AboutHelen Morrison Expertise Pot-bellied or other miniature pet pig care, including diet, housing, training, health care. Can provide information about zoning, adoption, supplies, and organizations. Questions about any kind of pet swine are welcome!
Experience Fifteen years experience owning, raising, and caring for small pet swine, including "Vietnamese" pot-bellied pigs.
Organizations Pigs of Great Fortune
Publications Animals Exotic and Small
I am the Swine Contributing Editor
Expert: Helen Morrison Date: 5/22/2008 Subject: Potbellied Pig with dog bite
Question My 10 year old PBP was bitten today in play by my 6 month old puppy.. they play together but the pup got rough.. she got bitten on the rear flank and bum area, and there was some bleeding.. she is in some pain.. I have cleaned the wound, and put polysporin on it, but I wondered, can I give her something for pain.. I use Phenobutazone for my horses.. would that work for her??
Also what is the life expectancy of a PBP??
Thanks so much
Sally
Answer At age 10, your pig is a senior citizen. Often, pigs begin to develop health problems around age 14, things like arthritis, loss of teeth, decline in vision, hearing, and smell. Uterine tumors often claim the lives of unspayed teenage females.
The oldest, living, documented pig is Iddiebiddie, a solid black pig, who will be 21 this year (2008). Many, many documented pigs lived to be 18, but only a few lived to 19.
I'm sure her wound must hurt, and if she has a touch of arthritis, the pushing and shoving probably made her uncomfortable, too. But pain killers can encourage too much activity when rest is what is needed. Piggy needs a place where she can go to be alone and the pup can not follow her.
Also, puppy will need to learn that piggy must be respected. Pigs are prey animals, and dogs are predators. They don't "speak the same language", and a pig's body language can trigger hunting instincts in the tamest of dogs, and because dogs are built to hunt and kill and pigs are not, the pig will loose.
Phenobutazone or Butazolodine are anti-inflamatory drugs often used for horses. Butazolodine is sometimes used instead of Rimadyl to treat arthritis in pigs. The vet who prescribed the Phenobutazone can provide you with doseage guidelines, based on your pigs weight and the actual drug you have at hand.
Baby aspirin is another drug often used as a home remedy for arthritis.
It's important to know your pigs weight when giving any drug. A wrong "guesstimate" could result in a fatal overdose. The most accurate method is getting the pig to stand on a scale, or be held by someone standing on a scale. But if that won't work, there is a method of estimating weight by measuring the pig
1. Girth Measurement Take the heart-girth measurement. Your measuring tape needs to go around the body just behind the front legs and over the shoulder area. As an example for you I will use the measurements of Flower. Her girth measurement is 43 inches.
2. Square the result (Multiply the measurement by itself). Example: The measurement was 43 inches. 43 X 43 = 1,849.
3. Length Measurement: Measure the length of your pig. Start at the top of his or her head right in between the ears and measure down to the start, or base, of the tail (not the end of the tail). Flower's length is 39 inches.
4. Girth Result X Length: Take the girth measurement result (in the example above this was 1,849) and multiply that times the length of your pig. In our example this would be: 1,849 X 39 = 72,111.
5. Weight Calculation: Divide this result by 400, and you'll have a weight accurate to within about three percent. In our example: 72,111 divided by 400 = 180 pounds. Factoring in the 3% variance (5.4
pounds), this means Flower weighs between 174.6 and 185.4 pounds.
Credit for this formula goes to the Old Farmer's Almanac 1993
