# My pigs have spots



## Carolinexxx (Dec 6, 2003)

I just noticed my 2 piglets have lots of small spots, mostly on their bottoms and stomach. One has a lot (every Â½ inch or so) while the other has less. They look a bit like a stinging nettle rash, they are raised and some have a red centre. There are loads of nettles in their pen but I havenât noticed spots on the pigs before. Do pigs get stung by nettles? Is there anything else it could be?
It has been warm and sunny recently, well 25C (80F), warm for England so I didnât know if that could aggravate it.

Thanks

Caroline


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Not sure if spots are a symptom, but have they been vacinated for erysyphilis?


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## Lynn &amp; Chuck (Mar 30, 2003)

You might want to see if it might be swine mange. Caused by a mite, starts out as small reddened pimple or rash look and spreads to a dry scaly crusty skin condition. The pigs will scratch and scratch once it gets bad. 

Ivermectin injection takes care of it quite quickly if it hasn't gotten too bad yet, other wise it can take a couple of shots a while apart.

Lynn


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## Carolinexxx (Dec 6, 2003)

tinknal said:


> Not sure if spots are a symptom, but have they been vacinated for erysyphilis?


I can't even find erysyphilis on the internet. What is it?

As for swine mange then they have not been in contact with any other pigs since I bought them 1.5 months ago. As for the property there haven't been pigs here since the Second World War. Can swine mange hang around that long?

If it is swine mange how fast will it get worse?

I'll give the guy who I bought them from a ring tomorrow as if they do have something I guess it is most likely from there (it was a bank holiday today).


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## Guest (Jun 1, 2004)

I bought some feeder pigs last summer and the farmer I got them from just mentioned in passing that they had not had their Ivermectin shots yet. I wasn't in a big hurry with the worming and had no idea about swine mange. 

Apparently in alot of areas it is very prevalent and the shot will take care of it right away but it took us a while to figure out that is what was making them so itchy. It was about 2 mnths after we got ours that it started showing up really bad. Probably was obvious to a more experienced person with pigs, but took us a while to get it figured out.

We gave the shots and they got better very rapidly. I was worried about carry over with the mange, but apparently it will only hang around for a couple of months with out the pigs and I don't over winter any pigs so should be clear this summer when I get my new pigs. 

Even so if the feeders that I buy haven't had their shot yet I am going to give them one right away to prevent the mange issue. I ended up with some weight gain problems last year and kept them about 3 weeks longer than I would have probably had to otherwise.

There may be other things that would cause the spots too, but spots were the first thing we noticed with ours and I thought it was either insect bites or nettles until it started getting scaly and super itchy for them. 

Maybe somebody out there has more experience with this and has some other ideas, but that is what ours ended up having.

Lynn


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Caroline, I've seen pigs come down with it on fresh premisis. Watch them, if they start to go weak in theire hind legs, you can bet they have it. Lucklily, the vacine is highly effective, even after exposure. Either way it wouldn't hurt to vacinate. Don't know the rules where you are, but here you can buy the vacine and give it yourself.


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## GeorgeK (Apr 14, 2004)

tick bites? if so there'd probably be other ticks elsewhere on them, unless you have chickens picking off the ticks.


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## Carolinexxx (Dec 6, 2003)

Well by yesterday it had gone down a bit but is still the same today. I know it is not ticks as I can't see a single tick & there are a lot of marks compared to what they would normally do. However off the topic a bit, if the chickens got in with the pigs would the pigs not eat the chickens? Or is it just fully grown pigs that are likely to get them?

Anyway as for mange I called the farmer & he said not to worry but keep an eye on it. If it was mange I should expect to see marks behind the ears and there aren't any! Also he did say they can get affected by nettles so I am hoping it is that. They have just started clearing a different area and the marks are on the most tender parts of their bodies.

So I guess I'll keep watching for the moment. Thanks for your help & I'll let you know.


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## Carolinexxx (Dec 6, 2003)

Well nearly 2 weeks later and although they haven't gone they haven't got worse, if anything they do look better. They certainly don't seem weak, they run up to me and the dogs & shove each other out the way for the food. I guess it must just be the nettles.


Thanks for the help though


Caroline


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## Guest (Aug 2, 2004)

correct spelling of erysyphilis is Erysiphales. You may have better luck finding it on the internet.


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## Laura Workman (May 10, 2002)

Er, that's erysipelas. 41,900 hits on Google.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Mark Twain said "it's a damn poor mind that can't think of more than one way to spell a word"....lol....Thanks Laura, nice try unregistered.


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