A sow that won't let her piglets nurse 12-48 hours after farrowing ("walang gatas") is almost always MMA: mastitis, metritis, agalactia. Fever above 39.5°C, hot lumpy udder, foul vulval discharge, piglets crying nonstop. The MSD Veterinary Manual lists rising piglet deaths and piglets that fail to gain as signs, and most cases start in the first 3 days after farrowing. With prompt oxytocin, ceftiofur, and an NSAID, milk is usually back inside 24-48 hours.
Spotting MMA Before You Lose The Litter
In the first 12-48 hours post-farrow, watch for:
- Sow lies on her belly (sternal), hiding the udder, instead of on her side.
- One or more glands hot, hard, red, painful.
- Piglets squeal nonstop, look thin, fight for teats.
- Foul brown or yellow vulval discharge (lochia is normal 3-5 days but should be odourless).
- Off feed, fever 39.5-41°C.
A farm digital thermometer (₱187 on Viddavet) decides this. Normal pig temperature is 38.7-39.8°C per the Merck Veterinary Manual. Take it rectally morning and night for the first 5 days post-farrow. Catching the spike early is the difference between a 24-hour fix and a dead litter.
MMA or PDS? Same sow, newer name
Vets now call it PDS, postpartum dysgalactia syndrome. The MSD Veterinary Manual dropped "MMA" because many sows run dry with no mastitis or metritis, so a cool udder doesn't clear her. Two things from it changed how I check:
- 39.5°C is a guide, not a verdict. MSD calls the cutoff arbitrary, since healthy fresh sows can run above it. One 39.6°C reading on a sow that is eating just means check again tonight.
- Watch the piglets. MSD rates piglet signs (scours, poor growth, deaths) as more reliable than the sow's, and says that with poor letdown piglets nurse more than 5 minutes every 40-50 minutes.
Palm each gland with her lying down and strip a few drops from each teat. Clotted or yellow milk from one gland is mastitis. MSD says most cases show in the first 3 days but can appear any time in week one.
Two or more dry sows nearby in a month, or abortions and coughing too? Stop treating sow by sow. MSD lists PRRS and influenza A as look-alikes. Call your Municipal Agriculturist Office or provincial vet.
The Four-Step Protocol
1. Oxytocin to force letdown
The Oxytokel 10 IU/mL label gives sows 10-20 IU IM (1-2 mL) for a 200 kg sow and lists MMA as an adjunctive use. The Merck Veterinary Manual describes oxytocin given 4 or 5 times at 2- to 3-hour intervals. PH agrivets stock 10 IU/mL bottles; 50 mL bottles were listed at about ₱350-₱510 on Shopee in October 2026 (BigGo Philippines). For a 180-200 kg sow, 1-2 mL IM behind the ear is the label range. Hold a hungry piglet to the teat after the shot. Cap at 4-5 doses.
Oxytocin opens the tap, it does not treat infection. If she is febrile, pus from a hot gland comes out with the milk. Strip that gland manually, discard, let piglets nurse on the rest.
2. Antibiotic for mastitis and metritis
The Merck Veterinary Manual says only that antimicrobials "might be warranted" when mastitis or metritis is suspected, and names no drug, so this is a vet's call. Three options you will hear about:
- Ceftiofur (Excenel RTU, Zoetis). Prescription only and mostly in Manila, Cebu and Davao. Dose it as your vet writes it.
- Long-acting amoxicillin (Vetrimoxin L.A., Ceva, 150 mg/mL). Prescription only; dose by the label. The EU product record lists a 16-day meat withdrawal for pigs.
- Pen-strep (Robipenstrep). ₱267 sale, ₱500 regular per 100 mL on Viddavet, whose page gives no dose. The Penstrep-400 label gives 1 mL per 10 kg IM for 3 days, no more than 10 mL per site, with a 21-day meat withdrawal. Backyard staple.
See how to inject pigs for IM technique. Write the withdrawal from your bottle's label on the pen card.
3. NSAID for fever and inflammation
A febrile sow lies on her belly to hide the painful udder. Pull the fever, she rolls over, piglets eat.
- Meloxicam 0.4 mg/kg IM (2 mL per 100 kg of a 20 mg/mL product). The Meloxidyl label lists it for MMA "with appropriate antibiotic therapy", with a second dose allowed after 24 hours. Viddavet lists a 10 mL meloxicam at ₱407; check its strength.
- Flunixin 2.2 mg/kg IM, once. The Merck Veterinary Manual calls it the most common NSAID for this on commercial farms.
Both are prescription drugs; get them through a vet.
4. Save the piglets in parallel
Do not wait 24 hours to see if treatment works. Start supplemental feeding if milk is still not down a few hours after the first oxytocin shot. That is my rule of thumb, not a published cut-off; the hard limit is biology.
PH backyard recipe: 1 L cow's milk + 1 raw egg yolk + 1 tbsp glucose + 5 mL cod-liver oil. Warm to 38°C. Syringe-feed every 2 hours, around 40-50 mL per newborn piglet. The first 24 hours matter most: a review by Le Dividich, Rooke and Herpin (2005) puts gut closure, after which piglets can no longer absorb intact antibodies, within the first 24 hours of life, and calls enough colostrum to meet the piglet's energy needs a major determinant of survival. See savaging guide and why piglets die in the first week.
Evaporated milk 1:1 with warm water plus egg yolk and glucose is a workable backstop. OptiLac is gold-standard but rare outside Manila and Cebu.
An Oregon State University newborn-pig guide puts a normal piglet at about 15 nursings of 15 mL in its first 24 hours, and keeps newborns at 90°F (about 32°C).
