Hernia and Scrotal Hernia are also treated upon in the chapter on the Farrowing Sow.
INVERSION OF THE v.a.g.i.n.a OR THE UTERUS
These two troubles, of which the latter is a complete expulsion and the former only a partial protrusion of the "breeding bag," are generally the result of a difficult or a protracted farrowing. The second is almost impossible of treatment, and indeed may be declared as fatal, so that the loss may be reduced by prompt slaughter.
The first varies in extent; a partial or limited inversion may at times be noticeable during the latter stages of pregnancy, and then after delivery may disappear without treatment until the pressure due to the increasing size of the ftus again causes it. Even in serious cases which attend the delivery and are due to excessive straining of the sow, the attack is not necessarily fatal if extreme care in treatment is applied. The first thing is to wash the protruding part with warm water, to which some disinfectant has been added, in order that all dirt, short straw, etc., shall be removed. The sow should then be made to rise, or if she refuses, as is not uncommon, the hind quarters of the sow should be raised and the protruding portion be gently but firmly forced back.
In order to prevent a re-expulsion st.i.tches with strong cord or leather lace should be inserted into the edges of the v.u.l.v.a--these need not be very close together or otherwise the sow would be unable to make water.
For a few days the sow must be kept as quiet as possible and fed on a little nourishing but laxative food, so that the pressure on the v.a.g.i.n.a is slight until the muscles regain their normal strength. Should there be the slightest symptom of constipation, salts or castor oil should be given to the sow. No harm, but rather good, will attend the giving of a gentle dose of salts at the first time of feeding after the operation as there is certain to be an amount of inflammation present.
INVERSION OF THE r.e.c.t.u.m
This expulsion of the gut as it is commonly termed is not often experienced amongst mature pigs. Young pigs are not uncommonly affected save when constipation is neglected, or when the food is of a heating nature which causes continual difficulty on the part of the pig in expelling the faeces. The effort of straining causes the gut to exude.
Similar treatment, save as to the st.i.tching of the part, as with inversion of the v.a.g.i.n.a, should be followed.
TENDER FEET
This trouble is frequently mistaken for cramp or rheumatism, and is generally due to the same causes, injudicious feeding, etc. In the latter disease the ankles are mainly affected, in the case of fever in the feet, the feet only are affected. A strong dose of Epsom salts should be given and daily doses of nitre should be given in the food.
The object should be to reduce and remove the fever and then to cure or remove that tenderness and soreness of the feet which follows the fever.
Poulticing the feet and applying diluted white oils by adding equal quant.i.ties of water and vinegar around the coronets are both remedial measures of great value.
CONSTIPATION
This trouble is very common amongst pigs which are confined to the sties, its avoidance is comparatively easy, when the want of exercise is the sole cause. A run in an enclosure or even in the road will almost always result in the pig evacuating dung and water. A dose of salts, varying from 1/2 oz. to 1-1/2 oz. for each pig, according to age, in the next supply of food is advisable.
Constipation is usually the first indication of many of the troubles to which the pig is heir. The little pig on its mother becomes constipated when the food fed to the mother is unsuitable, and the pig suffers from indigestion; fever caused by a chill is also foretold by constipation which should be first removed by a gentle dose of salts or of castor oil; the last only to be used in severe cases. Linseed oil is also frequently used to relieve the constipation, but with this there is a fear of billiousness following its use. If exercise and the above remedies do not effect a cure, an enema of soap and water or even glycerine may be necessary. Old-fashioned pigmen remove the hard and knotty faeces by the aid of the finger.
ECZEMA
This is sometimes called a skin disease, but it appears to be rather a symptom of a severe attack of indigestion or of billiousness than a disease in itself. It shows itself in the form of a bright red spot, varying in size from that of a threepenny piece to that of a shilling, these spots vary greatly in number. Small pimples appear on the spots from which a sticky fluid exudes. As soon as the bowels are thoroughly relieved by aperient medicine, the spots become dark in colour and peel off the skin. The application of oil to the spots hastens the shedding of them. A dose of sulphur of one to eight drachms in addition to the salts will be beneficial.
