feed a recovering piglet

[tina-colville]

hello.. can anyone help me .. what do i feed my recovering 12 week old piglet on ... he unfortunately ate some roots from "water dropwort" (britain`s deadliest plant) .. he has had 2 doses of charcoal solution yesterday given by the vet ..... he survived the night, but is now very lethargic and not wanting to eat or drink .. we have given him 120ml of warm water orally .... but what do we feed him on? he is very weak...his brother died a horrible, painful death yesterday from the same poisoning.. i dont want to lose this piglet.. please help with advice... thank you ... tina

[The Rushbury Pig]

Hello there,

So sorry to hear what you are going through.

My recommendation would be to go back directly to your vet for advice on what to give to this piglet. You need to be 100% sure that whatever you do is not going to create problems. In the meantime warm water orally is vital to keep the piglet hydrated. Please let us know what your vet says.

[tina-colville]

hello, thank you for your advice... the vet has given us advice to hydrate with 100ml every hour ...every 2nd "drink" contains some honey and/or some apple sauce to increase the sugar level .. he is taking this ok ... we have given him 2 injections given to us by the vet ... one is an anti-inflammatory and the other is an antibiotic ... it is kidney damage that the vet is worried about due to the poison.. time will tell if he survives ... we are frantically digging up all the water dropwort plants .. they have only manifested themselves in the last week as they have laid dormant underground all winter ...we have not been at this property very long so we did not know that they were there ... i would suggest that every pig owner familiarises themselves with this killer ... one root is enough to kill a cow or a horse, or indeed a human within 3 hours...so a pig or piglet does not stand a chance .. especially as the plants are very palatable, apparently ... thank you again ... tina

[tina-colville]

Hello.. just to let you know that Larry the piglet is up and about and eating and drinking like only a pig could !!!! ... missing his brother ... but very much still with us, we are just hoping that there is no long term damage ... regards, Tina

[The Rushbury Pig]

Thank you for that update - very good news indeed

Please keep us posted on his progress. This post will be very helpful to others who might find themselves in the same situation

[tina-colville]

Hello, thank you for your reply and concern.. "Larry" the piglet is doing very well, back to normal, jumping up, demanding cuddles and rubs ....generally just being a spoilt piglet. We have been scanning the whole 2 .5 acre field for more "Water Dropwort" ..(the pigs are restricted to a 0.5 acre "clean" area now). I think we have dug up appox 100 kilos of the stuff, about a "hippo" bag full. Take note that the rule of thought is that 1 gram of root per kilo of animal weight is the amount to kill.... So that is one carrot size piece to a piglet... We have enough to , well you know what I mean !!!!!!
........ Please ... everyone take great care to check your fields, perimeters, wet or boggy areas ... chances are you will find some .... 3 hours from ingestion to death, even if you just go and look to prove me wrong, its worth doing.
Anyway, on a more cheerful note, we are collecting the remaining 2 brothers from the breeders on tuesday to bring our stock up to 5 pigs ... I dont know who has got the most work? the pigs, to clear their area ... or us to feed them and clean up after them ... its all worth it
..... bye for now, Tina

[The Rushbury Pig]

WOW! You have been busy!

I will pass this link onto our Newsletter editor who may want to include this in the next Newsletter.

Thank you for keeping us updated