AILMENTS OF PIGS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4881, 23 September 1925, Page 4

AILMENTS OF PIGS.

WHITE SCOURS. BOILED RICE AT A REMEDY. “I have noticed many useful ar tides on pig-breeding,” writer a well known breeder to the Dairy Produce Review, and your inivtation to breeders to rend in any particulars that they thought would be of interest-to other breeders appealed to me so much that I decided to give you the following information. I guess you will find it a good cure fdr that most annoying and (serious trouble in young pigs, namely, white scour. I have always had difficulty in trying to induce my young sucking pigs to eat or drink before they are three weeks old. I have a litter now nearly four w/jeks old, and they will not .touch anything except a little green feed or some soft corn. The sow has plenty of milk, but the young pigs scoured before they were a month old. I have had Other litters act similarly, and sonietimes I have thought that it must be a germ disease. The hows are fed on slop composed of- mill offal, milk, and a little pig meal. Their

quarters are about as clean and sanitary as they could be.

“I noticed quite recently that the sows were very fond of charcoal and slack, or very flue coal, of which they seemed to eat a large quantity. However, this reputed cure for scour is nothing else than the use of boiled rice. The water in wihch the rice has been boiled makes a good drink for the suckers, or, if they will not drink, it can be given them by means of a teaspoon. The litters that ate both the whole rice and the rice water are those that have improved most. It seems a simple cure, and the information might be of value to other readers.”

Boiled rice may be used profitably for feeding young pigs. It is possible sometimes; to purchase cheap lines of rice from storekeepers consisting of “seconds” and cracked or crushed grains, Or sometimes the parcel has been badly attacked by a grain weevil and has to be rejected for shop use. If the pigs are too sick to eat or have little or no appetite, it will certainly pay to force them to take a few teaspoonsful of the rice water. Young suckers about three weeks old that are scouring may be given at least two tablespoonsful without any danger ; older pigs may drink more and eat some of the whole rice. It is ad-

visable to let the sows have access to plentiful supplies of charcoal, burnt corn cobs, rock salt, bone meal.

But the fact must not be overlooked that scour is preventable, and there is no reason why suckers should suffer from this dread disease. In many cases scour is due to an abnormal condition of the mother’s milk, more frequently to the sow being overfed, and to her producing more milk than the suckers can beneficially consume. They drink more than they can digest. and as a result irritation and gastric ailments follow, which frequently take the form of a persistent white scour that, if neglected, will become chronic. There is a form of scour due to germs ; this usually occurs in cases where the young pigs have been neglected early in the attack. Any impaction in .the digestive tract might result in scour. It is, advisable to exercise more care in feeding the sows when they are about to farrow and for a week or two after they have produced their litter. This would prevent sickness and would save a great deal of trouble in treating the young pigs. The sties should be thoroughly cleaned up and scrubbed out, using hot soda water for the purpose. After drying they should be freely limewashed, and air slacked lime should be sprinkled over the floors and in the yards.