I've had a lot of inquiries about how the piglets fared (posted in an earlier blog entry).
We had 11 live births and 3 runts. The 3 runts and one full-size girl got chilled and needed rewarming.
We kept them in the house off and on for about 36 hours but after a few tries, clearly some just did not have a strong will to live.
One runt, the smallest, fought like a devil with the other piglets to get to the teat. You've heard the expression 'stuck on the rear hind teat' perhaps? This refers to the fact that the hind teats have less milk and that's typically where the runts end up. Sure enough, our little runt, ended up back there.
After 36 hours of trying, we decided to let nature take its course. We had given the weakest piglets a fair fighting chance to survive and now it was up to them. We rewarmed them one last time and put them with mom. 24 hours later, 3 were dead but not the little fighter.
Over the subsequent days, she struggled as they bullied her around. The other piglets chewed off part of her tail, leaving her with a stub. But, she persevered and is doing fine even today. Still the smallest, still with a stub of a tail, and still a fighter.
Here are some pics...see if you can find the piglet with the short tail!
One runt, the smallest, fought like a devil with the other piglets to get to the teat. You've heard the expression 'stuck on the rear hind teat' perhaps? This refers to the fact that the hind teats have less milk and that's typically where the runts end up. Sure enough, our little runt, ended up back there.
After 36 hours of trying, we decided to let nature take its course. We had given the weakest piglets a fair fighting chance to survive and now it was up to them. We rewarmed them one last time and put them with mom. 24 hours later, 3 were dead but not the little fighter.
Over the subsequent days, she struggled as they bullied her around. The other piglets chewed off part of her tail, leaving her with a stub. But, she persevered and is doing fine even today. Still the smallest, still with a stub of a tail, and still a fighter.
Here are some pics...see if you can find the piglet with the short tail!
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