Aborting litters

[bobpet79]

Noticed tonight our third female is going abort her litter this current farrowing season. 2 of the 3 aborted around 6 weeks to go . Tonight's gilt had roughly 3 and a half weeks left. They were a purebred gilt, a crossbred gilt, and a sow that had 2 litters. All my breeding females get farrowsure gold before breeding and litter guard at 6 weeks and again at 3 weeks before farrowing. When the second female aborted, we collected the fetuses and placenta and were sent to Iowa State for testing. All the test results came back negative. The purebred gilt was in her own pen. None where injured or sick. One common variable is all the boar semen came from the same stud farm that had aborted litters. I don't know if it's just coincidence, or just crappy luck. We have already had 4 litters born this mouth with no problems. With litter sizes of 11, 9, 11, and 16.

Any comments welcomed!

Thanks!

[HogDoc]

It is notoriously hard to diagnose reproductive failures when the numbers of samples you can submit are small because of a small herd size. You may never get a definitive answer.

One thing I would check is the feed for mycotoxins. Its been a widespread problem this year.

[bobpet79]

How do I check the feed? We get it at a regular mill.

[Norm]

http://extension.psu.edu/animals/dairy/ ... -feeding-1 article that covers different mycotoxins and their affects on different species. Also covers sampling procedures. State department of agriculture, university extension, or local mills and grain trader should be able to direct you to someone who could run the samples.

[bobpet79]

What to do now! Walked in the barn this morning and found another one aborting. This one is 20 days before farrowing. Loosing all hope now.

[Darin]

Sorry for your problems, that really sucks! Take HogDoc and Norm's advice and get the feed tested. Good luck!

[bobpet79]

After talking to Norm, I do believe I made a huge mistake. Our first 2 gilt litters got the 2 doses of farrowsure gold. For some reason I don't believe my other 6 gilts didn't get the second dose. I don't remember if all my sows got the booster also. From this point forward all sows will be getting a booster at farrowing and all gilts will be getting 2 doses.

[RMT]

Have the vet out and blood test those sows for prrs.

[rbburg1212]

I would still have some further testing done as was mentioned by others. We've missed a dose of pre-farrowing vaccine here and there and never had issues like your mentioning. It's definitely worth investigating more.

[bobpet79]

still waiting to hear back from the vet. We did send one aborted litter out and it was negative. I do believe it was the lack of farrowsure gold. We have had to 2 litters from gilts this winter already and i know for a fact that they got 2 doses of farrowsure. Unfortunately the 3 gilts that aborted only got one dose. still will do some looking into where we can get our feed.

[bobpet79]

Thanks for all the advice. We diffently have some avenues to start on.

[CLVR]

This past summer, I had a litter of 14 aborted 5 days early. I researched as hard as I know how trying to find an answer, as veterinary help is hard to get in my area. My list of suspects,by the condition of the litter were heat,possibly a weed eaten as I have been told that I have a couple of weeds that can cause abortion, but more likely, lepto, or parvo. The sow had her first litter earlier in the year and they were a very vigorous litter with no problems, so I know that it wasn't her. I had also slipped on the Farrowsure, and feel like that might have very well been my downfall. I am making sure to get it done and will be breeding her in March so we shall see.