COUGH IN PIGS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1685, 15 June 1904, Page 63

COUGH IN PIGS

Complaints concerning coughing pigs are very common, and they concern all sorts of pigs, from the youthful porker to the matronly old sow —and occur at all seasons of the year. This is because the coughs are due to all sorts of causes. In replying to questions relating to the cure of coughs in the different animals of the farm, which we are often called upon to do, we generally have occasion to point out that cough is not a disease in itself, hut only a symptom, and, contrary to popular notions not always a gyxjiptoni of disease of the respiiatory organs. AJcough depends upon reflex

nervous action which may be primary when the irritation exists in the lungs and air passages, or secondary when due to derangement of the stomach, intestines, or other part's having nervous communication with the respiratory apparatus. > Pigs, perhaps more frequently than other animals, cough on account of stomach derangement, arid this is no doubt largely due to their habits of feeding, and the system of management practised. A cough is often a sympton of the existence of worms in the intestines. They may also cough on account of colds or chill—catarrh, bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia, and pleuro-pneu-monia. Pleurisy is a chest disorder to which pigs are very prone, while tuberculosis or “consumption,” which is a great deal more prevalent in pigs than is generally supposed, and is very frequently mistaken for a cold in its initial stage, is a common cause of cough. Another cause of cough in pigs that is probably very often overlooked is the irritation produced by the presence in the air pasages of thread worms similar in character to those giving rise to “busk” or “boose” in calves and lambs. The bronchial worm of the pig is special to the animal, and is named Strongylus paradoxus. A moist, troublesome cough often, accompanies the presence of worms in the bronchial tubes, a kind of cough for which the true cause is not assigned, and which the owner, for this reason, often fails to obtain a cure by means ’of th'e remedies usually administered for coughs. The possibility of this worm being a cause of cough in pigs, especially in autumn and winter, should never be overlooked. The treatment in such a case would be practically that employed for the lamb with verminous bronchitis, and should include the provision of nourishing food. The _ character of a cough, whether it is painful, soft, dry, husky, harshy, hacking, etc., affords some indication of the cause, but these are refinements that cannot be described, and can only be learned by experience. Removal of the cause, if it can be determined, is, of course, of primary importance. Thus, the cough due to reflex irritation from the presenco of intestinal worms would be cured by the expulsion of the parasites, and that from stomach derangement by a change of diet and stomach tonics. Slight coughs are sometimes cured by feeding with sour milk.

Where no cause can bs assigned the only practicable course is to give those remedies experience has demonstrated to be useful for the relief of coughs. One of these-is an electuary, made by mixing with honey to form a paste, a powder of equal parts of sublimed sulphur, powdered aniseed, liquorice, and gentian, "King a piece from the size of

a hazel nut to a walnut, according to size or xveight of pig, twice a day, byrubbing it on the tongue and teeth wit.i a piece of lath or wooden spatula. Cougn remedies given in this way are more effective than when mixed with the fooo. the animal may not eat, or which maybe shared with others, besides whien they have a local action that is very beneficial in cases where the throat is sore.

Cod liver oil, in addition to being a nutrient tonic and fattening to pigs, is most useful in the relief of coughs, especially those associatel with pulmonary complaints.—"Wentworth.”