Luvmypets Journal: A New Season

[Latestarter]

I'm sure to Priss, those little hooves felt like a good deep tissue massage... Now, when those little porkers get a little bigger, I'm sure she won't just lie there and let them trample all over her. When I was up at @goatgurl 's place to pick up my animals from her, she had a momma pig that had one piglet. When it got to be annoying, momma put her snout under that little rascal and launched him over to the other side of the pen! I was quite impressed! Was pretty funny. No harm to the little runt, he just came right back and continued trying to be annoying...

 

[Bruce]

I have to hand it to Priss she has a lot of patience

I should say! I would think those pointy little hooves would be a tad uncomfortable.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Love little pigs!

 

[luvmypets]

Its been a long week, Im back from FFA National convention and making up all of the work I missed. Tuesday I got a call from my dad saying that Priss was down. My intial thought before seeing her was that she had milk fever, however when I got to her that was not the case. She was laying on her side, lifeless. Her babies were “nursing” her, but you could tell it wasnt right. I went in to see her and I rolled her on to her belly just so the babies werent harrassing her as much. I noticed she was quite bloated, not deathly so but it seemed she was having some sort of digestion issue. She would not eat or drink either. We called a few differents vets and came to the conclusion to let her ride it out. We made a gallon of milk replacer and fed the babies, and as soon as they got that they all piled up under the heat lamp. We spent some time with them, and you could tell that they knew. There was a wave of sadness over them, I think they understood we were there to help. I think they enjoyed us being there, one gilt came up to me and let me scratch her jowls. If I stopped she would nose my hand until I started again. After some time we gave Priss a bit of pepto, which she did not like, to help with her digestion and left for the night. It was scary,I knew she wasn’t dying but still she was not looking good. I have been around many dying animals and her vibe didnt feel that way. She was definitly feeling not great but not like it was over. The next morning I get the news that she is doing much better. She was still weak as expected, however she was eating and drinking again. In fact, she drank her piglets milk replacer. She got to roll in the duck pond, and she was snorting again. The night before she could barely stand and was so quiet. And then yesterday it was like nothing even happened, she was back to jumping up when she hears her food being ready. We think she had a fever, but we arent quite sure.

Here is the babies the night she was sick. As soon as they got the formula they were out.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Glad she's looking and feeling better!

 

[Latestarter]

Quite a scare I imagine... Glad there were no losses and that Priss is feeling/doing better.

 

[Bruce]

It was scary,I knew she wasn’t dying but still she was not looking good.

Wow, glad you were confident in that. At least your stress was a wee bit less than if you thought you were going to lose her. Sure would be good to know what was going on in case there is something you can do in the future to keep it from happening again.

 

[luvmypets]

Wow, glad you were confident in that.

The past few years I have noticed that I can in a way feel the energy of things around me. So I was definitly worried, my anxiety told me all kinds of things. But I knew she would be ok.

 

[Ferguson K]

So glad she’s doing better. Any idea what caused it if it wasn’t milk fever?

 

[luvmypets]

Today I made a tough decision, to let Emmy be sold. I remember when my dad came up to me and said we had someone who wanted a whole pig. Porcules and pearl already had a buyer so I knew what he meant. I told him absolutely not, that she was not going anywhere. And he told me why, it was a huge oppurtunity for us. A very influential restaurant in NY wanted to buy one bigger pig and one smaller pig. If they liked what we had they would contract for five more pigs. I finally told him I was ok with him selling her, on one condition. He doesnt take one im attached too again. We had talked about how emmy would stay for some time unless something came up, so I wasnt ready for this. I get to keep Lucy(no matter what!), Opal, and one of the new gilts from this litter. In fact already picked her out, thinking of a name.