Wilbur

Question
Hi,
I have 2 male pigs.  I have noticed maybe in the last week or two
Wilburs' hind side looked swollen.  I look online and read that he
might have impacted poop.  As I cleaned their cage I noticed that
he had pooped.  So can he be "impacted" and still poop?  He eats
and still drinks and seems to feel good.  The closest small animal
vet is 45 minutes away so I was asking first before I had to make the journey.

Answer

Pouch 'impaction'  

Flushing the pouch   There are a couple of things to consider first: when you say hind side are you referring to his rear end?  Are you sure you're not just seeing mature testicles? During warm weather the boar's testicles will hang farther away from his body. That's nature's way of protecting the delicate sperm from getting too warm.  In the winter months the opposite will happen, they will stay closer to the body to keep them the right temperature.

All animals, even humans, have this happen. With infants it's very noticeable when they have a fever. When they're cold the scrotum pulls up. There's a very delicate balance of temperature to protect the sperm. They will die from either too much heat or too much cold.

If your pig is eating and drinking okay I doubt there's anything that needs to be done for him. The word impaction is not a truly correct description of what happens to an older boar. There is a small pouch between the testicles and inside that pouch is the rectal opening.

When it's very warm and sometimes when the boar gets older they don't completely empty the pouch of the stool pellets that are there. In the heat the stool gets very soft, making it more difficult to push away. A true impaction is when stool gets blocked inside the intestine. The patient has severed pain and total loss of appetite. That's a serious and surgical issue. That isn't what's going on with your boar.

If the pouch is full you will sometimes see it bulging from the pouch. You can gently push on either side and express most of it out. You can also just run his bottom under some soft semi warm water and flush it. But it's not a physically harmful thing. Sooner or later he will pass it. If this is all it is there's no reason for a vet exam.

Here are a couple of pictures of one of my boars who had this same kind of 'impaction' and how to clean it out. It's a good example of where the pouch is in relationship to the testicles. The little pink dot above that is where the penis is. If you look between the testicles you can see the stool that is inside the pouch.

I have a utility sink in my garage that I use for bathing and jobs like this. It's perfect for these kinds of tasks.