therapy. Also called red needle, blood pricking or bloodletting therapy.

When pricking blood with a small wide needle, under normal circumstances the needle blade should be parallel to the direction of the blood vessel to prevent cutting the vessel. Blood needle acupoints are generally relatively shallow, and bleeding occurs once the needle goes in about 0.5 mm. The amount of bleeding directly affects the therapeutic effect; for heat-type disorders, painful swollen disorders, toxic disorders and plump, strong pigs, more blood can be let. If about 100 ml is let from multiple acupoints at one time, after the needle prick bleeding generally stops on its own, or once a certain amount of bleeding is reached, pressure is applied to stop it.

Blood needle therapy has the functions of maintaining health and body condition, clearing heat and opening the orifices, relieving pain and removing numbness, reducing yellow swellings and dispersing swelling, and purging toxins. It is often used for heat-type diseases, such as treating pig colds, heatstroke and poisoning. For certain weak, big-bellied "stunted pigs", pricking the eight collateral acupoints with 8 needles has the effect of promoting weight gain.

3. Water needle therapy. Also called acupoint injection therapy, it is a therapy in which medicinal liquid suitable for intramuscular injection is injected directly into acupoints and pain points. The tools used for water needle therapy are ordinary injection needles and syringes. Generally, white needle acupoints are all suitable for water needle use, and clinically appropriate acupoints can be selected according to different diseases. For example, for eye diseases select the Taiyang acupoint, for digestive tract diseases select the Houhai and Pishu acupoints, for respiratory tract diseases select the Suqi and Feishu acupoints, etc. It is not advisable to select too many acupoints each time; generally 1-3 acupoints are selected. The medicinal liquid is chosen according to different diseases, with the dosage being 1/5-1/3 of an ordinary intramuscular injection, and 3-5 ml of medicinal liquid per acupoint is appropriate.

Water needle therapy is widely used, and clinically it is used to treat traumatic lameness, rheumatism, nerve paralysis, constipation, retained placenta, rectal prolapse, eye diseases, etc.

4. Ear (tail) embedding therapy. That is, the method of embedding medicine into the "Ka'er acupoint" on the pig's ear (or the "Kawei acupoint" on the tail) to treat pig diseases. It is also called yellow therapy, and is popularly known as "zhuangxin". It uses needle piercing and drug induction to draw out the "internal yellow disorder" in the pig's body and stimulate the body's disease resistance.

The commonly used medicines are toad venom and arsenic, both of which are toxic. The medicine-embedding method is to use a wide needle to insert flatly under the skin at the Ka'er acupoint, lift the skin to form a subcutaneous pouch, and stuff the toad venom or arsenic into the pouch. After embedding the medicine, redness and swelling will appear, or the ear margin will rot into a small hole, which has little effect on the pig's growth. When embedding medicine, only one ear can be done at a time; if a second embedding is needed, the second ear must be done one week after the first embedding. It can be done at most only twice. For chronic diseases of pigs, such as asthma, influenza and the chronic stages of certain diseases, when the effect of drug treatment is not obvious, ear (tail) embedding therapy can be used.