We picked out 2 show pigs from our usual breeder 10 days ago. One pig is perfectly healthy, but the other has been sick for almost a week now. (She is, of course, our favorite of the two.)

Last Thursday we started thinking she just had a lot of mosquito bites that were really inflamed. We’ve used bronco, etc. Her swelling and inflammation and bumps on her belly have gotten worse and she looks sunburned on her back (their area only gets an hour of very early morning sun.) On Saturday, she developed a hematoma on her ear. Her breeder is tag was severely infected. The vet gave her antibiotics, removed the tag and thinks she has swine pox. I’m don’t want to discredit him but everything I’ve read said her lesions should start to get a dark center and that hasn’t happened at all. She is eating/drinking, but seems a bit lethargic. I would also think the other pig would be sick and it’s not.

Could she have like an all over septic infection from the ear tag? Does anyone have any experience with this? Our fair is tag pictures are due this Saturday so I have to decide whether I think she’ll be healthy enough to continue or if I should just go get another pig. I’ve spoken with our breeder and they will support either decision.

Any experience and/or advice is much appreciated.

We had a similar issue last year. Took a couple of weeks and it went away.

Good to know. Thank you.