Ingesting Dead Worms

[mysunwolf]

This might be a weird question, but here goes. We got some piglets and after hanging out with them for a few weeks noticed that they were acting like they needed to be wormed. I examined them and found lice eggs as well. We wormed them with injectable Ivermectin last week, but the medicine leaked out of the sub-cu pocket I had made behind/below the ear. So we wormed them again two days ago, and this time did it in the skin behind the shoulder where I'm pretty sure it stayed. We've kept them in the barn during these cold nights to let them shed before putting them back on the field.

This morning I found a huge worm in their poop! Pretty sure it's large white roundworm, Ascaris. But not 100% sure. Here's a photo:


Anyhow, as I was grabbing the pitchfork to clean it out, the young female came over and decided that she needed to eat the worm! I put my foot over it trying to block it from her, but this made it a much better prize, and before I could stop her she'd eaten a chunk of the worm.

The first question: is she going to get another infestation from ingesting that dead worm? I removed them from the barn so they have no access to any more wormy poop. But should I make sure to worm them again in a certain number of days?

The second question: how many days do I wait before worming them again for the lice? It's a pretty bad infestation.

 

[NH homesteader]

@misfitmorgan

I have no idea but that came out of your pig? Wow!

 

[mysunwolf]

@misfitmorgan

I have no idea but that came out of your pig? Wow!

Yes, I've never seen pigs so heavily infested with worms! It was wrapped up in the stool, I just used my boot to uncover it so I could see it better. At first I thought an earthworm had crawled into the shed with them. This worm was easily over 6" long, and these piglets are just over 50lbs. I'll admit I was too grossed out to try measuring it or anything like that! No wonder these little piglets were so ravenous.

 

[Green Acres Farm]

 

[mysunwolf]

I think I've figured out the lice thing, it says worm again in 2-3 weeks, and possibly repeat until they've been wormed a total of 3 times to get all the life cycles of the lice.

Still would love help with the big wormy worm thing

 

[mysunwolf]

That was my reaction to it in real life!

 

[Latestarter]

I'd never heard of worms being a problem with pigs... this is the 2nd or third time someone on BYH has had an issue with pigs having a worm overload... I wonder why? One person, the piglets were severely stunted as a result of worm loads. Can't remember who it was though...

 

[NH homesteader]

They can be a problem, for sure. I think it was @Sweetened that had issues (sorry if I have the wrong person)

@Ferguson K posted a pretty gross pig worm picture at one point I think too.

 

[mysunwolf]

Worms can be a huge problem for pigs. People raising feeders don't usually have problems, because the majority of breeders keep their sows wormed properly AND piglets tend to be pretty resistant once you get them onto fresh ground. We very rarely have to worm our feeder pigs, but we have had breeders and know the signs of a high wormload. Plus they just "look" a certain way if that makes sense.

I don't think there's any more pigs having worms now than there have been in the past, but there are certainly more and more newbies getting into pig breeding that probably should have raised feeders a few more years instead (I include myself as one of these people).

Most pigs carry quite a few worms naturally, since they root around in the ground and are often kept in small confined lots. But if they are handling the load I usually don't worm.

Btw, these piglets look amazing for the wormload:

Some of the signs of a high worm load in piglets--without doing a fecal--are overly hairy for the breed, eating way too much, having a big belly, are colder than usual, and just generally unthrify.

 

[mysunwolf]

Oh, and a droopy tail is a sign of unhealthy-ness, of course Got to make sure to pick up some curly-tailed little goobers.