1. Build the setup before arrival

1. Choose your purpose and get advice before choosing animals. Set up strong fencing, weather shelter, a dry resting place, and safe loading/handling access. Arrange veterinary support.
2. Test the waterer at the pig’s height and learn how to check its flow. Provide shade and an appropriate cooling arrangement in hot weather. Keep feeding and drinking areas from turning into manure-filled mud.
3. Buy from a source that supplies health, vaccine, and treatment records. Discuss a separate newcomer area and introduction plan with the vet before mixing groups.

2. Watch growth, water, and comfort

1. Feed a complete swine ration matched to the animals’ stage and purpose. Ask your feed professional how much and when; measure actual use to plan reorders.
2. Observe the pigs every day: are they moving, eating, drinking, breathing comfortably, and passing normal manure? Check fences, dry bedding, heat relief, and whether every animal can reach feed and water.
3. Write down poor appetite, coughing, diarrhea, lameness, or poor growth and call the vet about a changed animal. Collapse, severe distress, or a rapidly spreading illness needs urgent help.

3. Keep treatments tied to the herd plan

1. Ask the vet which parasite tests and preventive steps are appropriate for this housing and production system. Do not assume cattle, goat, or horse wormers have suitable pig labels or doses.
2. Follow the clinic’s sample-collection instructions. Treatment choice depends on the problem being investigated; manure appearance alone does not identify the cause of diarrhea.
3. Record any prescribed medicine, dose, route, date, animal/group identification, and the meat withdrawal end date. Put only the vet’s actual treatment and follow-up dates in the planner.

Keep a useful record

Give each animal or group a clear name. Record the date, what you observed, feed changes, test results, treatments actually given, and the next instruction. Let another caregiver see the current plan.

How to arrange testing and collect a manure sample

Source links checked September 14, 2026. This guide provides general education. Your veterinarian determines tests and treatment for your animals; product labels and the vet’s instructions determine safe use and food withdrawal periods.