My sow just gave birth, now she's breathing hard. What should I do?

The piglets should be weaned by now. Do not let them suckle her anymore. By now they have teeth and will injure her teats which can then develop mastitis (inflammation of the mammary glands). Redness, pain and not eating, weakness, are all signs of a severe mastitis and she will need to be seen by a veterinarian. Your vet will likely prescribe anti-inflammatory medication and, if there is a bacterial infection, antibiotics.

I assume you are talking about the babies being stillborn? The are many diseases that can cause this: * enterovirus * Mycoplasma (eperythrozoonosis) * leptospirosis * mycotoxicosis (fungal disease) * parvovirus * PRRS circovirus * toxoplasmosis * Carbon monoxide poisoning Some non-infectious causes: * early placental separation * trauma * oversized fetuses * uterine inertia (the uterus is not working to push the babies out fast enough * calcium deficiency of the sow I suggest you find a vet to come out and check them. If this is due to an infectious cause this could spread to any other pigs you may have.

So sorry to hear you are having this issue. There are a range of causes of abortion in the pig. Majority of abortions are non-infectious and some 90% are never diagnosed. Causes of abortion can be simply divided into four categories. If you have an abortion problem I suggest you discuss these issues with your veterinarian. 1. Seasonal effects: 70% of all abortions fall into this category. Remember it is normal for sows to farrow in the spring, and therefore, there is a natural tendency for pregnancies to be lost in the summer and autumn. There are many factors believed to be involved in the summer infertility/autumn abortion syndrome – reduction in light length, effect of heat, loss of appetite in the summer, etc. 2. Environmental effects: Sows may be subjected to stress factors relating to their environment: draughts, excessive heat stress, inadequate cooling, change in the feeding routines, changes in stock people, bullying when introduced into a new group and trauma from moving through narrow doorways. All of these factors singly or combined can result in abortion in the individual sow. Injections can also result in abortions at times. 3. Mycotoxins: Although difficult to prove, mycotoxins have long been suspected as being responsible for abortions. In any case of 2 or 3 abortions over a short period of time, clean out the feed bins and feed lines. Never feed moldy feed to animals. Moldy straw can also play a significant role in the causes of abortion. 4. Infectious causes: There are a range of infectious causes of abortion. Examples include swine influenza, erysipelas, swine fever and leptospirosis. PRRSv (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus) can also be responsible for severe abortion storms when a new stain enters a naive population of pregnant sows. So, as you can see, there are so many factors that come into play here. It is impossible for me to tell you exactly what happened. If you want to know 100% you would have needed the vet out to do a necropsy (autopsy) on the sow and send tissue samples out the the lab for analysis. Otherwise we are just guessing. My recommendation is to consult with a local vet to get the best outcome with the rest of the sows. I hope this helps. If you have more questions feel free to ask again. Best wishes!

I would be concerned there are additional puppies in there that she hasn't been able to pass. I would strongly recommend to have your vet take a look at her. Your vet will be able to take a x-ray to see if there are any additional puppies. If she does have additional puppies that need to come out and they aren't removed, they can cause a really bad infection in her uterus and make her really ill. I hope this helps.

The only thing I would give them would be an iron injection tomorrow. Any vaccines you want to give should be done according to the manufacturer recomendation. You can put creep feed in with them straight away. You should wean them when they reach around 7kg usually at 3 or 4 weeks.

Normally guinea pig labor should be short, around 40 minutes, so if an hour has passed since Elsa has her baby with no sign of the other, I would take her into the vet immediately. It could be that her second baby is too big to come out, and she may need a c section to deliver that baby safely. I would take her into an ER vet or find a vet on call to see her now.

As you probably already know if your pigs are sitting there quietly when you try to do something to them then it's safe to say that something is probably very wrong. I would first try and get us a temperature on them see if they are carrying any sort of fever and I would also look to see if they have any sort of skin lesions. Regardless of what the cause of the current problem is I'd say that it is probably not safe to eat or butcher these animals at the moment. You can contact a local veterinarian that deals with swine and see what they think but in all likelihood they will probably want to administer an antibiotic. If they do then you will have to wait the withdrawal prior to butchering and selling these animals for meat. I would also be curious to know if they have any sort of diarrhea as many swine illnesses cause this.