flipflops4fun
Tourist
My small female mini pig will cough a few times after eating. It's extremely loud. The vet didn't see anything wrong. Anybody have experience in this?
Pig randomly coughs really loud
- Thread starter flipflops4fun
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TheGoodestKnottyBoy
Lurker
I mean, I always cough after eating a good meal. It's my compliments to the chef, lol. Does her cough sound painful or pneumonia-like?
flipflops4fun
Tourist
It's only after eating and it sounds painful. Not pneumonia, it's been going on for a month or so. We just rescued her
magicjoker
Tourist
What kind of food do you give to your pig? is it dry stuff? if yes, try whashing or adding water to the food and then let her eat.
Daedalus
Zooville Settler
+1. Hogs just seem to do all-around better on slurry type feed. Their stools aren't so tough and borderline impacted either. Its why our grandfathers called it "slopping pigs", a euphemism for feeding pigs. Many of them don't take time to chew much either. They inhale that food greedily, swallowing as much as they can before another pig can steal it. Hence the term "hogging". If your feed is dry, lumpy, doesn't readily masticate into an easily-swallowed bolus quick enough to bolt and instead outlasts her chewing patience, there could be your cough right there.
I can tell you my giant duroc boar snuffs loudly, loud enough to make me jump sometimes. The sound is something very much like a cough. But he typically does this before eating, not after, eg. if I'm standing on the other side of the fence taking too long doing meal prep or holding something delicious just out of his reach.
What I'd worry more about is teeth grinding. If you see a hog grinding teeth, don't ignore it. I'd noted it plenty of times in my early days just starting out with this species. Eventually I learned what it was, and connected it to occurring only when they were sick or in pain (eg. from fighting), but I wrote it off since they kinda 'cried wolf' this way too many times for me to take it seriously anymore. They didn't do it often, and always bounced back when they did, so I didn't think much of it. But then I suddenly lost a good mature sow once, and she was grinding away in the days before it happened, so... yeah. If you hear what sounds like them trying to gnaw down a tree root stuck in the back of their throats, get some eyes on it quick.