A Rough Day for Gertrude.

Tuesday was a rough day for Gertrude.

First time mama-pig, with a litter of 10 piglets. She had a long pre-labor on Sunday into Monday. 6 hours of labor to produce the first piglet on Monday, then 3 hours more to bring out the rest of them. Then they were nursing all night. She was snoring when I checked on her at 4:45, and grumbled when I tried to wake her up.

So I let her sleep.

Mid-morning I found her in more or less the same position. Couldn’t tell whether she had moved at all.

Mid-afternoon, about 4, she as still in the same spot, and now she was acting weird. She was grunting continuously while the piglets were suckling, and splaying out her legs, almost like she had done while in labor. When I rubbed her belly she didn’t seem to register it, and she wasn’t opening her eyes. When I picked up one of the piglets it squealed and she got to her feet in a clumsy, uncoordinated way, but she wasn’t interested in water or food, and she just laid back down again.

Temp was normal (for a pig).

Adam was at work, Kathleen and the kids were in Oregon on a field trip, so I didn’t have any back-up. I ran home and grabbed my computer, some electrolyte beverages, and a half jug of molasses.

I called the vet office, and they were not particularly helpful at first. They suggested I bring her in for a visit. As if I was going to be able to hoist a 200+ Lb cranky postpartum pig onto a trailer by myself. Eventually I was able to get a consult with the vet through the vet-tech. He didn’t think he could get out there himself (and it would be abut $500 just to get there and set eyes on her) but he thought it was likely a combination of dehydration, low electrolytes, especially calcium, low blood sugar, and shear exhaustion from prolonged labor and the sudden demand of milk production for ten hungry piglets.

So first I pried her lips open and poured the electrolytes in, a little at a time. She tried to drink the, and also tried to bite the bottle. Then I poured molasses on the food scraps in the pig bucket and held them under her jaw. She chomped those down like they were the best thing since sliced bread.

Then I ran inside and mixed up a batch of calf milk-replacer leftover from when we thought we were going to have to bottle-feed Darla. When I came back out she had enough energy to shake off the piglets and get up, and she took a big drink of the milk replacer.

The vet also wanted us to get her some milk, cheese, yogurt, or something with high calorie and high calcium content, the milk replacer was a good handy start.

She nibbled at the molasses soaked feed, but was more interested in the egg shells and tomatoes hidden under the corn cobs and husks.

Meanwhile, the piglets scurried around and explored everything.

Including my boots. Gertrude laid back down so I took a trip to the Chef-store and bought a bulk tray of sour cream, a tray of powerade, and two more jugs of molasses.

She was doing the grunting and leg splaying thing again, but I was able to get her attention with more molasses. Then she got up, had another drink, and started in on the sour cream.

By 8:30 she was looking much better. She would get up, eat something, drink a little, lay down and nurse, then get up and do it again. When Adam got back I went home, and he checked on her a few times through the night. Each time some of her gatorade/calf-milk mixture was gone so he topped it off.

At 4:30 Yesterday (Wednesday) I roused her out of her nice cozy bed and made her walk around a bit. She ate a little sour cream and drank another inch of fluid, then went back to bed.

At mid-morning she was finally resting completely comfortably, probably because the piglets had all gotten tired of nursing and had fallen asleep.

She felt well enough to take a short walk around the yard for a bit with her numerous progeny.

And they tumbled around after her, exploring their new world.

By evening yesterday she was more or less back to her old self, and even came up looking for head and side scratches.

So we appear to be out of the danger zone for now, but that was a rough experience for a first time sow.