THIS PIG BUSINESS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 21, 17 November 1939, Page 43

THIS PIG BUSINESS

The farmer has been urged lately to keep pigs. If he does, I rather think the responsibility of them will fall, in most cases, to the farmer’s wife. They’re interesting while they’re tiny creatures with that over-stuffed look and the absurd twist of tail, but they mean a lot of real work if you mean to do the job seriously. If conditions are not right pigs are apt to contract skin diseases. The principal one is mange, and is due to a small parasite, sarcoptes suis, which is one of the mange mites. When once these parasites get on to premises, great care must be taken with the animal. The disease usually begins near the head, and gradually spreads. Long crusts of greyish colour are formed, and afterwards the skin becomes wrinkled and scabby in patches, or there may be wart-like projections. The bristles may fall out, and the hairless pig will look an altogether miserable specimen. The thing to do, as soon as you detect the disease, is to isolate the pig and clean and disinfect the premises. Scrub the animal with sdap and warm water, and after drying, rub into the affected parts @ preparation consisting of sulphur, two parts; Oil of Eucalyptus, two parts; and Cod Liver Oil, ten parts. This dressing should be left on for about three days, after which another scrubbing and another dressing. If a really formidable number of pigs is affected it will probably be necessary to pass them through a lime-and-sulphur dip, repeated in a week’s time.

S.

B.