Stress or Fatigue....? Help..

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kwblake
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Stress or Fatigue....? Help..

Post by kwblake » Thu Jan 04, 2018 11:17 am

My family is new to the show life and we are learning as we go along. I need some advice/help on what to do about a situation from yesterday. We have a show pig that was being walked yesterday afternoon. The weather is very unpredictable here, one day it is warm the next it may be 40 degrees. Yesterday before walking the pig, they washed him and it was around 40 degrees. It has been about a week since we last walked him due to the rainy cold weather. While being walked he was being handled by some one who helps us feed and take care of the show pigs. He handled the pig a lot more aggressive than the way my son handles him. After being out and walking for about 5 minutes, the pig began to "lock-up". He laid down, was panting heavily, his tongue turned blue, he had a little foam around the mouth. The individual helping us said to splash vinegar on his nose and in his mouth. We did that and the pig got up and very stiff/tightly walked back to the pen. He laid down. This morning he still had a majority of his feed in his pan. He is one of our biggest barrows and best eaters. Is this due to being washed with cold water in the 40 degree temps before being walked? Is this due to lack of walking within the last two weeks? Is this due to possibly having the stress gene? When will it be safe to walk the pig again...will this afternoon be ok to walk him? Will this happen again, if so what can we do? We have a show next weekend and I am worried about this happening in the ring.

Pac
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Re: Stress or Fatigue....? Help..

Post by Pac » Thu Jan 04, 2018 11:35 am

I think most of your questions are your instincts telling you something wasn't right about the way he was being handled by your "help". I would not be washing pigs in 40 degree weather going forward. If you need to wash in that type of weather I would make it a separate event from walking/exercising/training. If it were me I would towel dry as much as possible and then make sure they were going back to a clean pen with clean shavings...not sure if you are in a barn or outside housing. I'd keep an eye on him and hopefully he comes back and hasn't been injured. Foamy mouth and panting is not unusual, especially in the beginning, but you should ease into training and create endurance instead of hot rodding him.

kwblake
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Re: Stress or Fatigue....? Help..

Post by kwblake » Thu Jan 04, 2018 12:02 pm

I trust our help because he has been in the show business longer than we have and seems to know a great deal about hogs. I was frightened by what I saw yesterday. I was really afraid that the pig was about to die, in fact, I am still very concerned about him making it to the show. I am struggling as to what happened. Our helper is fairly young and I know he gets frustrated with my children for not walking them like he wants daily. Just not sure about what happened or if this is common in pigs or how to handle the situation.

dolfan31
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Re: Stress or Fatigue....? Help..

Post by dolfan31 » Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:32 am

I would guess the pig stressed because on a combination of being washed in cold weather ( would not recommend that in the future) being walked after the wash and being handled more aggressively than normal. He should be fine as long as he did not get sick after being washed in that kind of weather.

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