A first-time gilt who has just bitten her own piglet is not a lost cause yet. About 18% of litters see savaging; 3.4% of gilts do it, versus 1.2% of older sows. The first 30 minutes decide. Get the piglets out, calm the gilt, then decide. About 86% of first-time savagers do not repeat.
The First 30 Minutes
If you walked in mid-savage, do this in order:
- Get the piglets out. Into a warm box (35°C) lined with a clean towel. Rub them dry. The gilt sees no piglets, hears no squealing, and the trigger is removed.
- Make sure the farrowing finished. A retained piglet or placenta keeps her in pain and aroused. If you can feel a piglet in the canal, she needs help — see difficult farrowing.
- Quiet the room. Strangers, dogs, lights, noise — all out. Sit out of her direct line of sight if you must stay.
- Decide on sedation. If you have Stresnil, give it now. If not, give her 30-60 minutes of silence and try a calm reintroduction. Most rural agrivets don't stock it.
- Reintroduce one piglet at a time once she is recumbent. If the first latches, add the rest. If she lunges, pull the piglet and try again in an hour.
Tell Savaging From The Two Things People Confuse It With
| Sign | What it is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Piglet has bite wounds on head, neck, or legs; sow barked or lunged | Savaging (active aggression) | Separate, sedate, possibly cull |
| Piglet is dead with crushed thorax, no bite wounds, sow lay down on it | Overlay (accidental crushing) | Pen design fix: anti-crush rails, creep area |
| Sow is eating an already-dead piglet, no aggression toward live ones | Post-mortem cannibalism (cleanup behaviour) | Look for the upstream cause: stillbirth, MMA, dystocia |
These three get lumped together as "kinakain ang biik," but the fix for each is different. A savager bites; a crushing sow lies down; a cannibal scavenges what is already dead.
Why Gilts Do It
The triggers stack:
- First-time anxiety. Gilts savage roughly 3x more than older sows.
- Painful farrowing. Dystocia, retained placenta, large piglet. Pain plus newborn squeals = aggression.
- Crowding and crating stress. Especially if the gilt was crated less than 3 days before farrow.
- Audience. A stranger watching, or even a familiar person standing in her sight line, makes it worse.
- Genetics. Heritability sits between 0.11 and 0.25 in most studies, higher in some Landrace and Duroc lines. If your boar's daughters keep doing this, the boar is the problem.
- Body condition. Overconditioned gilts (BCS above 3.5) have harder farrowings and savage more.
- No nesting material. Rice straw or chopped kogon to redirect onto reduces incidence.
Sedation: How Much Stresnil
Azaperone (Stresnil, 40 mg/mL) is the standard tranquiliser for an aggressive sow.
- Dose: 2.2 mg/kg IM
- Volume: for a 150 kg gilt, around 8 mL (do the math for your animal)
- Onset: 5-10 minutes
- Duration: 2-3 hours
Vets sometimes use a lighter 1 mg/kg dose to keep her able to nurse. First-time users should start there. See how to inject pigs for IM technique.
PH availability is the real problem. Stresnil is not commonly stocked at provincial agrivets — Pacifica and Univet shops in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao can order it. Expect ₱1,200-2,500 per 50-100 mL bottle. Provincial private vet farm calls run ₱500-1,500 if you can get one to come tonight.
If no Stresnil, no vet, and the gilt keeps attacking after 60 minutes of quiet recovery, switch plans and hand-rear the litter.
Hand-Rearing The Litter
Most PH backyard farmers can't foster. Hand-rearing is the realistic answer.
The 24-hour colostrum window is non-negotiable. Piglets need around 150 mL/kg birth weight in the first 16 hours to absorb antibodies. After 24 hours the gut closes and missed colostrum cannot be recovered.
In order of preference:
- Milked from the gilt herself, even between attacks, if you can restrain her safely. A vet can sedate her for milking.
- Bovine colostrum from a freshly-calved cow, if any neighbour has one. Imperfect but real antibodies.
- Commercial piglet milk replacer (OptiLac and similar). Rare outside Manila and Cebu vet supply houses.
- Backyard mix: evaporated or condensed milk diluted with warm water plus a raw egg yolk per cup. Not as good as anything above, but better than nothing past hour 24.
See why piglets die in the first week for the full neonatal protocol and iron injection schedule.
Cull Or Second Chance?
The cleanest empirical rule:
- First-time savaging, 1-2 piglets killed, gilt responded to sedation and let the rest nurse: give her a second chance. Only 14% of these repeat at the next litter.
- Savaged a second litter, killed 3+ piglets despite intervention, or seriously injured survivors: cull.
- Same line keeps producing savagers: suspect the boar, not just the gilts.
A sow that fails her second farrow is unlikely to ever be a good mother. The economics and the welfare both point the same way.
Late-gestation pain triggers savaging, prolapse, and lameness; see the pig limping guide and prolapse first aid.
Bisaya / Cebuano
Para sa mga mag-uuma
Kung ang anay nimo (labi na ang first-litter nga gilt) mokaon o motuklaw sa iyang biik, ayaw og kahibulong, dili pa kana sentensya sa kamatayon. Kuhaa una ang biik, ibutang sa init nga kahon (35°C), pahilumon ang palibot. Daghan nga pagsavage gikan sa kasakit sa pagpanganak: tan-awa kung naa pay biik nga wala makagawas, o kung wala mahuman ang placenta.
Kung naa kay Stresnil, dosis 2.2 mg matag kilo nga IM, mga 8 mL para sa 150 ka kilo nga anay. Lisod kini pangitaa sa probinsya nga agrivet. Ang oxytocin dili gamiton para mopugong sa pag-attack, kana para sa retained piglet ug pagpa-gatas lang. Sa unang sayop, hatagi siya og second chance. Kung mausab sa sunod nga panganak, ihawon na lang. Mga 86% sa mga gilt nga ni-savage sa una, dili na mausab sa sunod.
Sources
- MSD/Merck Vet Manual: Behavior of Swine
- NADIS: Savaging of Piglets (cull-on-second-litter rule, 14% recurrence stat)
- ThePigSite: Savaging of Piglets / Cannibalism
- AHDB: Colostrum Management for Pigs (150 mL/kg, 24-hour window)
- Drugs.com: Stresnil (azaperone) Veterinary Use (2.2 mg/kg IM dose)
