# Weak baby pig



## kjoiner (Jan 12, 2012)

Ok I have a question. We had a litter of pigs born last night (yorkshire). It was her first litter and we had 11 live births and 1 born dead. One was weak when it was born, but was nursing at 3am this morning. At 6:30 when i went to check on him he is laying by himself under the heat lamp and shivering. Here is my problem, I would like to go out there and make the weak one nurse and warm him up, but Mom gets slightly agitated with us out there and wants to stand up, lay down, stand up and so on. She also last night was snapping at some. So my thoughts is if I go out there and mess with them to maybe save one, then I may be putting more in jeopardy by her laying, sitting or standing on them. I just need your opinion that I am doing the right thing by leaving it alone. And Yes, she is in a farrowing crate.


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## aggieterpkatie (Jan 12, 2012)

No, don't leave it alone or it will most likely die.  It probably didn't get enough to eat and may not be able to fight for a teat.  You said the sow is jumpy, so I'm not sure you'll be able to sneak and put the pig on a teat or not, but if not you need to supplement feed it.  And make sure it's warm. If you need to bring it inside you may have to do that, if it can't get warm enough under the heat lamp.  

Or you could send it to me. I'd love a little piglet.


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## SuburbanFarmChic (Jan 12, 2012)

There are two ways to handle this. 

 1) If you think the pig has a birth defect, something internally wrong, it may be kinder to let it go now.  Dad had a weakling with the last litter that had a cleft pallet type birth defect and was stunted. She was just put down due to complications with pneumonia at 5 months old and she was still only 1/3 the size of her siblings.   

  2) If it is just weakness from birth, and then not being able to fight for a teat it may just need a little pick me up.  Pigs are also born anemic so he may be having difficulties with that.  I'd try a little iron paste, some supplemental food if you can sneak it in him.  I'd go grab him, put your hand over his mouth go stifle squealing and bring him up to the house and see what you can get in him.  We use heavy cream w/ karo in it to give weak piglets a boost.


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## kjoiner (Jan 12, 2012)

OK, went back out to get the weak baby and we had more babies. 3 were dead, not sure if it was the weak one or not. We ended up with 13 alive and 4 dead (we know one was born dead, not sure abot the others). This was her first litter so WOW 17.... All 13 now seem to be doing good. Is it common for her to wait 4 hours and then have 5 more piglets? I was shocked, no one told me that could happen.. We have moved the other sow, that was not in the same pen, but they could see and hear each other, thinking she might have been upsetting Mom. I am trying not to go out there much, because I am scared to upset her and get to moving around and squish some. Sigh.... I want to go check them for long umbilical cords and weakness but if she was to sit on one while i was out there it was devistate me.


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## aggieterpkatie (Jan 12, 2012)

SuburbanFarmChic said:
			
		

> put your hand over his mouth go stifle squealing and bring him up to the house and see what you can get in him.


If you pick them up by a back leg they rarely squeal!


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## Hillsvale (Jan 12, 2012)

you should have her in an area that there is a "roll plate" for lack of better terms... babies should have a spot they can scoot under that the mom can't get into to shop her from rolling or stepping on babies. we simply did this in her hut from the door to the back of the hut on both sides and ran a couple of boards down both sides so she could come and go and the babies could cut under the boards to get out of her way.

Agreed on the lifting by the back leg but our sow was happy to let you help but she kept her eyes on us... we helped with the delivery as well. 

Congrats


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## SuburbanFarmChic (Jan 12, 2012)

We had one that squeaked up a storm no matter how you picked him up.  If she had a testy sow, better safe than sorry.  



As to the extras.  My guess is they got stacked up and couldn't come out all together and passed away.  They aren't done until you see after birth and even then we've had one come out after/with the afterbirth.


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## kjoiner (Jan 12, 2012)

Thanks for the backleg option. I did not know that, i will have to try it. She is in a farrowing crate, where yes the babies can go under the bottom bar and get away from her without her stepping on them or laying on them, We just got back from feeding and cleaning. We removed the other sow to several acres away, and Mom seems to have calmed down. Not sure if she is just adjusting or having the other sow gone from hearing and sight. But....whatever, she is calm. We let her out of crate to eat and we cleaned the shaving, shoveled out wet and afterbirth and put more clean shaving in. She stayed very calm and did not mind us being near the babies. She still has 13 and they all look healthy. We did see one afterbirth come out last night. It just did not register to us that there would be 2. Wow. This has been an experience for a first time. We have learned alot and plan to make some adjustments before we have another litter. Thanks for all your help!


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## Cornish Heritage (Jan 14, 2012)

> It just did not register to us that there would be 2.


Sows have what is known as "Horns" and they have two of them. The horns are where the piglets grow. It is common for their to be a gap between delivering one horn & then the other. If you had a long gap in the middle of delivering one horn then that may be from a piglet getting stuck & then sometimes all the piglets behind that stuck piglet will die!

Saying that though the dead ones probably did you a favor because I am guessing that your sow does not have 17 teats so you may have had to help all the piglets feed anyways to make sure they all got a drink. The weak ones would probably not have made it without intervention. 

Enjoy the 13 

Liz


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## kjoiner (Jan 27, 2012)

Just wanted to give you all an update. Babies were 2 weeks old yesterday and all 13 are still doing great. The boys are getting a little rough with each other and we have some scrapes on a couple of faces from fighting. No, they are not fighting over teets, They are running in the yard fighting with each other or I guess I should say playing very rough. They have started eating, they are on pig starter but sometimes sneak a few bites of Mom's pig grower with milk. Mom kicked one of the gilts in the foot the day before yesterday and she is limping a good bit, it does not appear to be broken though and not swollen at all, so we are just watching it for any signs of swelling and such. Last weigh in the largest boy was 8lb and 2 oz and that was at about 11 days old and the runt was at 7lb 9oz. I think that is decent weight for a litter of 13. She has 12 teets so only 1 gets left out and it is always the same boy that walks around and chews on Mom's snout while he patiently waits for someone to get done before he dives in, he is also one of my bigger babies, not one of the smaller one. Lately though I have caught myself thinking about selling time. I think I am becoming to attached. sigh..... I knew in the beginning why we were raising pigs, but the babies are so cute..... Oh well, maybe I will back off some and let the hisband tend to them more without my help as much.


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## Cornish Heritage (Jan 28, 2012)

Glad all our doing well  Thanks for the update. 

As for getting too attached, it is hard to say "goodbye" & I personally thank each pig that we butcher. That may sound silly but we truly are appreciative & we teach our kids to be so. When we are eating pork for lunch they will ask, "Is this so & so?" If it helps, call them all pork chops! It is good to be serious and not blase about it. Makes you appreciate life a whole lot more & believe you me you will enjoy all that yummy bacon. 

Liz


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## SuburbanFarmChic (Jan 29, 2012)

We get very attached to our pigs as well.  Back in Sept took a pig to butchernthat I had nursed as a baby because he was having a rough start. He ended up w/ a deformed foot due to crowding in utero and he also had a sizable amount of blood still in his cord and was weak. We got him situated, took care of him for several months and I know exactly how he was born, lived and died.  Very important to me.  Love your pets, care for your livestock.  You can care deeply and give them lots of snuggles and treats and make their life as wonderful as possible. But there are certain attachments I make to keepers that I don't to feeders.  And all babies are cute.  

What also helps is that by the time this batch is going to butcher there will be a new batch of piglets to snuggle.


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