# What is a "rupture" in a live pig?



## floridacracker (Dec 3, 2008)

I am a complete novice on pig ailments so I'm looking for some help! We normally buy a hog to butcher and the person we buy from said they have a hog that will be ready at the end of March but it has a rupture.
The animal is still alive. What does this mean? Can we not butcher it?
Tks!


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

In non technical terms a rupture is where the "wall" that holds the internal components in place has a weak area and the wall has failed and the internals have push through. Typically it is a gut that is still working fine but is now contained by the skin rather than the "wall" would have normally. The animal is healthy and OK unless the protruding part becomes pinched or overly large and gets rubbed to where a sore develops on the outside. The animal is fine to butcher provided there is no sore or infection. Usually the animal is still sold at a discount as compensation for dealing with it.


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## tallpines (Apr 9, 2003)

Gernerally, okay to buthcher, but I would NOT breed a female with a rupture.

An EXTREME Rupture story~~~

We had a baby pig that got steped on by his mother, ripping open the abdominal cavity----intestines actually dragging on the ground.....a TOTAL rupture.


Vet didn't have the time other than to "cull" so DH and I decided to experiment.

He held pig in position while I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed the intestines.
Then we packed them back into the cavity, sprinkled some sulfa powder inside, said 3 Hail Mary's and sewed up the pig with some good strong silk thread I had.

Miraculously the pig survived and flourished!

When she reached 200 plus pounds, she moved to our freezer.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Wow, that's impressive, TallPines. I had one this morning like that, it wasn't the sow but a finisher who got it's head through the fence and grabbed a piglet. That finisher is not going to breed but he wasn't anyways. My wife and I were just talking about this issue, of saving pigs who are not making it. Kitchen pigs we call them. The rate of success is low for us, but then we're only trying to save the worst cases, the healthy are outside and don't need our help. I'm impressed that you got that pig back together.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org


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## floridacracker (Dec 3, 2008)

TYVM for the info!


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## Dwayne Barry (Jan 9, 2009)

agmantoo said:


> In non technical terms a rupture is where the "wall" that holds the internal components in place has a weak area and the wall has failed and the internals have push through. Typically it is a gut that is still working fine but is now contained by the skin rather than the "wall" would have normally. The animal is healthy and OK unless the protruding part becomes pinched or overly large and gets rubbed to where a sore develops on the outside. The animal is fine to butcher provided there is no sore or infection. Usually the animal is still sold at a discount as compensation for dealing with it.


Sounds like the human equivalent of a rupture is an abdominal hernia.


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