Kune Kune Hairloss

Hi,
Hoping for some insights on my Kune Kunes (approx 1.5 years old).
We have experienced hairloss in larger seats, specifically on the back. This has occurred over the last few weeks.
I have two thoughts, mange or shedding?
They shedded last fall, and that was a lot more sporadic, just a thinning of the coat, not big swatches like this.
So mange would be the logical answer, but we have seen no excessive scratching, and skin does not look red or damaged, although it does look dry and scaly.
The coat that remains on sides of body looks thick and healthy.
Anybody has similar experiences, and suggestions for what might be causing this?

We moved them to fresh pasture, but only have one housing option for them, so I’m worried if it is mange, the mites may still be in the wood of the housing - is that the case?

Hi Linea,

Welcome to Permies.

I have raised Kunekunes for about 3 years.   Sorry, but I have never encountered the problem you are having.  If you do not get a good response from here in a few days,  PM me and I will try to hunt down some resources.

I went ahead and sent out some emails.   We shall see if I get a useful reply.

The one reply I got was that if you don’t see lice, it is probably mites.  In either case, frequent bedding changes are in order. Keep unaffected pigs separate.  You may wish  to check with a vet for treatment. Or, if you are so inclined, check the net.

My kune kune sow has a bald patch on her back amd the problem was mites. I had a bad mite problem with my chickens befpre winter and everything i looked up said it couldnt spread to pigs(their coop is right next to pig pem in our barn) but once i culled the severely mitey hens and did a deep clean out of the coop the hens stopped having the problem. I notived my sow had a bald patch on her back and i got worried...at first i did some research and thought maybe she had a vitamin e deficiency so i fed her more sunflower seeds and "waste" grocery pumpkins and didnt see any progress, bald spot didnt get any bigger but i was hoping the hair would come back. Then i was told by an oldtimer to feed her more fats and it may help so i added grass fed farm beef bone broth to her diet aswell as sunflower seeds and her usual fermented oats/barley/wheat/soy/corn and she still hasnt grown the patch back but it hasnt gotten any bigger and she ist as "scratch crazy" anymore...she used to want me to scratch her nonstop but now when i scrstch her she makes her happy noise and moves on to digging snow ...so i hope this may have helped in some way and i am also curious if theres anything else i can do

Yea it definitely looks like mites to me... its exactly the same as my sow.. only yours has lost a lot more...im not sure if it will grow back ..bit yea i suggest the same, frequent changing of bedding...i cant seperate my pigs because its snowing outside and i only have one part of the barn (im renting) ...

So i had a long time mentor of mone give me a reason why my sow might be losing hair..he said that i was feeding them way to much grain... i was feeding 3 large yoghurt containers twice a day between 2 pigs and apparently kunekunes dont need that much and he told me to feed them 1 scoop twice a day and see if things change ..he said that a respectably fed pig qill grow hair fast but an over fed pig will shed hair.. also he mentioned that i should stop feeding pig feed to them cuz its too high in protien for fully grown pigs . He said that i should feed them just oats and barley instead of oats wheat corn soy and barley. I have 1000 lb tote of pig feed so i still wanna go through it so he suggested that i just feed 1 scoop twice a day as i said before...so i just wantsd to let you know what i was told and ill update you if my sows hairloss goes away after reducing their feed intake

I have a kune kune piglet 9weeks old . Only had her a week and I noticed that the hair on her legs is missing
What could that be? and how do I treat it

Elijah West wrote: ..he said that a respectably fed pig qill grow hair fast but an over fed pig will shed hair..

Oh interesting!
I'm new to kunekunes (ten year dream realized).  Ours are all adults who were being rehomed.  They have quite dry skin and much thinner hair than others I've seen.  So I'm curious if this bit of advice had an impact for you.