How to Revive a Sick Pig in 10 Minutes (Scottish Crofter's Kitchen Method)

00:00 You walk out to the pen in the morning

00:02 and you can before you even reach the

00:04 gate. The feed bucket rattles and only

00:07 two pigs come running. The third one is

00:09 lying in the corner by the wall, ears

00:12 down, tail hanging flat as a bit of wet

00:15 string. You call her, she lifts her head

00:18 and puts it back down. A pig that

00:20 doesn't come to food is a pig telling

00:23 you something is wrong, plain as if

00:25 she'd spoken it out loud. And every

00:27 shepherd, every small holder, every

00:29 family with three pigs on a hillside

00:32 kens that cold feeling in the stomach

00:34 when they see it. Because a pig can go

00:37 downhill fast, faster than a cow, faster

00:40 than a sheep, fine at breakfast, flat

00:42 out by supper. Now, most folk handle it

00:45 one of two ways. The first way is panic.

00:48 Phone the vet, wait half a day for the

00:50 call out, pay 60, 80, 100 pound before a

00:54 hand has even touched the animal. And

00:56 I'll say this now and again later

00:57 because it's true. Sometimes that phone

00:59 call is exactly the right thing to do

01:01 and I'll tell you plainly when it is.

01:04 The second way, and this is the way that

01:06 loses pigs, is waiting. Telling yourself

01:09 she's just off her feed the day, she'll

01:11 come right the morn. And the morn she's

01:13 worse, and the day after she's gone, and

01:16 you're standing over a dead animal that

01:18 a cup of salt water and a wee spoonful

01:21 of black powder might have saved on the

01:23 first morning. Now, I want you to sit

01:25 with this a moment. There are three

01:27 things sitting in your kitchen right

01:29 now, things that cost pennies, things

01:31 the old shepherds and hill families used

01:33 for 200 years and that the veterinary

01:36 science of today still backs up, that

01:38 can turn a common sick pig around. No, a

01:41 rare tincture, no, something you order

01:44 from a catalog, salt, sugar, and a black

01:48 powder that hospitals have kept on their

01:50 shelves since a French chemist swallowed

01:52 poison in front of a room full of

01:54 doctors in 1813 and walked out alive. 10

01:58 minutes of work at the pen, that is the

02:00 bold claim in the title. My name is

02:03 Angus.

02:04 I'm a shepherd on the west coast of

02:06 Scotland, the way my father was and his

02:09 father before him. And like most folk

02:11 who keep sheep on a wee place, I keep a

02:14 few pigs alongside them. And everything

02:16 I'm showing you the day I've done with

02:18 my own two hands at my own pens. And I'm

02:21 going to be honest with you right at the

02:23 start, the way I always am, and

02:26 especially the day, because when we're

02:28 talking about a living animal, honest

02:31 isn't it just more useful than

02:32 impressive.

02:34 Honest is the difference between a pig

02:36 in the pen and a pig in the ground. So,

02:39 here's the fair word on the title. Folk

02:41 will tell you there's a kitchen cure

02:42 that fixes any sick pig in 10 minutes.

02:45 That's the bold claim. The truth, which

02:47 I'm going to tell you straight, is more

02:49 useful. 10 minutes is what it takes you

02:51 to do the work, to check her over, mix

02:53 the drench, and get it in to her. The

02:55 turning around when it comes, comes over

02:57 the hours that follow, sometimes by that

02:59 same afternoon. And it works on the

03:02 common troubles, the ones behind most

03:04 sick pigs on a wee place, and the gut

03:06 upsets, the scours, the heat stress, the

03:08 pig that ate something she shouldn't

03:10 have.

03:10 It doesn't cure the serious diseases,

03:13 and I'll tell you exactly how to ken the

03:14 difference, because kenning the

03:16 difference is half of what I'm teaching

03:17 you the day.

03:19 Honest is more useful than impressive.

