Boy, what a busy week for me, I ache allover. A co-worker and I had to spray round-up (Hate round-up, but I was told to use it anyway) under the wire fencing in the heifer pasture. Its like over 200 acre pasture, plus many, many trips to get the backpack sprayer refilled. I am serious, I must have walked at least 10 miles. I am wiped out. Tomorrow, I have to weed wrack all the weeds around all the buildings.
Thanks everyone for the consolations regarding Pork Chop.
Bella is clear of Mastitis!!
My new boss told me to give her 20 cc of penicillin, and gave me a BIG needle for her, she clear up a day or two after the treatment. Now, I can start drinking her milk again!!
Daron, I'm so sorry. It never matters what the intent for them, it is tough to lose any, ever. I know your grief is fresh, but please take this as a learning experience. Try to never leave a pig who is soon to farrow alone without supervision for even 24 hours, but definitely not 48. And in instances like this it's VERY important you treat ASAP. I know life is busy and all that, but you have to drop everything to get the treatment in there -- it is one of those very inconvenient but necessary parts of being a livestock farmer. She was fighting an extreme uphill battle on Sunday night when we first talked, waiting that additional 24 hours until Monday night to treat was very likely the difference between life and death for her. Sometimes lessons come the hard way, give the other pigs a good scratch and know that you tried.
I did not want to leave Pork Chop the way she was, but had to obey my parents.
Here is the timeline of those few days-
Friday- We left about 8 am to take the Ferry to Wisconsin. I check Pork Chop's udder before leaving, no milk came out.
Saturday- Pork Chop must have farrowed on that day or even late Friday for when one of my sisters went to bury the first two piglets, one of them was smellier and had fly eggs on it, while the 2nd one seems fresher and was three feet away from the 1st one.
Sunday- We got home at about 11:30 pm, checked the pigs, found Pork Chop about 10 feet from the shed where her first 2 piglets are. She was sitting on the ground not moving. Ran to the house to turn on the computer to get your number off the PMs. Called you, got the med info. Checked the cows found that Bella have mastitis in one quarter. I did not go to bed until 1 am, got up at 5:50, checked Pork Chop, fed all other critters, left for the 2nd day of my new job at 6:45. Called my mom at 12:40 during my lunch break to see if she got the meds for the animals. She was on her way to get them, and wanted to wait for me to get home to treat them. I got home at 6:15, my mom and I went to the neighbor's to get needles, and fed and watered their goats for they were on vacation too. We looked allover for the dosage for Pork Chop and Bella, can't find it, posted here for help, got the info from all you wonderful ever willing to help others in need.
,treated them. My two youngest sister helped me with Pork Chop, and my oldest sister gave her the shots as she went to school for nursing, so she knew how to do the proper way to give shots. My young sisters were brave and stuck their small hands in Pork Chop's vaginal and could feel the piglets, but could not reach it right to grab a hold of it. We tried it for close to 2 hours, and our parents called us in for bed for it was pass midnight. We were going to ask a younger neighbor boy in the morning who have smaller hands than my sisters to help us out, but found Pork Chop dead at 6 am. Quite a day was it?
Thank YOU for all your time and help, Olive! You are the best! I mean it! Even though people may call you nasty names for they say that you are not a nice person, but having met you and your family in person, I can't see why they would say spiteful things to you. As the token of my appreciation, I will give you my first hatch of my Uggo project, that I will be hatching in the Spring.
Do you have to do a C section or make an incision or just pull on whatever part of the piglet appears? Sounds like there were 3 in there that were STUCK. And why did the two who were born die?
I never had pigs so I honestly don't know.
Sorry, I edited for clarity but looks like we were typing at the same time. In extreme cases, yes, you can do a C-Section if it's needed. You would exhaust the vaginal route first and move to the surgical if there were not another option.
No one was home when Pork Chop farrowed so everything that happened is not known, but I will give an educated guess based on the sow in question and what Daron told me about what he found when he got home. Pork Chop is not a normal case in any way shape or form. She is only, right now, 8 mo. Which means she was bred at just over 4mo -- based on the timeline she was bred when I dropped her off. Which just boggles the mind. To give some perspective pigs do not usually reach sexual maturity until 6-8 months old. And AGH tend to be towards the tail end of that IME. IOW, he sisters would just be beginning their first pregnancy or being bred for the first time when she gave birth. Why she went into heat so early I do not know. I know it has never happened in my lines before and I have had many clients take their pigs home and keep them together full time and it has not happened to any of them. With that in mind I'd chalk that part of it up to a fluke.
Now, my understanding of what Daron found is that the piglets that she passed were quite large as well, so her young age plus large pigs probably resulted in the ones that did pass being in the birth canal for too long even though they were able to pass on their own. (Another option is that they were born alive but because of her distress with the complications she did not care for them/nurse and they died and/or they were so stressed by their long birth they did not try to nurse and died.) Those that were retained were likely stuck behind a very large pig and couldn't get out. It may have been anatomical, but probably a combo of it being anatomical and the exhaustion from passing two large pigs already. There is only so much the body can take, as any woman who has given birth knows. If someone had been there they would have been able to see the labor not progressing properly, gone in and manually pulled the pigs -- or in a worse case scenario done a C-Section which may not have saved all the pigs but would have given the sow a very good prognosis and probably saved at least some of them.
I was very close to giving Pork Chop a C-section, but my mom talked me out of it. I guess its cuz that she had one for brother number 3, and she almost died from that.
Pork Chop-
About 3 weeks ago.
When we first got her, on the far right-
Something the prosecutor said today... Basically that no one anywhere has a pet chicken.
How many people consider their chickens to be pets? I'm going to compile a list.
Put me on the list. Once I had over 100 chickens, and guess what? They were all named, and I remembered them all. And please send me a pm about the trial. It is horrible that those neevil stalkers of yours would go after your mother.
I have seeds from the original, but they crossed a bit and though they are meaty and have ridges, they still have a bit more juice than i would like.
