Title: Monitoring Your Show Pig’s Progress | Animal Agriculture | Washington State University
Headings: Monitoring Your Show Pig’s Progress
Monitoring Your Show Pig’s Progress
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Content: At least 24-48 hours should have elapsed since exposure of the vehicle to other pigs. Your clothes and foot wear should be clean and disinfected after the last contact with other pigs. Major stress can occur when you bring your feeder pig home. The change in feed and stress of transport are the primary ones. To minimize the stress associated with the change in feed, find out what type of feed the pig has been receiving and either purchase a 2 to 4 day supply from the producer or their supplier. Then make changes to a new feed over several days. Young feeder pigs will often scour or develop diarrhea because of the multiple stressors that occur at the change of ownership. Therefore, you should consider the administration of antibiotics (injectable or in the feed or water) for the first few days after you bring them home. Regardless of how you transport your pigs, make sure the vehicle or carrier is free of sharp edges and is appropriate for the weather and temperature. Clean, straw-bedded dog carriers can be appropriate for smaller feeder pigs.