Spring came early and so did the bugs (pig edition)

So I hesitated writing this one because I generally like to make posts cheerful. However, the point of blogging is to entertain, educate and give an unbiased view of what living on a hobby farm is like. So here it goes.

Spring came early because winter never came. All the bugs came early too.

Meri comes in the house and says "The pigs have worms. I'm going to work. Fix it." and leaves.
I began dosing both pigs for roughly 175lbs with Ivermectin. There was no way I was going to be able to give them a shot, so I chose orally as the best course of action.

Bacon ate his medicine (on a hamburger bun) and Ham just looked at me. Bacon wanted to eat hers. No, he can't have a double dose of dewormer.

I went inside and tried a new hamburger bun with peanut butter and medicine. No go. Bacon wanted to eat it. No, he can't have a double dose of dewormer.

I went inside and tried a blueberry yogurt with medicine stirred in. Again! No go. Bacon wanted to eat it. No, he can't have a double dose of dewormer.  Good thing I had a backup plan. While I was inside making the yogurt, I filled a syringe with a topical dosage of dewormer. when she denied my yogurt, I squirted medicine all over her back.

Two hours later, my job is done. Right?

No.

I don my muck boots and proceed into the pig pen to try to kill any worms in the ground. After identifying the worm in question as one the pigs will try to eat again, I had to kill them too. What awesome farmer bought 50lbs of food grade diatomaceous earth weeks earlier without knowing why?

I began spreading DE all over their pen concentrating on the muddy areas where the gross stuff lives. Once done, I spread a pile on their food. DE when taken internally, kills parasites. It is safe for human consumption, dog, horse, goat, chicken... everyone on our farm.

The next day.... worms are dying and Bacon is acting lethargic.

Will it never end?!

Bacon was not feeling great after his deworming. I worried about him all day and continued spreading DE in the pen. I checked on him hourly. It took about 48 hours before he started to get his energy back. This pig is wearing me out.

Bacon is totally fine now. Still trying to feed a lot of DE to keep his body as natural as possible while keeping him healthy. They're getting close to being slaughter weight.