With Dr. Mike Tripp, Oklahoma

Chances are your barn will be filling up with showpig prospects. They may be trucked hundreds of miles by a hired hauler or be purchased from a breeder right down the road. Regardless, keeping prospects healthy after you purchase them is a key ingredient to showring success, and the stress of sales, travel, strange feed and a new environment makes this task challenging at times. The Showpig.com team caught up with Dr. Mike Tripp, swine veterinarian from Ringling, Oklahoma, to learn how to keep prospects healthy and productive.

VACCINATE AND WORM
Dr. Tripp says the first step to keeping pigs healthy is a proper vaccination program. Even if you think they might have been vaccinated, he suggests being safe rather than sorry and vaccinating them just to be sure. With the added steps to access some medicated feeds, vaccinations are more important than ever before. Dr. Tripp vaccinates all his client’s prospects for Circo virus, Mycoplasma, Atrophic Rhinitis, Haemophilus parasuis and Pasteurella. After they settle in for a couple of weeks, worm them.

FEEDS AND FLUIDS
Dr. Tripp suggests always having plenty of clean, fresh water available for your new prospects at all times. Just as importantly, he cautions new owners of switching their purchases’ feed rations too quickly. Dr. Tripp advises buyers to ask the sellers what food the pig is currently on. Note both the brand and amount of protein. If the prospects are on a different feeding program than you’d like to utilize, Dr. Tripp suggests buying a bag of the food they’re used to and slowly mix both feeds together before weaning them to your own brand.

IN THE PEN
When you’re introducing new pigs to one another, you need to be aware of the added stress their new pen-mates may cause. Dr. Tripp suggests trying to keep animals that are used to one another together as much as possible. If you’re planning on putting two pigs to a pen, when you purchase them is the ideal time. He even suggests spraying them with hairspray or other strong-smelling or foul-tasting substances to discourage fighting. All in all, Dr. Tripp suggests that any introductions need to be made swiftly and pigs should be moved into different pens as little as possible.

“The less we are moving them around, the better,” he says.

CONSULT YOUR VET
Whether you have one barrow for your county fair or 100 sows, Dr. Tripp suggests establishing a valid Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR) with a veterinarian with experience in swine practice. Not only is it important to consult a veterinarian to come up with a specialized animal health regimen for your circumstances, but also the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) rules now in place require one to obtain certain medicated feeds.

“I think that it is real important because most of the time you need some sort of medication for their pig or you will need to get them bled,” Dr. Tripp says.

WHERE COMMON SENSE MEETS STOCKMANSHIP
While some of these tips may seem elementary, it’s important to always remember the basics of animal husbandry during a stressful period in that animal’s life, such as a new environment, a long trip in a trailer or even some new pen-mates. With a little common sense and consistent care, your new showpig prospect will settle into its new environment in no time.

To find your next prospect, visit Showpig.com to view the many sales that are going on this week.