Frequently the pig will refuse to eat, it will then be necessary to dose it. The pig must be caught, its head raised and the liquid gently poured down its throat, the greatest care being taken not to pour the liquid whilst the pig is squealing or the medicine will go into the lungs and cause suffocation, or inflammation of the lungs which will generally prove fatal.
MEASLES
This is a trouble of a very similar character to eczema save that the red spots are more numerous and of a more irritating character. The patient is continually rubbing itself against the wall or any prominence in an endeavour to relieve the itching. The pig is also more feverish.
The pig should be placed in a warm sty, with plenty of dry straw, into which it will quickly burrow. A dose of Epsom salts to which is added a small quant.i.ty of spirit of nitre should be given, as the pig affected will almost invariably refuse food for a time. Neat"s foot or sweet oil applied to the spots will relieve the irritation.
RICKETS
This is not by any means a common ailment amongst pigs, but it is very hereditary. The most common cause is too close breeding. The bones and joints appear to be unequal to the performance of their duties, the pig staggers and stumbles when it attempts to move, whilst sometimes the back is affected, when the pig is stated to be suffering from "swayback." As a rule treatment is inadvisable as recovery is doubtful.
The first loss by knocking the pig on the head is generally the least.
TUBERCULOSIS
Pigs, like unto human beings, are much subject to tuberculosis when they are kept under conditions similar to those which result in human beings becoming affected. The disease is highly infectious, pigs coming in contact with or even being housed in sties where pigs affected have been recently kept are very likely to become infected. Some persons declare that tuberculosis, or, as it is more commonly called, consumption, is hereditary. For this there does not appear to be any foundation. The chief thing to prevent one"s animals being affected is to keep them away from contagion. Although many parts of the body may be attacked by tuberculosis, the lungs are more frequently affected than any other of the organs, owing probably to the ease with which infection by the minute germ is conveyed to the lungs in the act of breathing.
In the past a considerable number of pigs became infected through being fed on skim milk which contained germs from the udder of a cow suffering from a tuberculous udder. In these cases of the lungs and the bowels becoming tubercular, the pigs become unthrifty and frequently waste away and die. When the bones and other portions of the body are attacked the development of the disease is not so rapid, but in any case the wisest plan is to destroy the animal and thoroughly disinfect the place in which it has been kept. Save when the disease is local and of very limited duration the meat of a pig suffering from tuberculosis is unfit for human consumption.
WORMS
Pigs are subject to various kinds of worms. Of these the most serious by far is the worm which causes the disease called Trichinosis in man. The worms are transmitted to man in pork from a diseased pig. Thorough cooking of meat appears to destroy the vitality of the worm, but in foreign countries where the pork is eaten in an uncooked or an undercooked condition the disease is not uncommon. Fortunately, Trichinosis is almost unknown in this country, owing to our more stringent sanitary conditions, the disease being due in the pig to the eating of human excrement in which are thread worms.
The most common kind of pig worm in this country is the round white worm, pointed at both ends. Its length varies from one to several inches. Its presence is often unsuspected until one or more of the worms are noticed in the dung of the pig. It is readily got rid of by keeping the pigs from food for at least twelve hours, and then giving them a little tempting food in which a dose of santonine, varying from three to ten grains for each pig, according to its age, has been added. Some two hours later a dose of castor oil of from 1/4 oz. to 2 oz., or of one to two ounces of Epsom salts, should be given in milk or some other tempting food. Similar treatment will prove successful in the case of pigs affected with the smaller kind of worms save that of the worm which causes what is commonly known as "husk." This worm makes its home in the windpipe and bronchial tubes. It is advisable to obtain from a chemist a drench for the riddance of this worm, as the remedies will consist of linseed oil, turpentine, spirits of camphor, and asaftida.
SORE TEATS
Occasionally the teats of sows, especially sows with their first litters, become chapped or sore. This trouble is frequently due to the too vigorous sucking of the little pigs when the supply of milk is short, to the biting of the teats when the sharp little teeth have not been broken off, or even to cold winds.
An application of boro-glyceride will usually effect a speedy cure. In persistent cases it will be advisable to give the sow a dose or two of opening medicine such as salts or sulphur.
