by Karoline Inong

Created on: May 23, 2009

Pale pig syndrome also known as navel bleeding is found in piglets at birth or a few hours after birth. Like the name, the piglet will become extremely pale and in many cases the piglet dies. There is only three circumstances that a piglet can essentially be diagnosed with pale pig syndrome or navel bleeding.

The first circumstance that a piglet can get pale pig syndrome is if there was a shortage of oxygen inside the mother's womb during farrowing. This often causes the piglet to pool it's blood into the placenta. If it is born and the cord happens to be separated at this point, then it will be born pale and anaemic. It is often seen when piglets are delivered by hysterectomy and they are removed from the womb at a critical time essentially before the piglet has time to recall it's blood from the placenta. Piglets that get pale pig syndrome from this circumstance are usually from old sows and often in large litters.

The second circumstance is that the piglets are sometimes born with a haemorrhage or a hematoma in the cord itself. Hematoma is essentially the collection of blood outside the blood vessels, more specifically internal bleeding. The cause of this is unknown but in some of the cases it is related to the premature removal of a piglet from behind the sow at farrowing.

The last circumstance is simply the piglets continually bleeds from the naval 3-4 hours after birth. The clinical signs are pretty obvious in what you see is fresh blood on the floor of the pen coming from the end of the navel of a piglet.

There is treatment for piglets with this condition, however, early recognition is essential. If you have early recognized this condition you can clamp the cord approximately 13mm from the skin using an umbilical clip. You can use the ones that are used for human babies but also you can use nylon or plastic ties that are used to bind together electrical wires can be good too. In an acute emergency you can simply just take the navel and tied it in a knot. Another thing you can do is use a ligature and apply it around the umbilicus but the downfall with that is it shrinks and the bleeding often occurs. In those cases, the cord should be bent back on itself and re-tied in the shaped of a "U".

Like some diseases or illnesses, this can be prevented in piglets. Typically the navel bleeding or pale pig syndrome is associated with the use of wood shavings as bedding. If you used wood shavings for the bedding, you should change the shavings to an alternate source or simply use straw for bedding. If you considering moving you piglets away from the sow immediately at farrowing, you really shouldn't. The piglets should be allowed to break the cord naturally because there is a particular part of the cord where the separation takes place naturally without any hemorrhaging. The navel cord is always slightly longer than the birth canal so that when the piglet gets up and starts to walk the cord is stretched, breaks and recoils to block the blood vessels in which it should never be cut. You can also try to supplement their diet with vitamin K, it has been shown to help sometimes. Do not allow excessive trauma to the cord within 3 hours of a piglets birth .May also occur if you have the piglets fastened in the creep area.

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