The Good Good Pigs Go Bald

I haven't posted many pictures of the pigs lately. Especially not Fiona. They are going bald. Pot Bellied Pigs have lots of coarse hair all over their body....well most of the time. Daphne and Fiona are losing their hair and have dry flaky skin. They look awful and I am embarrassed for anyone to see them. Thinking they had mange (because I know next to nothing about pigs and they did have mange before) I have been worming them with Ivermectin horse wormer. Ivermectin is the treatment for mange mites. Now worming the pigs is no easy task. The easiest was when my son flipped them for hoof trimming and I shot it in their mouth. But the son went back to LA and I had to worm them about 9 days later. I put some wormer in yogurt thinking surely they won't know. I was half right. Daphne slurped hers down and begged for more. Fiona took one sniff and turned it down, insulted. So I hollowed out a strawberry and put some in. Daphne once again inhaled hers. Fiona snatched it up and spit it out and then squished it into the ground. I have tried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apple sauce and molasses. Nothing works. I decided to do what I always do when I don't know what to do. I emailed a couple of people that I have "met" through the wonderful tool called the Internet. Cheryl in Bakersfield is someone that helped me through the teenage years of the pig girls and Marcie from California Pot Bellied Pig Association (that's her kissing the pig in my previous post) and they filled me in on what's really going on with the crusty girls. They have summer baldness. Now doesn't that sound better than mange? Summer baldness hits Pot Bellied pigs this time of year. They lose their hair and get dry flaky skin. Cheryl said she thought it was summer baldness and that losing their hair was natural. She said I could brush them more often to get the flakes off. My pigs hate brushing but love a good back scratch. Marcie told me it wouldn't hurt to worm them again but she looked the pictures all over and didn't think they had the M word. She too thought it was just summer baldness. Marcie said I should use Ivermectin cattle and swine injectable wormer next time and that a jelly filled donut hole might do the trick. First you toss them one blank, then another blank, then a loaded one, then another blank, then a loaded one. I can't wait to try this out on Fiona. If I were to bet I say she will know.

I'll keep you posted.