Saturday, March 9, 2013

Piglets part deux....

Poppie took the girls to school and checked on the piglets.  There were at least 12.  He came in an had coffee, we took the two little girls out with us to see the babies.  Miss Chops had dug a hole of sorts to have her babies in.  The amount of them piled all one on the others was very heavy.  Poppie feed her slop and went to check the babies.  There were a couple that had been possibly laid on during the birthing, which is pretty much normal in a barn setting.  The ones you lose you usually lose in the first 12 hours or so, they learn pretty quick to move when momma says move and she knows how to say move.  He removed those it a shelf in the pen to dispose of later.  He dug to the bottom of the pile and there were a couple more in the soft dirt, their little noses full of dirt and the weight of the others smothered them.  We ended up losing 5 of the 13 babies.   The was one little female, the runt that had dirt in her nose laying to the side,  I told Poppie to bring her to me I would save her.  He didn't think I could.

I took her in the house and gave her a bath in warm water in the sink.  I decided to make her a bottle, I didn't have a pop bottle so I thought I would just give her Bubbles bottle and have Poppie go get another one for her.  I had some baby animal milk mix, so I mixed it up and filled the bottle.  I got her a box and a towel and started to feed her.  It took her a little while but she caught on and eventually got warm and full of milk.  As I was feeding her, Bubbles tried to pet the baby and then her face turned into a frown.  Little tears began to stream down her face, her lip stuck out more and she began to cry.  She got louder and louder.  I wasn't quite sure what was going on with her, I thought maybe she thought I was hurting the baby pig then it dawned on me.  I was feeding her bottle to the baby pig and she wasn't liking it one little bit.  I told her Poppie would go get her a new one at the store.  She just answered by howling and crying all the louder.  Poppie went to the store and got her a bottle, and an extra for Nannie for the baby.  She settled down when Poppie brought her a shinny new bottle. 

The piglet did well, and we  thought about giving it back to her mom but Miss Chops rarely abides a runt, she usually just eats them so the babies she has are more balanced.  We figured she would just eat her.  Poppie went out to water and feed Miss Chop later, and was going to dispose of the baby bodies but she had picked them off the shelf and eaten them before he went to get them.  I always think she is one smart pig, she uses the bodies of the piglets that didn't make it to bolster the piglets she is feeding.  She is truly an uncycler at it's most primal.  Poppie put straw on the babies, but Miss chops spent a good 20 minutes taken all the straw off of her babies, she didn't want the straw there and she wasn't going to stand for it being on her babies.  Poppie just let her do her thing on her terms. 7 good healthy babies will be a good thing  8 with little miss runt,  I do regret the loss of the bigger babies that smothered by accident but so is the cycle of life. 

Poppie and I had a baby all night long to take care of, I had told Poppie that Belle might want the runt for her kids to take care of as they home school and they do enjoy it but he felt we could do it.  He was up about 4 times in the night and I a couple more so this morning he is all for talking to Belle about the runt.  The Ladies were at the grandparents so they didn't "get" to help. We haven't named her encase Belle and kids might want her.  If not we will pick out a good name for the tiny little baby.  The Lord blessed us with a new littler of healthy babies, such a blessing.  I do pray that he blesses you in your life today as well.... tomorrow.

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