Measles
This is a trouble of a very similar character to eczema save that the red spots are more numerous and of a more irritating character. The patient is continually rubbing itself against the wall or any prominence in an endeavour to relieve the itching. The pig is also more feverish. The pig should be placed in a warm sty, with plenty of dry straw, into which it will quickly burrow. A dose of Epsom salts to which is added a small quantity of spirit of nitre should be given, as the pig affected will almost invariably refuse food for a time. Neat's foot or sweet oil applied to the spots will relieve the irritation.
Rickets
This is not by any means a common ailment amongst pigs, but it is very hereditary. The most common cause is too close breeding. The bones and joints appear to be unequal to the performance of their duties, the pig staggers and stumbles when it attempts to move, whilst sometimes the back is affected, when the pig is stated to be suffering from "swayback." As a rule treatment is inadvisable as recovery is doubtful. The first loss by knocking the pig on the head is generally the least.
Tuberculosis
Pigs, like unto human beings, are much subject to tuberculosis when they are kept under conditions similar to those which result in human beings becoming affected. The disease is highly infectious, pigs coming in contact with or even being housed in sties where pigs affected have been recently kept are very likely to become infected. Some persons declare that tuberculosis, or, as it is more commonly called, consumption, is hereditary. For this there does not appear to be any foundation. The chief thing to prevent one's animals being affected is to keep them away from contagion. Although many parts of the body may be attacked by tuberculosis, the lungs are more frequently affected than any other of the organs, owing probably to the ease with which infection by the minute germ is conveyed to the lungs in the act of breathing.
In the past a considerable number of pigs became infected through being fed on skim milk which contained germs from the udder of a cow suffering from a tuberculous udder. In these cases of the lungs and the bowels becoming tubercular, the pigs become unthrifty and frequently waste away and die. When the bones and other portions of the body are attacked the development of the disease is not so rapid, but in any case the wisest plan is to destroy the animal and thoroughly disinfect the place in which it has been kept. Save when the disease is local and of very limited duration the meat of a pig suffering from tuberculosis is unfit for human consumption.
Worms
Pigs are subject to various kinds of worms. Of these the most serious by far is the worm which causes the disease called Trichinosis in man. The worms are transmitted to man in pork from a diseased pig. Thorough cooking of meat appears to destroy the vitality of the worm, but in foreign countries where the pork is eaten in an uncooked or an undercooked condition the disease is not uncommon. Fortunately, Trichinosis is almost unknown in this country, owing to our more stringent sanitary conditions, the disease being due in the pig to the eating of human excrement in which are thread worms.
The most common kind of pig worm in this country is the round white worm, pointed at both ends. Its length varies from one to several inches. Its presence is often unsuspected until one or more of the worms are noticed in the dung of the pig. It is readily got rid of by keeping the pigs from food for at least twelve hours, and then giving them a little tempting food in which a dose of santonine, varying from three to ten grains for each pig, according to its age, has been added. Some two hours later a dose of castor oil of from 1/4 oz. to 2 oz., or of one to two ounces of Epsom salts, should be given in milk or some other tempting food. Similar treatment will prove successful in the case of pigs affected with the smaller kind of worms save that of the worm which causes what is commonly known as "husk." This worm makes its home in the windpipe and bronchial tubes. It is advisable to obtain from a chemist a drench for the riddance of this worm, as the remedies will consist of linseed oil, turpentine, spirits of camphor, and asafœtida.