Advice on separating pups..

[KathT]

Maeve, my rescue pig who had her babies just over 3 weeks ago, had to go to the vets today as she has had a dodgy back leg since the last few weeks of her pregnancy. There is nothing broken or amiss - the vet thinks that it’s a soft tissue injury possibly from when her ligaments were softer. She has been prescribed metacam but the vet said I would have to separate the pups as it (the metacam) could cause liver problems for them. Does anyone know if this is correct? And is it okay to separate them from mum now? They are all about 270-300g.

 

[Piggies&buns]

What sex are the babies?
Any baby boars need to have been separated at 21 days or 250g, whichever comes first.

 

[Wiebke]

Maeve, my rescue pig who had her babies just over 3 weeks ago, had to go to the vets today as she has had a dodgy back leg since the last few weeks of her pregnancy. There is nothing broken or amiss - the vet thinks that it’s a soft tissue injury possibly from when her ligaments were softer. She has been prescribed metacam but the vet said I would have to separate the pups as it (the metacam) could cause liver problems for them. Does anyone know if this is correct? And is it okay to separate them from mum now? They are all about 270-300g.

Hi

The pups are a good weight for weaning - our cut-off weight for baby boars is 250g/3 weeks (whichever happens first) at which point they need to leave any sows.

The milk should dry up fairly quickly; pups are considered weaned by a piggy group at around 4 weeks when the milk flow should only happen in spits and spurts.

Any baby girls should be able to get back to mum after a week or max two once she has stopped producing any milk. Please keep them for where they can still interact with their mum through a divider with small enough mesh.

 

[KathT]

Thanks Wiebke, I’ll do that.