The Importance of Water in the Nursery
Contributed by: Darren Bates & Lambert Houwen
When pigs are weaned and brought to the nursery, they need special attention to thrive, remain healthy, and fulfill their potential. Leaving their mothers, learning to adapt to new feeding systems, and joining new pen mates in a foreign location make for a stressful period in the new animals’ lives. Ensuring pigs get adequate nutrients and water at this stage is of the utmost importance to help them adapt to their new environment and avoid disease.
Often overlooked, water is needed in higher quantities than any other nutrient in a pig’s diet, regulating normal body functions, adjusting body temperature, moving nutrients into body tissues, removing metabolic waste, producing milk, and helping pigs remain healthy. No less than eighty per cent of the empty body weight of a newborn pig is water. It’s so important, in fact, that inadequate water intake can result in slow growth, high medical bills, high mortality, and pig flow problems.
Inadequate water intake can produce many and varied symptoms so it’s important to carefully observe newborn pigs and watch for the following signs of dehydration:
1) Smaller bellies; empty stomachs,
2) eating less feed,
3) being lethargic, listless and feverish,
4) becoming rough haired,
5) signs of constipation or scours,
6) eyes that appear to be sunken
7) bloated or gaunt abdominal shapes,
8) skin problems such as greasy pig, and
9) low urine production.
When pigs are dehydrated, their body electrolytes get out of balance and their immune systems become compromised, so it’s important to act quickly if pigs show any signs of inadequate water intake. If any signs or symptoms are displayed, a couple of quick tests can be performed to ensure the problem is, in fact, a lack of water. First, check for throbbing or quivering mucous membranes in the mouth or on the tip of the nose: do they seem drier than other pen mates? Second, pinch a fold of skin just behind the front limb. If the fold remains elevated for more than a few seconds, dehydration is the likely culprit. |
First Sips: Weaning to Water
In the first 36 hours after weaning, it is essential that pigs find the water source and begin to drink. Here are some management techniques to help ensure animals locate a sufficient supply of water and maintain a healthful drinking pattern.
1) Double check the waterer height adjustment to ensure proper access. Waterer height should be adjusted to the shoulder of the smallest pigs in the pen.
2) Determine watering space. Nursery pigs should have one watering space for every 10 to 15 pigs.
3) Check delivery capacity. If using nipple drinkers, the delivery capacity should be not lower than 1 cup (250 ml) and not higher than 2 cups (500 ml) of water per minute. Notethat a flow rate higher than 2 cups per minute for small pigs will actually discourage water intake.
4) Blocking or tying the nipple waterers open with an elastic for the first day will help the newly weaned pigs find the waterer more quickly.
5) Ensure flow rates on all nipples are monitored both prior to the introduction of new animals to a pen, and once a week thereafter.
6) For the first few days, using bowls or round feeders in the middle of the pen will provide the pigs with extra water and social encouragement to drink together.
7) Make sure if bowl waterers are used they are kept clean and free of pig wastes, sour feed or slime. Pigs will not drink foul, polluted water.
Part of good nursery management is to recognize when pigs are not getting enough water and intervene as soon as possible to rectify the problem. Pigs that are dehydrated become weak and their health can deteriorate very quickly. In the case of dehydrated, sick pigs or runts it is essential to get them drinking adequate amounts of water to restore their health and get them back onto full feed. A four-stage approach is recommended to help rehydrate pigs safely and effectively, without shocking their systems:
Stage 1: provide gruel of 50% feed and 50% liquid milk replacer,
Stage 2: provide gruel of 50% feed and 50% water,
Stage 3: provide gruel or 75% feed and 25% water,
Stage 4: feed 100% dry feed.
Many problems can be avoided by ensuring pigs new to the nursery have easy access to high quality drinking water. By its very nature, water is the elixir of life: it is absolutely essential to maintain high health. |
For more information
Please visit our website. hypor.com/canada or contact:
Lambert Houwen or
Darren Bates |
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