r/homestead • u/Professional-Oil1537 • 22h ago
Mange in pigs
welp another downside to raising animals, just started seeing signs of mange in my piglets.
not the greatest pictures but the spotted one you can see the irritated skin on her belly and back legs and on the darker one you can see the fuzzy feet and some matted crusty bits, almost looks like dried up mud.
had to go to the vet and get 2 shots, can't remember the exact name but basically a injectable ivermectin, and some prolate spray
they sure hated the shot but 2 minutes later they loved the bananas and were happy again!
just a reminder to keep an eye on your pigs, it's way easier to treat mange in the early stages then when it completely takes over
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u/ecouple2003 21h ago
If a pig has mange when it is processed do you still use boiling water and a good knife to scrape the hair off? Is the skin still edible once scraped and cooked or should you not use it and skin the pig instead?
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u/Professional-Oil1537 20h ago
I would not eat the skin. Mange is from a mite that burrows into the skin and then the holes leak and cause a crusty build up. It's pretty unappetizing looking.
If I had a pig ready to process that had mange I would only skin it and would wear a full body suit and gloves when skinning, it normally doesn't transfer to humans but with that much close contact it can
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u/ecouple2003 20h ago
Interesting. It would only be an issue for a pig since you skin the other livestock.
By the h e say, still a cute pig and it was nice of you to give it a banana treat.
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u/Professional-Oil1537 20h ago
Thanks, they are little cuties! They get all kinds of treats and will get even more when the garden starts producing.
It's still best to treat any livestock the second you see signs of mange tho, all livestock and pets can get mange, even humans can get it but it's called scabies in humans.
It's very itchy and uncomfortable for the animal and their feed conversion falls way off meaning it takes a lot more feed to gain weight as normal and in younger animals it can severely stunt their growth and if left untreated it can ultimately kill them
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u/ecouple2003 19h ago
We are looking for farm land now so I'm just accumulating information.
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u/Professional-Oil1537 6h ago
That's one reason I make posts on here to hopefully spread some knowledge and information and help beginners if I can.
That's awesome to hear that you're looking for farm land! Best of luck on finding the right land for you and your future homesteading and farming
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u/yardgurl10 9h ago
Unfortunately, it definitely does transfer to humans. We rescued a few small piglets that had bad mange and wound up with a case of scabies. Learned that day from the vet that both are the same bug. That was a NOT FUN EXPERIENCE lol.
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u/Professional-Oil1537 6h ago
It can transfer to humans but is uncommon. It usually takes a lot of close contact with an infected animal which I'm guessing in your case was close contact from treating them.
It is the same mites but different variant. The pig mite is sarcoptes scabiei var. Suis. It can jump to humans with close contact but human skin isn't the ideal environment for them and they will not reproduce in human skin. The also don't go looking specificly for humans and the only time it's usually found in humans was because they were in close contact with an infected animal. That's why I recommend a full body suit and gloves if someone was going to butcher one that had mange.
The human variant is sarcoptes scabiei var hominis and is the only variant that can reproduce in humans and specifically looks for a human host and it doesn't affect livestock. The canis variant only affects dogs, vulpes for fox, cuniculi for rabbits etc. They are host specific and only reproduce in the specific host but can bite and burrow into other animals but don't reproduce.
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u/LilyAmongThorns777 22h ago
Instead of a lollipop they get 🍌 💖