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I have a question for you that is related more towards the sows.



We recently had a sow farrow and had issues (seems to be the norm for us lately), so we proceeded to go in and pull pigs out. We pulled about 11 pigs (dead) out of her and and now I am wondering about of antibiotic therapy that we should follow up with.



The sow at one point was flushing and there was a musky smell to the after birth which seems to be fairly normal for a sack full of dead pigs. We are currently using PCN G (300,000 units) 5mL Daily . Im not sure if this provides enough bacterial coverage for our specific situation or if I should consider dual therapy with another antibiotic. I need full bacterial coverage and something that would provide prophylaxis for any possible upcoming infections related to the trauma of the event.


I was also wondering about the practice of using oxytocin post pardum to help shape the uterus back to its normal state. Should this be something that we should incorporate or should we only use oxytocin when indicated.


Any suggestions would be appreciated.



Thanks

Most of the time we treat sows like this with penicillin for 3-5 days. I just want to clarify the dose you are using. Are you giving 5 ml per hundred pounds or 5 ml total?

When I have my clients give penicillin I label it at 5 ml per hundred pounds. So a 400 pound sow would get 20 ml once a day.

Penicillin will give you good coverage for gram positive bacteria such as Strep or Staph. It will not give you much if any effect on gram negative bacteria like E. coli or Salmonella. If you want broader coverage you can use one of the ceftiofur drugs (naxcel, excenel, or excede) or something like polyflex which ampicillin, or LA 200.

Hope this helps.

I'm sorry I forgot to answer your question about oxytocin.

I am not in favor of giving oxytocin as a matter of routine. In fact, we are using a lot less of it than we used to during farrowing. There is a lot of good peer reviewed work that it increases the number of stillborn pigs.

I still have it in my induction protocol and we will give it to sows that are near the end of farrowing and quit but that is about the only place we use the product.