03:21 Now, stay with me, and let me first tell

03:24 you what's really happening inside that

03:26 pig. Because once you see the plain

03:28 sense of it, the rest of the video

03:30 explains itself. A pig is a gut with

03:33 legs on it.

03:34 I say that with affection, but it's the

03:36 truth of the animal. Nearly everything

03:38 that goes wrong with a pig on a wee

03:40 place begins in the stomach and the

03:42 bowel.

03:43 She roots in the dirt, she eats what she

03:45 finds, she drinks fae the puddle instead

03:47 of the trough, and most days her insides

03:49 handle it all fine, because a pig's gut

03:51 is a hardy thing. But when it goes

03:53 wrong, a moldy bit of feed, a plant she

03:56 shouldn't have chewed, a sudden change

03:58 in her ration, a hot day without enough

04:00 water, three things happen, and they

04:02 happen together. First, the gut stops

04:05 moving right, and she loses her

04:07 appetite. That's the flat tail and the

04:09 empty trough.

04:10 Second, if it comes out as scours,

04:13 that's the old word for diarrhea, she

04:16 starts losing water and salts out of her

04:18 body faster than she takes them in.

04:21 And here's the thing most folk didn't

04:23 ken. It's almost never the sickness

04:25 itself that kills a pig with scours.

04:27 It's the drying out, the dehydration.

04:31 The body loses its water and its salt

04:33 and its sugar, and the heart and the

04:35 muscles canna run without them, and the

04:37 animal fades away.

04:39 Third, whatever bad thing she ate, the

04:42 toxin, the mold, the rot, sits in her

04:46 gut and keeps doing its damage as long

04:48 as it's in there. So, the cure, the real

04:51 cure that the old folk kent, and the

04:53 science confirms, is no one clever

04:56 thing.

04:57 It's three plain things that answer

04:59 those three problems.

05:01 You bind up the bad stuff in the gut.

05:04 You put the water and the salts and the

05:06 sugar back into the body.

05:09 And you help the gut settle and start

05:10 moving right again.

05:13 And here's where the kitchen comes in.

05:15 The black powder is activated charcoal,

05:17 and I want to tell you the story because

05:19 it's a good one. In 1813,

05:22 a French chemist named Bertrand stood in

05:24 front of his colleagues and swallowed a

05:26 dose of arsenic, a killing dose, mixed

05:29 with charcoal, and he lived. A few years

05:31 on, another Frenchman, a pharmacist

05:33 called Touery, did the same in front of

05:36 the French Academy of Medicine with

05:37 strychnine, 10 times the deadly dose,

05:40 taken with charcoal. He lived, too,

05:43 because activated charcoal is riddled

05:44 with millions of microscopic holes. One

05:47 wee spoonful of it has the inner surface

05:49 area of a football pitch, and toxins

05:51 bind onto it like flies onto flypaper.

05:54 And then the whole lot passes through

05:56 and oop the back end of the animal,

05:57 doing no more harm. This isn't a folk

06:00 magic. Every hospital emergency room in

06:02 the world keeps activated charcoal on

06:04 the shelf today, 200 years on, for

06:07 poisonings. The same powder, the same

06:09 chemistry, and a wee tub of it costs you

06:11 a few pound and last your place for

06:13 years. The salt and the sugar are the

06:15 second part, and this one, humble as it

06:18 sounds, has saved more lives than nearly

06:20 any medicine ever invented. The doctors

06:23 call it oral rehydration solution.

06:26 The World Health Organization calls it

06:28 one of the great medical discoveries of

06:30 the last century, because a simple mix

06:33 of clean water, a wee bit of salt, and a

06:35 wee bit of sugar, in the right small

06:38 amounts, and I'll give you the exact

06:40 spoonfuls, pulls water back into a dried

06:43 up body faster than water alone ever

06:45 could. The sugar carries the salt across

06:48 the gut wall, and the salt carries the

06:50 water in with it. That's the chemistry

06:52 of it, written in the medical books

06:54 plain as day.

