# Piglet help!



## tailsticks (Dec 17, 2017)

Hi - I am in Hawaii, I have three adult pet wild pigs that were all hand raised and one of them had three babies on Dec 13th.

All three nursed the first day. Then day two one was pushed out and was not nursing while the other two thrived. He could barely stand, the other two were bouncing around all over the place.  So I pulled the baby/runt.

Set up baby in container with heat lamp. Got goats milk formula. First 4 hours thought he was going to die, very lifeless. Would try feeding and I think her would get a few drops - I was using a small baby bottle you get at pet stores (now I read NOT to bottle feed - ugh) and he really wasn't interested.  Then 12 hours later at 2:30am feeding he bounced back with a vengeance, suckled down 1 oz of formula and passed out asleep.  This continued all through the next day, he was very vocal, looked very alert, happy to take the bottle.  Fabulous.

So last night, he had about another ounce before bedtime and I noticed him gaping after he sucked it down and I think he aspirated!  I got up later that night to feed him, he did take the bottle, very cautiously, but he was not alert, not up screaming for the bottle, same this morning.

I don't have a vet here with livestock experience that is available here right now on a Sunday.  I am waiting for a call back from my vet who only does domestics.

In the meantime - is this a certain death sentence for this piglet? Is there anything I can do other than keeping him warm?

Any advice would be great.  Poor little guy. 

TIA Sue


**Now that I have found this site - I will do another (unrelated to this) post re: Tx of ticks.


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## Baymule (Dec 17, 2017)

I hope your little one makes it. It won't be for lack of caring.

@Farmer Connie @farmerjan @frustratedearthmother @Mini Horses


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## mysunwolf (Dec 18, 2017)

Keep monitoring him for weird breathing, aspiration is definitely not a death sentence! I've raised a few bottle pigs and had this happen a couple times. We watched them closely, and one batch when the breathing started to sound really raspy we administered injectable oxytetracycline twice (called our vet for advice) and they recovered nicely.


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## tailsticks (Dec 18, 2017)

Hi - well we turned a corner late yesterday thats for sure!  He was very inactive (unusual) after the suspected aspiration, this lasted for about 12-14 hours. And then late last night, I switched to a syringe which I very carefully administered tiny deposits inside his mouth - I also added rice cereal to make it a little paste-y and we had a complete turn around. He is not back up to his weight before he 'went down' but he is eating with a vengeance - about 1/2-3/4 oz each time and is definitely improved, mobile and vocal again! Thank you!


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## Latestarter (Dec 18, 2017)

Greetings and welcome to BYH. so glad the little one is doing better. Please make yourself at home and browse around. We have some great folks here. Glad you joined us!


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## mysunwolf (Dec 18, 2017)

So glad he is improving!! Hope he continues to be on the upward swing. I don't know how often you're feeding them, but fed our bottle babies every hour for the first few days, then every 2-4hrs, then 4-6hrs, etc. We may have spoiled them though


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## farmerjan (Dec 18, 2017)

We had a sow that died after delivering only one horn, the other ruptured and it killed her.  The babies were 2-3 days old.  I started them right out in a shallow pan with milk and they learned to slurp it up right away.  No aspiration or anything since they were doing the sucking of the milk and then started mixing in pig starter to make a gruel.  Yes they made a mess;  but I was not going the bottle route with little piglets.  Turns out the sow had some defect and 2 of the babies did not have an anus, so no manure and it killed them after a few days.  Didn't even realize what was wrong when the first one died,  then noticed the lack of an "a -hole".  Very discouraging.  But we saved the other 3 and raised them up for butcher and also butchered the other 2 half siblings  of the sow.  Not going to encourage any defect like that.  But, they will learn very quick to eat/drink out of a fairly shallow pan if it tastes good.


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## tailsticks (Dec 18, 2017)

farmerjan said:


> We had a sow that died after delivering only one horn, the other ruptured and it killed her.  The babies were 2-3 days old.  I started them right out in a shallow pan with milk and they learned to slurp it up right away.  No aspiration or anything since they were doing the sucking of the milk and then started mixing in pig starter to make a gruel.  Yes they made a mess;  but I was not going the bottle route with little piglets.  Turns out the sow had some defect and 2 of the babies did not have an anus, so no manure and it killed them after a few days.  Didn't even realize what was wrong when the first one died,  then noticed the lack of an "a -hole".  Very discouraging.  But we saved the other 3 and raised them up for butcher and also butchered the other 2 half siblings  of the sow.  Not going to encourage any defect like that.  But, they will learn very quick to eat/drink out of a fairly shallow pan if it tastes good.



Yes!My little guy did that today! Sooo glad...so much easier having them eat out of a pan.  I added some baby rice cereal to make it a little thicker.  Seems to like it!  Thank you!


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## Yarrow (May 6, 2020)

Hi all my piglet is doing the same thing 😭 would benacillin help her?


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