Mycoplasma Arthritis Questions
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 6:52 am
We had a litter of piglets around 2 and a half weeks old come down with this. It was like one piglet a day for about a week would be sore on one back leg and lay around for one day but then be up the next and be fine. We did not treat with anything. They are all fine and happily running around using all legs but now at 8 weeks old they still have a back knee or two that has swelling. It just won't go away even though they show no other symptoms. I decided to try to treat 3 piglets as a tester batch with Tylan 50 (it says it treats mycoplasma arthritis on the lable, to treat for no more than 3 days) to see if I could get the swelling to go away, but after 3 full days of treatment I'm not seeing any change in the swelling.
My questions are:
1. After finding this forum and doing some research here I'm wondering if I should try Lincomycin? Does it work differently than Tylan 50? Do they even need to treated? They are happy healthy appearing piglets that use all their legs just fine.
2. Can I sell any piglets? I know some pigs continue to be carriers and some don't. How would I ensure they wouldn't spread it to other pigs (like their mother did to them).
3. How can I treat their mother so she doesn't infect any future litters (I've read it can hide in the tonsils and that is how they can maintain it and spread it)? When we got this new sow last summer she gave it to our 2 existing litters at the time (but we didn't know what it was then or that she gave it to them, but we suspected) they grew up just fine but at least half still had swollen back knees at the time of slaughter, even though they walked just fine and lived a happy life. We kept them quarantined so as not to spread it. We had 2 more litters born since then from other sows that we also quarantined and none of then have it. It's only now that this litter was born we are realizing that this particular sow is the carrier. I really want to keep her but if she can't be treated we can't continue to have litters that come down with this. And we can't keep quarantining everyone from her.
Thanks so much for your help!!!
My questions are:
1. After finding this forum and doing some research here I'm wondering if I should try Lincomycin? Does it work differently than Tylan 50? Do they even need to treated? They are happy healthy appearing piglets that use all their legs just fine.
2. Can I sell any piglets? I know some pigs continue to be carriers and some don't. How would I ensure they wouldn't spread it to other pigs (like their mother did to them).
3. How can I treat their mother so she doesn't infect any future litters (I've read it can hide in the tonsils and that is how they can maintain it and spread it)? When we got this new sow last summer she gave it to our 2 existing litters at the time (but we didn't know what it was then or that she gave it to them, but we suspected) they grew up just fine but at least half still had swollen back knees at the time of slaughter, even though they walked just fine and lived a happy life. We kept them quarantined so as not to spread it. We had 2 more litters born since then from other sows that we also quarantined and none of then have it. It's only now that this litter was born we are realizing that this particular sow is the carrier. I really want to keep her but if she can't be treated we can't continue to have litters that come down with this. And we can't keep quarantining everyone from her.
Thanks so much for your help!!!