06:56 It's what saves bairns with cholera in

06:58 the far parts of the world, and it's

07:00 what saves a scouring pig on a Scottish

07:02 hillside, and it's made of things

07:04 sitting in your cupboard right now.

07:08 And the third thing is apple cider

07:10 vinegar,

07:11 the raw cloudy kind. A splash in the

07:14 water, and a splash in the drench. The

07:17 old hill folk swore by it for settling a

07:20 beast's stomach, and the plain reason it

07:22 helps is that it nudges the gut back

07:24 toward the sour conditions the good

07:25 bacteria like, and the bad bacteria

07:28 dinner. And I'll be honest with you, as

07:31 I always am, the vinegar is the helper,

07:33 not the hero. The charcoal and the salt

07:36 sugar water do the heavy lifting, but

07:38 the three together, the old folk found

07:41 and I've found at my own pens work

07:43 better than anyone alone. Now, I owe you

07:46 the honest scope of what this works on

07:48 before you go and use it on the wrong

07:50 sickness and feel like I lied to you.

07:53 This is the most important 2 minutes of

07:55 this video, so listen close. This

07:57 kitchen method works on the everyday

07:59 troubles. The pig that's off her feed,

08:02 but still on her legs. The mild scours.

08:05 The pig that got into something. Spoiled

08:08 feed, a rubbish pile, a plant she

08:11 shouldn't have eaten. Heat stress on a

08:13 warm day. The dull, slow, no herself pig

08:17 with no other alarming sign. That's most

08:19 sick pigs on a wee place most of the

08:21 time. It doesn't work on, and you

08:24 mustn't wait a boot trying it on, the

08:26 serious things.

08:27 So, here's my rule, and I want you to

08:29 write it down.

08:31 You put your hand on that pig, and you

08:33 look for four alarms.

08:35 A pig that can't get up at all.

08:37 A pig with blood in the scours or scours

08:39 like water that will not stop. A pig

08:41 that's burning hot to the touch. And a

08:44 proper pig thermometer costs a few

08:45 pound. And a pig's normal temperature

08:48 runs about 38.5 to 39.5 degrees. So,

08:52 anything past 40 is a fever, and past

08:54 40.5 is a fire alarm. And a pig with

08:57 skin gone blotchy red or purple at the

09:00 ears and belly, or one breathing hard

09:02 and coughing.

09:04 Any one of those four, you're not

09:05 playing kitchen doctor.

09:07 You're on the phone to the vet within

09:09 the hour, because those are the signs of

09:11 the serious diseases, the ones that

09:13 spread, the ones the law in some places

09:16 says must be reported. There's no shame

09:18 in that phone call. The shame is in

09:20 losing an animal to pride. And I'll tell

09:23 you something more. You can give the

09:25 salt, sugar, water while you wait for

09:27 the vet, and it'll do no harm, and

09:29 likely some good.

09:31 But, you didn't use it instead of the

09:33 vet when the alarms are ringing.

09:35 The bold title says revive a sick pig in

09:38 10 minutes.

09:40 The honest shepherd teaching you says,

09:42 "The common upsets caught early in a pig

09:45 still on her feet. That's most of what

09:47 you'll face, and that's what this is

09:49 for."

09:50 Now, let me show you what to gather

09:52 because the whole kit costs less than a

09:54 single vet callout, and the time to

09:56 gather it is the day while your pigs are

09:58 well. The old folk called it the beast

10:01 cupboard. You can call it the animal

10:03 medicine shelf. Activated charcoal

10:05 powder, food grade or veterinary grade.

10:08 A wee tub, a few pound online or fay the

10:10 chemist. Sea salt, plain no additives.

