These quickly change to hard
coughing and labored breathing, which as the disease progresses shows
evidence of much pain. The appetite is lost and the eyes become gummed
and inflamed. In some cases the pig lingers on for weeks, while in
others death occurs almost immediately. Vomiting sometimes occurs.
It is pneumonia and in its treatment "an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure." Once pneumonia gets a foothold in a hog, the chances are
so strongly in favor of death that recovery may be considered out of the
question. Since remedies are not certain in the cure of pneumonia, it
will be found that the prevention of the disease is the only real way to
combat it. The main causes of the disease are exposure to draughts,
sudden changes in temperature, damp beds, manure heaps as sleeping
quarters, and exposure to the disease itself. Pigs in thin condition or
weak constitutionally are more liable to contract the trouble than pigs
in good flesh and healthy specimens. Good, dry, warm, comfortable
sleeping houses, well ventilated and so arranged as to prevent crowding
and piling up, will, I think, do more to prevent pneumonia than any
other one thing. Some such preparation as advocated by the Government
for the prevention of hog cholera will help keep the stock in a good
healthy condition, the better to combat exposure. It is the little
attentions that keep the herd healthy and in a vigorous condition, and
by using simple preventatives, remedies will he found unnecessary.
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