Better than the bottle: a neighbour's sow that farrowed the same day. AHDB's fostering guide says get colostrum into them first, foster within 24 hours, foster only once, and never put more piglets on her than she has working teats. OSU says move the bigger piglets, not the runts. No foster sow? OSU suggests lifting the largest piglets off for up to 4 hours a day for 2-3 days so the small ones get the teats.
The PH MMA Kit
| Item | Use | Approx. PHP |
|---|---|---|
| Oxytocin 50 mL (10 IU/mL) | Milk letdown | 350-510 (Shopee, Oct 2026) |
| Robipenstrep 100 mL | Antibiotic (budget) | 267-500 (Viddavet) |
| Meloxicam injectable 10 mL | Fever, pain | 407 (Viddavet) |
| Farm digital thermometer | Daily checks first 5 days | 187 (Viddavet) |
| Cow milk + egg + glucose + cod-liver oil | Hand-rear formula | 200-300 |
| Heat lamp or warm box | Piglet warmth (30-32°C) | 400-1,000 |
The four drug-and-thermometer lines come to about ₱1,200-1,600 at those listings; the milk formula and heat source are on top. See pig vitamins and supplements for what to keep in the kit year-round.
MMA Or Savaging? Don't Mix Them Up
Both look like "the sow won't feed the piglets" but the fix is opposite.
| Sign | MMA | Savaging |
|---|---|---|
| Behaviour | Lies on belly, refuses to roll over | Bites, lunges, growls at piglets |
| Bite wounds on piglets | None (just thin and crying) | Yes, head, neck, legs |
| Fever | Often 39.5-41°C | Usually normal |
| Udder | Hot, hard, painful | Normal |
| Discharge | Foul vulval discharge | Normal lochia |
| Fix | Oxytocin, antibiotic, NSAID | Separate piglets, sedate sow |
Hot udder + fever = MMA. Cold normal udder + lunging = savaging. See the savaging guide. Reaching for Stresnil on an MMA sow wastes the drug and the piglets' hours.
Why It Happened
- Constipation in week 16. Add 10-15% rice bran and 50-100 g mineral oil daily. See feed economics.
- Long farrowing (over 5-6h) or assisted dystocia. Dirty hands raise metritis risk. See difficult farrowing.
- Dirty pen. Manure on the udder seeds the glands.
- Fat sow (BCS over 3.5). Harder farrowing, worse letdown.
- Heat stress. 35°C pens suppress prolactin. Wet sacks, fans, shade.
- Mouldy corn. Same zearalenone story. See swollen vulva and prolapse.
- Not enough water. Ontario's ag ministry says a lactating sow can drink upwards of 20 L a day and that too little water hurts milk production. A dipper refilled twice a day won't cover that.
- Moved in late, left alone. MSD lists moving her into the farrowing pen under 4 days before due date, unsupervised farrowing, and ad lib feeding before farrowing as risk factors, plus a previous PDS case. Use the farrowing calculator and move her a week early. Two bad litters in a row and I cull her at weaning.
Clean dry pen, twice-daily rectal temps for 5 days, and a vial of oxytocin on the shelf prevents most second-litter cases.
Bisaya / Cebuano
Para sa mga mag-uuma
Kung wala mogatas ang anay pagkahuman manganak, naa hilanat sobra sa 39.5°C, init ug gahi ang suso, ug naghilak nga walay hunong ang biik, MMA na kana. Sakit kana sa suso ug matres dungan. Dili paghulat og 24 ka oras.
Una, hatagi og oxytocin 1-2 mL IM sa 10 IU/mL nga botelya (kada 2-3 oras, hangtod 4-5 ka beses). Sunod, antibiotic nga gireseta sa vet; ang barato nga kapilian kay Robipenstrep, 1 mL kada 10 ka kilo IM sulod sa tulo ka adlaw, sumala sa label. Idugang og meloxicam 0.4 mg matag kilo IM para mawala ang hilanat.
Kung pagkahuman sa unang oxytocin, wala gihapoy gatas, sugod-i dayon ang manual feed: 1 litro nga gatas sa baka, 1 itlog nga pula, 1 kutsara nga asukar, 5 mL nga cod-liver oil. Initi sa 38°C, ipainom kada 2 ka oras.
Ayaw kalibog: kung walay hilanat ug ang anay mismo motuklaw sa biik, dili kana MMA, savaging na kana, lain ang tambal.
Sources
- Merck Veterinary Manual: Postpartum Dysgalactia Syndrome in Sows
- Le Dividich, J., Rooke, J.A. and Herpin, P. (2005), Nutritional and immunological importance of colostrum for the new-born pig. Journal of Agricultural Science 143(6), 469-485. Gut closure within the first 24 hours; colostrum intake as a determinant of survival.
- Kela: Oxytokel 10 I.U. product fiche (sows 10-20 IU IM; MMA adjunct)
- Ceva: Meloxidyl 20 mg/ml SPC (0.4 mg/kg IM for MMA with antibiotics)
- Interchemie Penstrep-400 label (1 mL/10 kg IM for 3 days; 21-day meat withdrawal)
- EU veterinary medicines database: Vetrimoxin L.A. 150 mg/ml (16-day pig meat withdrawal)
- Viddavet PH online store (Robipenstrep, meloxicam, thermometer prices, October 2026)
- AHDB: Colostrum Management for Pigs
- AHDB: Piglet Fostering
- Oregon State University: Care of Newborn Pigs
- Ontario OMAFA: Providing Feed and Water to Pigs