10:13 You've got it already. Sugar or a jar of

10:15 honey, you've got that, too. Raw apple

10:18 cider vinegar, the cloudy kind with the

10:20 mother in it, a couple of pound a

10:22 bottle. A bag of dried kelp meal fay the

10:24 farm store. That's your minerals and

10:27 your iodine, and a sick pig coming back

10:29 onto feed does well with a handful of

10:31 it. And the well pigs will eat it

10:33 happily, too. A big plastic syringe, no

10:36 needle, 60 ml. Fay the farm store or the

10:39 chemist for getting liquid into a pig

10:41 that willna drink. A pound or two. A

10:44 digital thermometer, a pair of rubber

10:46 gloves, and a clean bucket that lives on

10:49 that shelf and nowhere else. That's the

10:51 whole list. 15 20 pound altogether,

10:53 sitting ready on a shelf, and most of it

10:56 lasts years. The morning you find a flat

10:58 tail pig in the corner is not the

10:59 morning to be driving to town. Now,

11:02 here's the 10 minutes, plain and simple

11:04 in order. Minute one and two, look and

11:07 touch before you do anything. Watch her

11:09 fay the gate first. Is she up? Is she

11:12 down? How's she breathing? Then go in

11:15 quiet and calm. No chasing, and put your

11:18 hands on her.

11:19 Feel her ears and her belly for heat.

11:22 Take her temperature if she'll let you.

11:24 Look at her back end for scours and what

11:26 color they are.

11:27 Run through the four alarms. If an

11:29 alarm's ringing, that's your 10 minutes

11:31 done. The rest of it is dialing the vet.

11:34 No alarms, carry on. Minute three and

11:37 four, mix the drench. Into your clean

11:39 bucket goes 1 L of clean lukewarm water.

11:42 Stir in 1/2 a tsp of salt, level, no

11:45 heaped, because too much salt is its own

11:47 danger to a pig, and that's an honest

11:49 warning, not a wee one. Stir in 2 tbsp

11:52 of sugar or honey until it's dissolved.

11:55 Add a good splash of the apple cider

11:56 vinegar, a tablespoon or two.

11:59 That's your rehydration drench, the same

12:01 recipe in its bones that the medical

12:03 books give. Minute five and six, get it

12:06 into her. If she'll drink for her a

12:08 shallow pan, best of all, let her. If

12:11 she willna, draw the syringe full, tuck

12:14 it into the side of her mouth behind the

12:16 corner of the lips, pointed across the

12:18 tongue and not straight down the throat,

12:20 and give it slow, a wee bit at a time,

12:23 letting her swallow.

12:24 Slow is the whole secret. Squirt it fast

12:28 down a pig's throat, and it can go the

12:30 wrong way into the lungs, and then

12:32 you've made a sick pig sicker. Two or

12:34 three syringes now, and more every hour

12:36 or two through the day.

12:38 Minute seven and eight, the charcoal.

12:41 If you suspect she ate something bad,

12:43 and with a rooting pig, you nearly

12:45 always should suspect it, mix a couple

12:48 of tablespoons of the activated charcoal

12:50 powder into a cup of water till it's a

12:53 thin black slurry, and give it the same

12:56 slow way with the syringe. Or, if she's

12:59 still got any appetite at all, mix it

13:01 into a wee handful of wet feed, because

13:04 a pig will often eat what she willna

13:06 drink. And dinna be alarmed the morn

13:08 when her droppings come out black.

13:11 That's the charcoal leaving with the

13:13 trouble bound onto it.

13:15 That's the flypaper going out with the

13:16 flies.

13:18 Minute nine and 10, set the pen right.

13:21 Fresh clean water in the shade with a

13:23 splash of cider vinegar in it. Shade

13:25 itself if the day's warm, because a hot

13:27 sick pig dries out twice as fast. Pull

13:30 any feed you've got doubts about, the

13:32 moldy corner of the bag, the kitchen

13:34 scraps that sat too long, because

13:36 there's no sense treating the pig and

13:38 leaving the cause in the trough.