SALT AND SODA POISONING
Although these can scarcely be cla.s.sed as diseases, the effects are often more serious than those of some actual diseases to which swine are more or less subject.
In the majority of cases the cause is the neglect of the cook to keep separate from the swill the water in which salted meat or other food has been boiled, or the water to which soda has been added in the washing of the plates, etc. An attack if at all severe is usually fatal.
The symptoms are a discoloration of the skin, and a refusal of food. As these are the usual symptoms of several other ailments, it is difficult to determine the cause of death save by a post-mortem examination. It is to be feared that this mixing of a solution of salt and soda with the other swill will be one of the difficulties met with in the more general utilisation of kitchen refuse in the keeping of pigs.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CURING OF PORK
In the good old times bacon curing was carried on in the large majority of farm-houses as well as in many houses in the country districts, not only where there were conveniences for the keeping of pigs, but many householders were in the habit of buying carcases of pork from their neighbours and curing the major portion for the following year"s supply of cured meats. Even the better cla.s.s labourers would kill and cure it so that as long as it lasted they had on hand a supply of most nutritious and suitable food. Unfortunately a great change has taken place of late years; this convenient and profitable plan has been superseded. The causes may have been many; amongst them, the importation of immense quant.i.ties of salt pork of very inferior quality at very low prices from the United States; the change in the public taste which is now for mild cured and lean bacon from young pigs, instead of the more heavily salted meats from older and fatter pigs; the great decrease in the number of pigs kept by cottagers and others in urban districts through the operation of the so-called sanitary regulations; and probably from the different style of living, which may or may not be an improvement, amongst the residents in country districts.
It may be that one of the many changes which have been brought about by, and which will also follow, the war will be a return to the more simple and less luxurious manner of living. It is certain that a more economical system will have to be followed, and one of the means of effecting this may be a return to the keeping of pigs during their growing stage on the house and garden refuse, and then when the pigs have been fattened, by the killing and curing of the carcase for home consumption.
Much has been written during recent years about the folly of allowing so many millions of sovereigns to go out of the country in payment for the vast weight of bacon, hams, and lard which we import from foreign countries. Residents in the country have been blamed by town residents and literary men for their alleged want of enterprise in not breeding and fattening the few extra million pigs which would furnish an amount of pig produce equal to that imported, and thus, as they declare, save the country that outlay which is a dead loss to these islands.
It may at once be frankly admitted that a very considerable increase in the number of our pig population is possible without any very greatly extended cost of food, but when it is contended that farmers and even cottagers are grossly neglectful in not producing sufficient pork and its products for the use of the whole of the population of these islands, an injustice is done, as the breeding and feeding of pigs is a business calling, not a philanthropical pursuit. Farmers and cottagers are like other manufacturers of necessary articles; they produce in order to live, and they cease to manufacture an article when its production ceases to repay them for their outlay and trouble. They must of necessity do so, or they come to grief and are unable to carry on their farms or businesses.
It matters not what the cause be for the ability of the foreigner to produce and land on our markets articles cheaper than we can afford to offer them at, the result is the same--the home production is automatically reduced. There are many causes which have helped to render it possible for foreigners to supply us with a certain proportion of the pork and bacon which we require at a less cost than our home breeder and feeders of pigs can supply it. These include help to the farmers from the Governments of certain countries such as Denmark, where a.s.sistance is given in the purchase of pure bred pigs for the improvement of the native pigs, in the reduced railway and other rates on the transit of pigs, foods, and bacon, in the provision of certain foods, and in carrying out experiments in order to show how they may be utilised in the best manner. Stud farms have also been established from which pure bred boars are distributed, whilst the whole industry of pig breeding and bacon curing is carried on under the supervision and with the advice of many Government officials appointed for the purpose. The intrinsic value of this a.s.sistance is perceptible, as in no other country are pig-keeping and bacon curing carried on with greater monetary success than in Denmark.
It is also a.s.serted that the general system of farming in Denmark has also contributed very largely to the phenomenal prosperity of the pig industry, in that a very large proportion of the land is owned and farmed by comparatively small farmers, men who have a direct interest in the improvement of the land, and who with their families perform the major portion of the work on the land and in attendance on the stock.