Pig With Prolapse

I think one of our 2 month old piglets got dehydrated and then ended up with a prolapsed rectum. This is not one of those fun blog posts that I wanted to write but maybe you could use some advice on how to manage this situation if this happens to one of your pigs.

We noticed one of our piglets laying around and not being active. When she got up, she looked bloated and was obviously straining to go to the bathroom. After watching her for a while, I noticed some of her rectum was starting to come out. Something very red was protruding but not bloody. We managed to catch her and with rubber gloves pushed it back in. It came right back out.

The next day we put her in a clean dry pen by herself where we could keep an eye on her and treat her as needed. By that time, the prolapse was hanging out more and starting to get a little crusty and dried out. I washed her backside well with warm soapy water then put some salt on it. Salt should help it shrink up. I pushed the prolapse back in. It came back out, put more salt on it and pushed it back in. I maneuvered it around inside because I thought it might be twisted a bit. I carefully inserted some warm soapy water up there with a bulb syringe with the hopes that my backed up little piggy would be able to go the bathroom a little bit easier. Finally the back-end seemed to be staying in place. By this time it was evening. I think the little pig was exhausted so I put some straw over her and she went to sleep. Sleeping was probably very healing. Next day, she seemed a little bloated but better than the day before. Nothing was hanging out.

Don't give any feed to your pig if you notice a prolapse. The day we noticed something was wrong, we fed her milk, water and hay but no grain. The next day we gave her milk with some prune juice. I think the prune juice really helped. We fed her mostly milk and just little grain for a few more days. Once we were sure that she was able to go to the bathroom normally we put her back outside with her siblings. She is happy to be alive doing all the things that pigs should do, like enjoying the sunshine and rooting around for goodies in the dirt.

It's smart to separate the sick pig from other pigs because if that prolapse gets damaged from the other pigs then you could be dealing with an infection. Putting fresh straw down is also a good idea!

A year ago we had another pig that this happened. This pig was bigger and would have been a little harder to treat. We had no clue what to do, so we ended up butchering her.

Let me tell you something that has helped me so much.... "The Incredible Doctor Pol." In case you don't know what that is, (I am kinda new to what's on tv so I didn't know who Dr. Pol was until a few months ago) he is a vet from Michigan that has a reality show that has helped me to recognize if there is a problem and what the problem is. I am not quite so squeamish and have a lot more confidence on being able to help my animals. I have learned so much!