13:40 And if you can, give her a wee bit of

13:42 space for the others at the trough

13:44 because pigs are not gentle with a weak

13:46 one at feeding time. That's the whole

13:48 method. 10 minutes of work, pennies of

13:51 ingredients, and then the part that

13:53 costs nothing and matters most. You come

13:55 back.

13:56 2 hours later, 4 hours later, before

13:59 dark. You're watching for the small good

14:02 signs. She's up, she's drinking on her

14:04 own, the tail's got a curl back in it,

14:06 she comes toward the bucket.

14:09 On the common upsets, caught early,

14:12 you'll very often see her turning by

14:13 that same evening. And by the next

14:16 morning, she's shoving in at the trough

14:17 with the rest and you'd never ken. And

14:19 if she's not turning by the next

14:21 morning, if she's the same or worse

14:23 after a day of this, then the kitchen

14:25 has done what the kitchen can do and you

14:28 make the phone call. That's not the

14:30 method failing. That's the method

14:32 telling you this one is beyond it and

14:34 telling you a full day sooner than

14:36 waiting would have.

14:38 Now, I want to take a moment because

14:39 this is the part that matters. Think

14:41 about what you just learned. Go into the

14:43 farm store next time you're in and find

14:45 the shelf with the branded electrolyte

14:47 powders for livestock, the bright tubs,

14:50 8, 12, 15 lb each. Pick one up and read

14:54 the back of it. You'll see the same

14:56 words, glucose, sodium, salt and sugar

14:59 with a few pennies worth of flavoring in

15:02 a tub with a picture of a healthy pig on

15:04 it at 20 times the price of your

15:06 cupboard. How can that be? The honest

15:09 answer is the same one I always come

15:10 back to on this channel. There's no

15:12 money in telling a shepherd that the

15:14 salt and sugar already in his kitchen

15:16 will save his pig. There's good money in

15:18 selling him a tub every spring. That's

15:20 not a conspiracy. There's no villain in

15:22 it. It's simpler than that. A system

15:24 that makes its money on you no canning

15:26 has no reason to teach you.

15:29 So, the old knowledge, the beast

15:31 cupboard, the charcoal, the salt water

15:33 drench, the old hill families mixed by

15:35 lamplight for 200 years has quietly

15:38 stopped being passed down and the bright

15:40 shelf has taken over.

15:43 My grandmother wouldn't have called this

15:44 a shepherd's secret.

15:46 She'd have called it what it is, plain

15:49 sense that anyone who kept animals used

15:51 to ken.

15:52 You're being told now.

15:54 So, here's what I want you to do this

15:56 week while your pigs are well and the

15:58 sun is out.

16:00 Gather the beast cupboard, the charcoal,

16:02 the salt, the sugar, the vinegar, the

16:04 kelp, the syringe, the thermometer, the

16:07 clean bucket. Put it on one shelf where

16:10 you can find it in the dark and then do

16:12 the one thing that costs nothing.

16:14 The morn's morning at feeding, stand at

16:17 the gate for one extra minute and watch

16:19 your pigs come to the bucket. Learn what

16:22 their normal looks like, how they run,

16:25 how they shove, how the tails curl

16:28 because the whole method begins with

16:30 noticing the morning that one of them

16:32 does not.

16:33 Tell me in the comments below.

16:35 Have you ever had a pig or any beast go

16:38 off her feed on you?

16:40 And what did you do?

16:42 What was in your grandmother's beast

16:43 cupboard that I haven't named?

16:46 I read every single one.

16:48 Next time, since we've been talking

16:50 about catching sickness early, I'm going

16:52 to show you the old shepherd's way of

16:54 reading an animal's health before she

16:56 ever looks sick. The eyes, the coat, the

16:59 droppings, the way she stands, so you

17:01 catch trouble 3 days sooner than the

17:03 feed bucket will tell you.

17:05 It's the natural next step after the

17:07 day. Dinner wait for the flat tail.

17:09 Learn to see it coming.