Sow with no milk after farrowing

[Kalaw]

Can anyone shed any light on why a third parity sow would fail to have any milk after farrowing? She did just great as a gilt and with her second litter, but had nothing with this litter. She went full term, uneventful farrowing, litter of 8, but no milk not even colostrum. Not a mastitis issue.....her underline isn't hard, heated, or painful to the touch......to the contrary her teats are like that of a sow that weaned pigs a couple of weeks ago. She's not overweight (if anything, she is someone underweight). Tried giving her oxytocin three times and hour or so apart each time.....still nothing. No clue as to why this would happen.....and should I expect it to happen in the future if I breed her again?

[LzDy]

We have 2 sows that never get any milk in until they are done farrowing. I would say if she doesn't have any milk in by 24 hours I wouldn't expect her to get any and by then you probably are already having to do something with the piglets anyway. MMA is the most likely cause you can treat her for it with antibiotics and see if she responds. We tube feed our piglets colostrum on these sows that don't get milk in then give them back to mom. We culled sows like this and just divide up the piglets to other sows if possible. Good luck

[HogDoc]

A few years ago we saw this frequently on some farms it was happening with almost every sow. Usually they would come into milk about 3 days after farrowing. It was a bit of a head scratcher and we saw it go away after we medicated the sows with CTC in the feed.

I'm not sure we ever actually figured out what was actually going on.

[LzDy]

Thanks HogDoc that is good to know. What are you thoughts on treating with oxytetracycline injectable instead of CTC in the feed. I am assuming that the CTC treatment was oral. Did you mean giving CTC prefarrowing for the other sows and then it resolved or CTC followup and milk came in on affected sows?

[HogDoc]

The CtC went into both the gestation and lactation bulk bins for 14 days. We might have repeated it but it's been long enough ago I don't remember fo sure. There are not enough bulk bins to do anything more targeted.
I don't think injection would be effective and in the new VFD environment I'd probably put it through the proportioned.

[mtbkmom]

HogDoc...r u saying
Put CTC through the medicator as I put them into their crates 3-5 days prior to farrow date to help Prevent Lactation issues?
It is OK for a vet to write a script for this for 14 days total?

[mtbkmom]

HogDoc...r u saying
Put CTC through the medicator as I put them into their crates 3-5 days prior to farrow date to help Prevent Lactation issues?
It is OK for a vet to write a script for this for 14 days total?

[LzDy]

mtbkmom

No I don't think HogDoc means to do this with all sows. He just mentioned it helped on one particular farm. Are you having milking issues too? I am considering doing CTC in feed with a VFD from a vet on my one sow that milks after 24 hours to see if it helps with her at her next farrowing. Currently we tube feed the babies every 4 hours until her milk comes in and then she milks great. We milk a few of our sows and freeze colostrum for just this reason.