A sick pig needs quick assessment, supportive care, and often veterinary treatment to recover. Pigs hide illness well, so by the time you notice something is wrong, the animal may have been declining for a day or more. The basics of treating a sick pig are the same whether you keep a backyard herd or a single pet potbellied pig: identify the problem, isolate the animal, manage pain and dehydration, and get professional help when the signs point to something serious.
How to Tell Your Pig Is Sick
The first step is confirming what you’re dealing with. Normal pig body temperature runs between 101.5°F and 103.5°F. Heart rate should fall between 70 and 120 beats per minute, and breathing rate between 30 and 50 breaths per minute. A rectal thermometer is the most reliable way to check temperature. Anything above 104°F signals a fever worth acting on.
Beyond vital signs, watch for these common indicators: refusing food, lethargy or reluctance to stand, coughing or labored breathing, diarrhea, skin discoloration (especially reddening on the ears, belly, or legs), discharge from the eyes or nose, and shivering or hunching. Pigs that separate themselves from the group are almost always feeling unwell.
Isolate the Pig Immediately
Move the sick pig to a separate area before doing anything else. This protects the rest of your herd and gives the sick animal a quieter, less competitive space to recover. The isolation pen should drain away from your other pigs, not toward them. Use dedicated boots, coveralls, and equipment in the isolation area so you don’t carry pathogens back to healthy animals. A footbath with fresh disinfectant at the entrance helps.
Keep the pen clean and dry. Bedding should be free of manure and urine, and the space should be sheltered from wind and rain. Pigs lose body heat fast when they’re sick, so warmth matters, especially for piglets. A heat lamp or deep straw bedding can make a real difference in recovery.
Hydration and Feeding
Dehydration kills sick pigs faster than most infections do. If your pig has diarrhea (often called scours), the priority is replacing the fluids and electrolytes it’s losing. Commercial oral electrolyte solutions designed for livestock work well and correct the pH imbalance that develops as dehydration progresses. Mix them according to the label and offer them in a shallow pan or through a syringe for pigs too weak to drink on their own. In the early stages, while the pig is still standing, oral rehydration is usually effective.
For pigs that have gone off their feed, try offering small amounts of highly palatable food. Softened pellets mixed with water or low-sodium broth, canned pumpkin, applesauce, or yogurt can tempt a reluctant eater. The goal is to get something into the stomach, even if it’s not the pig’s normal ration. B vitamins have been used as mild appetite stimulants in animals that won’t eat. If the pig refuses all food and water for more than 24 hours, that’s a sign it needs veterinary intervention, likely including injectable fluids.
Treating Respiratory Illness
Pneumonia and other respiratory infections are among the most common reasons pigs get sick. You’ll notice coughing, nasal discharge, rapid or labored breathing, fever, and reduced appetite. These infections are typically bacterial, viral, or a combination of both, and they spread quickly through a group.
Bacterial respiratory infections are treated with antibiotics prescribed by a veterinarian. Common choices for swine pneumonia include tulathromycin, tildipirosin, and ceftiofur, with the specific drug depending on which bacteria are involved and their susceptibility patterns. Your vet may need to culture the pathogen to pick the right one, since resistance varies. For fever and pain control, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory given by intramuscular injection can bring down a pig’s temperature and make it feel well enough to eat and drink again.
Don’t guess with leftover antibiotics from a previous illness. Using the wrong antibiotic, or the wrong dose, can make resistance worse and leave the pig no better off.
Managing Diarrhea
Scours in pigs can be caused by E. coli (especially in young piglets), rotavirus, coronavirus, or even simple overfeeding. Some strains of E. coli damage the intestinal lining enough to cause massive fluid loss without actually invading the gut cells, while more aggressive types penetrate the intestinal wall and cause severe systemic illness.
Regardless of the cause, fluid and electrolyte replacement is the most important treatment. Antibiotics may be needed if a bacterial cause is confirmed, but they won’t help with viral diarrhea, and giving them unnecessarily adds to resistance problems. Keep the pen scrupulously clean during a bout of scours, since the pathogen load in the environment directly affects how fast other pigs get infected and how quickly the sick pig recovers.
Piglets with scours can decline within hours. If a piglet is too weak to stand or nurse, it needs veterinary care urgently.
Parasites and Skin Problems
Internal parasites like roundworms, lungworms, and kidney worms are common in pigs with outdoor access. Ivermectin, given in medicated feed at a dose of roughly 100 micrograms per kilogram of body weight daily for seven consecutive days, treats a wide range of internal parasites as well as lice and mange mites. If you’re raising pigs for meat, ivermectin requires a five-day withdrawal period before slaughter.
Mange mites are a frequent cause of intense itching and crusty, thickened skin, particularly in pet pigs. Young pigs often pick up mites from their mother, and the infestation can stay hidden until the mite population grows large enough to cause obvious symptoms. A vet can confirm the diagnosis with skin scrapings, though false negatives happen in early cases when mite numbers are still low. If you notice yourself developing itchy patches on your arms or stomach after handling the pig, mange mites are a strong possibility, since they transfer to humans temporarily.
Miniature pet pigs also develop hoof cracks from overgrown hooves. Regular walking on concrete or other abrasive surfaces helps keep hooves worn down. Cracked hooves may need antiseptic cleaning with iodine solution and sometimes antibiotic treatment if infection sets in.
Pet Pig Concerns
Potbellied and miniature pigs kept indoors face a unique set of problems. They’re omnivorous and constantly searching for food, which makes them prone to swallowing foreign objects, coins, fabric, rubber toys, anything they can get their mouths on. Small or soft objects sometimes pass through on their own, causing only mild stomach irritation. Larger items can lodge in the stomach or intestine and create a life-threatening blockage that requires surgery.
Obesity is the other major issue in pet pigs. Owners who restrict calories to keep their pig at a healthy weight often find the pig compensates by rooting and foraging more aggressively, which leads right back to the foreign body problem. Providing safe outdoor rooting space with buried treats (vegetables, small amounts of grain scattered in dirt) gives indoor pigs an outlet that reduces destructive foraging. Melanoma is also worth watching for in pet pigs. Any new or changing skin mass should be evaluated.
Red Flags That Need Immediate Attention
Most common pig illnesses, respiratory infections, mild scours, skin parasites, respond well to basic treatment. But certain signs point to something far more dangerous. Widespread skin reddening, especially blotchy purple or dark red patches on the ears, snout, belly, and legs, combined with high fever and sudden death in multiple animals, raises the possibility of African swine fever. This disease has no treatment and is reportable to agricultural authorities in most countries.
The challenge is that African swine fever overlaps significantly with less serious conditions like swine influenza. Both cause fever, depression, reduced appetite, coughing, nasal discharge, and difficulty breathing. Clinical signs alone can’t reliably distinguish between them, so laboratory testing is required for a definitive diagnosis. If you see multiple pigs becoming severely ill at once, with high mortality and skin hemorrhages, contact your state veterinarian or USDA immediately rather than attempting to treat on your own.
Other signs that warrant urgent veterinary care: a pig that can’t stand or walk, repeated vomiting, blood in the stool, a bloated and painful abdomen, or a rectal temperature above 106°F. These situations move faster than home treatment can keep up with.