Skin Infection

Question
Hi, I don't know if you can help me at all. I have a 4 year old male pig which has been suffering with a constant reoccuring fungal infection for nearly a year now. I use Neem Melt and Shampoo and it works everytime and clears him up, but it keeps coming back and the poor thing is contantly being treated. He gets scabs on the skin which results in hair loss in any place he gets infected. The only thing I can think that is linked is that I had him neutured so that he could have a female friend and ever since then he's suffered with an impaction that I have to sort out every day. Any help of advice much appreciated as he can't carry on like this as it's just too much for him and the vets aren't much help. I've had to seperate him from his friend as well as she catches it from him, but is fine when kept apart. I've changed his run and he lives mainly on the grass in my garden. He gets fresh fruit and veg everyday along with cereal and unlimited grass. I've switched his bedding from hay to shavings. Many thanks.

Answer
so it is contagious?

my first assuption was initially ecsma or mange, ecsma makes more sense, but if he is getting the other pig ill then perhaps not.

you have really a few possible causes.

the most likely if it is purely contagious, is mange, the only way to treat this is to disinfect everything, bath him in a mange shampoo and then give him a mange droplet on his neck and it might even be worth treating the grass and leaving him off it for a month after a few rain showers have washed away the chemicals as the mites will hang onto the leaves for him.

if however his symptoms are not entriely connected to the girls then it could be escma, in which case tea tree oil every so often to sooth any sore or thinning looking areas.

there is also the possibility that because of his impaction, he is not getting the nutrition that he needs from eating his poop, unfortunately there is not alot you can do to help with this, once impaction happens even with our care their life expectancy plummets, probably the best things (it sounds like he already has a really good diet) is to feed him alfalfa hay in addition to everything else, ordinarily this is bad for pigs as it is too rich, but for nursing and growing pigs it makes them stronger, it should help him too, this will feed more nutrients into him than normal food, although veg and grass are great also.

finally there is one other last ditch attempt you can make to fix him, the next time you use neem melt and the shampoo to treat the illness put him on a course of antibiotics, either baytril or ivermec for about two weeks, if it is something like mange causing this then this will flush it out. use peter gurneys website for details on dosage and application as different weights require different strengths.

so those are the possibilities,

malnurishment
ecsma,
mange/bacterial infection

best of luck