Common Diseases of Pet Pigs
Antibiotic Use
*Disclaimer: While pet pigs are often considered family members much like cats and dogs, in the eyes of AMDUCA, they are still considered a meat producing animal. For this reason proper withdrawal times must be adhered to based on label directions, FARAD advice, or clinical experience.*
Antibiotics with a label for use in swine will be broken down by body system use.
- Gastrointestinal: (oxy)(chlor)Tetracyclines, tylosin, tiamulin, lincomycin, neomycin, gentamicin, sulfamethazine, and bacitracin.
- Integument: Chlortetracycline, sulfamethazine, and tylosin
- Musculoskeletal: Tylosin
- Respiratory: (oxy)(chlor)Tetracyclines, ceftiofur, tylosin, tiamulin, and sulfamethazine.
This breaks down to 6 classes of antibiotics (Aminoglycosides, cephalosporins, lincomycins, macrolides, tetracyclines, and sulfonamides), with very limited options within each class. Fortunately, there are limited restrictions on extra-label use of these classes of antibiotics. With he exception of the cephalosporin class.
Pet pigs can theoretically get any disease that commercial swine get. Overall chances are low for most of these diseases, unless exposure to commercial swine is possible. If your clinic sees commercial swine or the owner of the pet pig works with swine in some fashion, this should be recorded, and proper biosecurity established to minimize disease transfer. In general pet pigs live in a cleaner environment, thus many of the diseases that cause issues in commercial swine are less common.
