Farmers are too scared of using the needle to treat almost-finished pigs.
They are instead using the shotgun approach with antibiotics if signs of disease appear in their barns, or else killing near-market weight hogs unnecessarily, said veterinarian Mike Sheridan.
“I don’t know why they won’t use the needle,” he said.
“That’s the one you’ve got everything invested in. I don’t see the rationale behind not treating.”
Sheridan said many hog barn operations he has studied don’t appear to be using needle-applied medications on sick pigs in finishing barns. They either mass medicate through feed or water, or euthanize and destroy sick individual pigs. No one seems to want to try to nip a minor disease appearance in the bud. That isn’t good, he said, because overmedicating a herd is dangerous and destroying animals is expensive.
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Not directly treating sick pigs can cause small outbreaks to become big ones, said Sheridan.
“If you use the needle, you’re finding the individuals who are sick, you’re getting to them very early and you have a much better chance of treating them. To have sick pigs and go to (medication in) feed, what if the sick pigs aren’t eating? To have sick pigs and go to water, what if the sick pigs are too sick and weak to fight their way to the water?”
Sheridan thinks many producers are so worried about breaking needles that they won’t even attempt it.
Barn workers need to be taught how to use the needle correctly, rather than avoid using it altogether.
Many producers are also wary of treating near-finished pigs because of the dangers of residues appearing in the slaughtered hogs. This is another case of producers needing to educate themselves about proper doses and withdrawal periods.
He also said producers have gotten out of the habit of trying to save sick pigs because the past year has been one of big losses on every pig marketed. Spending money on a loss-making market hog might not have seemed to make sense.
But Sheridan said now that prices are on the rebound and likely to remain profitable, producers might want to think about treating and saving more finisher pigs.
