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Hair loss and lumpy skin and bloated looking

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Animal.Lover

Animal.Lover

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Hello

I'm off to the vets at 5.30 with little star shes only approx 8-9 weeks we haven't had long and I have been trying not to handle her too much so as not to stress her out and let her settle but i noticed yesterday that she has a bald patch and lumpy skin just to the side of the usual bald bit of skin behind the ear, and then another little patch of the bumpy skin on her back (no hair loss there yet) and some on one of her legs, some of the bumps look to have a little white crusty bit on them.

I also noticed when i had her out today she looks a little bloated, my battery in the scales was dead so didn't weigh her when we brought her home, i know she has put on weight as i can see it and feel it in her, it could be that she is getting fed properly now and having veggies and fresh hay, where as before I think being she was in a hutch with about 8 other babies and 4 sows maybe she wasn't getting enough.
The other thought going through my head is what if she is pregnant? like baby Boars can Baby sows become sexually active at 4 weeks? would a vet be able to tell if she was pregnant this early?:{


Hopefully the vet will shed some light, for now she has been put into isolation and i will have to keep my eyes on Poppi who she has been paired with and Twinkle who we got from the same place but at the moment they both seem fine.

Sorry that was long :(
 
First of all, can you give us some more information as to when she was seperated from her brothers? Males become sexually active at 3 weeks, and females can get pregnant from 4 weeks.

A vet may, or may not be able to tell. From experience of other memebers on here it seems to depend on the vet, and the pregnancy. But dont panic, its may all be totally normal.

the skin condition sounds like fungal, and tthe vet should be able to shed more light on that.

Is she eating and sleeping and pooing and weeing normally?

Good luck at the vets! :)
 
Young boars are sexually active at 3 weeks and young sows are at four weeks.
The hair loss sounds like fungal to me.

Hope shes okay xx
 
good luck with your little one today at the vet's. i'm not a vet but i have many years of keeping piggies and run my own sanctuary - a forever home, baby boars are sexuially mature at around 6-8 weeks, this might help you. bloating can be caused by changes in food, esp as her previous home doesn't sound too good, has she had alot of greens since youve had her? as far as her patches go it sounds like she has fur mite, your vet will be able to prescribe anti parasite lotion to treat it, possbly a cleansing antiseptic such as hibiscrub to bath her and she should soon recover if this is the diagnoses.
 
pookie said:
baby boars are sexuially mature at around 6-8 weeks,
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I'm sorry to pick this up this will but baby boars can, and will, get thier mummys pregnant at 3-4 weeks old.
 
Connie said:
I'm sorry to pick this up this will but baby boars can, and will, get thier mummys pregnant at 3-4 weeks old.
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I agree, its three weeks not 6-8, you'd get a sow pregnant in that time!

Still sounds Fungal to me but tbh I'd treat for both Fungal and Mange - Xeno 50 for the mange and a anti-fungal shampoo such as Nizoral but I'd leave about 48 - 72 hours between treatments as you don't want to over do it on the little dear.
 
pookie said:
baby boars are sexuially mature at around 6-8 weeks.
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I'm going to pick you up on this one too pookie. I'm afraid your info is very outdated. The earliest documented pregnancy in siblings is 24 days old (this means there were no adult males involved - only babies).

Many breeders/rescues have found out to their cost that leaving boars in with females past 21 days is a bad idea.

Suzy
 
Thanks everyone for such rapid and informative replies.;)

She is eating pooing and weeing fine, since being with me she has had a lot more fresh veggies, I asked the person i got them from what type veggies they were fed on and I was produced with a blank expression then after a little think she said a bit of carrot every so often and advised I should feed her on "any old cheap muesli mix", i brought a bag of muesli to wean her over with as i feed all mine science selective so I have been weaning her over to that, i have gradually increased the amount of veggies she has been getting as the days go on but mainly romaine lettuce, carrot, cherry tom, celery, cucumber nothing really gassy.

The 8 babies consisted of parts of different litters some 10-12 week old sows, the sows i choose which were approx 6-8 weeks and some others which were 4-5 weeks, Please dont should at me but I have to admit I only sexed a few of the babies my self so there may have been a boar in there out of the youngest litter.:(
 
It does sound like its fairly hap hazard breeding there. It is possible both the girlies youve got could be pregnant. However time will tell. Gestations is 72 days (aproximatly) so if you mark 80 days from when you bought them home on your calendar, then after that you will know your in the clear. If they are pregnant it will become progressivly more obvious and weekly weighing is now more important. :)

HTH and I wish you luck, fingers crossed there were no boars in there.

If you come back from the vets and he suspects she may be pregnant (or cant confirm she isnt) Just let us know and we can give you lots of info.
 
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Thank you so much Connie I will let you know how she gets on, I might take twinkle along to the vets too just to get her checked.

I think it had got way out of hand for the breeder she had a LOT of pigs and i suppose its not hard to see why if she did have males in there too.
She was homing all her babies and sows bar a pair. we tried rescue first but there were no sows available in the area who were alone
 
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Unfortunatly the reallity is lots of breeders have outdated information. Or they just are too overwhelmed.

For future referance a piggy train can sometimes be aranged for piggies needing to get to other places, either to bond, or for another reason. :)
 
Just got back from vets and Star has suspected Ringworm they have taken a skin scrape to grow and we have to bath her daily in malaseb until the results are back. . . . also have to keep an eye on the other 9 pigs, 2 dogs and myself partner and 2 children YIPPEE!

Some other good news is she doesn't feel to be pregnant just putting on condition and growing :) Phew - although will keep an eye on them both
 
Good news. :) All of the bedding will need to be washed at 90 degrees, and anything that cant be washed with anti fungal disinfectant will need chucking. Ring worm is persistant, hopefully others will advise more!
 
Suzygpr said:
I'm going to pick you up on this one too pookie. I'm afraid your info is very outdated. The earliest documented pregnancy in siblings is 24 days old (this means there were no adult males involved - only babies).

Many breeders/rescues have found out to their cost that leaving boars in with females past 21 days is a bad idea.

Suzy
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BIG SORRY EVERYONE! got it hopelessy wrong don't want to get upset anyone so i'll sign out for good it's been fun tho' thanks!
 
pookie said:
BIG SORRY EVERYONE! got it hopelessy wrong don't want to get upset anyone so i'll sign out for good it's been fun tho' thanks!
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Please don't leave :) People make mistakes, we're a friendly bunch and wouldn't want you to go :)
 
Agreed - there is a lot to learn from the forum - we all benefit from the exchange of info and opinions on here - it's all about the pig's welfare in the end.

It would be a shame for you to miss out on all that the forum has to offer.
 
PLEASE DON'T LEAVE POOKIE!

Your advice was really good, you obviously have a lot of experience with piggies and I am very much grateful for your (and everyone else's) advice.

Connie The vet didn't mention about a anti fungal disinfectant spray so thanks for that, do you know the name of one or where i would be able to buy it from?

Kelly x x
 
The disinfectant that is effective against fungal spores is called F10. You can also buy a hand gel that will prevent cross contamination.

Other disinfectant can be antifungal but not sporicidal, and others say they are sporicidal but only against bacterial spores.

HTH

Suzy x
 
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