[Fishhook]

Hey folks - anybody got info on pot-bellied pigs?

Know somebody who has a female pot-bellied pig. Just a hair under a year old, third, maybe fourth heat. To the best of my knowledge, the owner isn't zoo, and until two days ago, I'm not aware of any sexual activity (human, pig, or otherwise) going on with the sow. She took it to another PBP owner to be bred then. According to the report she's giving me, the breeding went well - the boar covered her twice, for about 20 minutes each time. Boar was reportedly about half her size. All the behavioral signs that she reports match up with what little I know about pigs to say "Yep, she was definitely in hard heat", so there's little or no chance, so far as I can tell, that she was harmed by the actual breeding.

Problem is that yesterday, owner reports that the sow was apparently in large amounts of discomfort, repeatedly straining as if to defecate, but producing nothing, and showing some medium swelling of the vulva. This morning, she snagged me on the way to the barn, asking me to take a look and see what I thought. Upon looking her over, I'm inclined to think "infection of some kind", but beyond that... <shrug> I ain't a pig guy - my expertise is horses.

What I saw upon looking her over:
Vulva *EXTREMELY* swollen, red, firm, and very warm to the touch - It looks almost like somebody took a tennis ball, painted it shiny red, and crammed it into her vulva so that half of it was left sticking out. Her anus is slightly "gaped" (probably a side-effect of her vulva being so swollen) making the internal membranes visible, sort of like a hemmoroid, but nothing actually protruding from the anus. There's a *SLIGHT* discharge from the vulva, clear and watery. She's lethargic (This is normally a pretty active piggy - she's all the time bopping around the property) and left more than half of yesterday's feeding in the bowl.

Our horse vet (damn good horse doctor, but that's *ALL* he's done for the last 30 years - He won't even look at a cat, dog, cow, or bird - he doesn't have the skillset or supplies for those, and he knows it) comes up blank, and doesn't know any vets in the area that deal with pigs - His only useful advice is try to get fluids down her, and keep her comfy as possible. Owner is calling around trying to locate a pig-savvy doc, but considering the area, and that fact that PBPs are still pretty much considered to be an "exotic" around here, I'm not betting on much luck. Last I knew, she was waiting for the owner of the boar she took the pig to for the breeding to wake up and answer the phone, so nothing useful from that direction yet.

Owner was uncertain as to whether there was any chance that the boar got into her anus before hitting the "proper hole", so that possiility hasn't been written off as an infection source. I don't know if there's any kind of "piggy-clap", or that sort of thing, that he could have given her, so... <shrug> Like I say, I'm not a pig person!

Anybody got any ideas?

[Equus Filos]

If there's no pig-savvy vet in your area, a small animal vet should still be able to handle it. If it were me I would continue to try calling a small-animal vet, even if they specialize in dogs or cats they would probably be able to assess the likelihood of infection and give a penicillin shot (or other antibiotic) if needed. Maybe mention that you suspect an infection.

[Fishhook]

Update -
After several hours of phone-tag, finally located a pig-savvy vet - almost 3 hours' drive away. Loaded up pig, away she went.

This morning, pig is MUCH better (and owner's wallet is just short of $300 lighter...) after being diagnosed as having a 104 degree fever from a urinary tract infection almost certainly related to the breeding. According to the owner's relaying of what the vet told her, something about the plumbing in PBPs differs just enough from "regular" pigs to make them particularly susceptible to breeding-induced UTIs, and it's not uncommon for them to flat-out die from them, sometimes in under 24 hours. Vet gave her a 50-50 shot of pulling through, and it looks like she's going to.

On the down side, due to the fever, it's real likely that the breeding won't "take". Near as I can understand things, the sperm transport system in sows is quite "primitive" compared to several other species, so the first sperm from the first breeding should have just been getting started on interacting with any eggs she produced sometime late last night - 24-36 hours after the breeding, and several hours after her body temperature went high enough to bake most, if not all, sperm cells to death.

Kinda make you wonder how the critters manage to reproduce at all, doesn't it? :-P

[Yukihyou]

Fishhook, on 16 September 2009 - 06:08 PM, said:

Kinda make you wonder how the critters manage to reproduce at all, doesn't it? :-P

Artificial insemination, it seems.