Pig Issues {help please}

[owly]

About two weeks ago, we got our three fall pigs, all barrows, two crosses and a spot. Starting last Monday, the smallest of the three, a white and blue cross, was keeping one of his legs from bearing any kind of weight or pressure. Upon further inspection, his leg (hind left) was extremely swollen. He also was eating and drinking very little and shivering, so it was assumed to be an infection of some sort. I put a cold, damp rag on it every few hours to help the swelling as we contacted our pig breeder, as he is more experienced than we are. He said it was an infection, as expected, and recommended 3-4 days of penicillin and he should be fine. We are on day 4 right now, and even though he occasionally hobbles on his leg and the swelling is going down (alongside his attitude becoming perkier and having an appetite), his joint is swollen and purple. We can only give him one more day of antibiotics, and I'm worried we might have to kill him within the next week or two. He also has not gained any weight since getting sick, and his two penmates are at least 20 pounds bigger than him by now.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cassie]

It sounds a lot like naval ill. Naval ill is a generalized infection that enters the animal through the naval cord shortly after birth. There is no reason you cannot continue giving the penicillin longer than four days. In fact, it sounds like you may have to. You have to give it long enough to kill the infection, which means at least a couple days after he appears to be cured or he will relapse. If four day's worth of penicillin is all you have, buy another bottle.