There must be a lot of bald pigs out there, or pigs that are losing their hair. It is one of my most popular posts according to the stats. Lots of people googling "pot bellied pigs losing hair" out there so knowing a little more from experience than I did back then I will tell you what I know.
Pot Bellied pigs shed out their coat every year. They are also flaky and scaly most times of the year. When I got the girls I was told to oil them. I tried. They hate it and run screaming. I brush them occasionally when they will let me. I have asked a lot of people what to do about their scales but haven't gotten a good solution. The last lady said that their wasn't anything I could do so I learned to ignore it and when the girls came by for a pet I'd give them a good scratch and peel off a few scales-ewwwww. The one thing that I found that does help is leaving them out in the pasture in the rain. It moistens their skin and cleans them off. They are from Vietnam-lots of rain.
This is what they look like now.
They have had mange on one occasion which is evident around their feet. They get small bumps and red skin. I wormed them orally 9 days apart with injectable Ivermectin and it took care of that.
While losing their hair the pigs will be itchy and scratch themselves on anything that will sit still. After awhile all that old hair will be gone and a new growth will become apparent causing them to resemble a giant kiwi. I like that stage.
This is just plain ugly.....
3 comments:
Thank you for this. I think I'll stick with goats.
This explains a whole lot. Evidently Boo is really a Pot-Bellied Pig. Who knew?
i remember in "Farmer Boy" Almanzo's pig liked to be scratched with an old corn cob (likely field corn), this reminded me of that. Of course these were regular farm pigs, not potbellies. Interesting though.
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