[Tango]

I don't know exactly when my razorback was bred but it has been over three months. Her belly is almost to the ground, her teats are enlarged and so is her vulva. Are there any signs that farrowing will be within 24 hours? I want to be with her when she does and I have no idea of her timetable. Thanks,

 

[milkstoolcowboy]

Just squeeze one of her teats: If you get just a bead of milk, she's about 24 hours from farrowing. If you get a shot or stream of milk, she's considerably less than 24 hours from farrowing. Most (not all) sows start building a nest in the last 24 hours before farrowing.

I like to monitor a sow's farrowing as well, but there can be a fine line between checking up on her to see that she isn't having difficulty, and disrupting her farrowing. If you don't have her penned up, you may not be able to approach her without disrupting her. If you disrupt a sow's farrowing, she can have a whole host of problems.

 

[Tango]

Thank you so much for replying. I will not be too close to her - only observing her from outside her pen- it is a smaller pen we built for her to farrow in but it is still 8 x 10. It is clean and grassy (grassy for a couple of days at least) This will be her first litter and mine as well and I definitely want to be close by. She has a bed of hay in there, which she formed last night from the hay cube I gave her. Also she hasn't been eating her usual fill for the past three days. I will give her teats a squeeze to check. Thanks again.

 

[milkstoolcowboy]

Tango, Having her in a pen makes it a whole lot easier to see how she's doing without interfering. Quiet is the rule, no sudden movements, nothing more than a whisper, once she she lies down to start pigging.

By this time tomorrow, you'll probably have a nice litter on the ground.

Hope it all goes well! .

 

[Farmall]

Hey Cowboy. tell me iffn im wrong, but wont she also have a reddened vulva, which s the nice word for what the oldtimers used, and sometimes, wont it drip. If I remember rightly, theyll hump up their backs differently then they had, and they will grunt, or huff differently, and it will be in a steady rythem? Im a anywhere near the circle on any oif that