Our sow farrowed last night. A first for both of us... 10pm we found her with a litter of 6 piglets all nursing happily and we figured she was done and had been done for awhile. 8am we found her nursing 7 happy piglets and I found one much larger dead piglet up against the wall. Not squished. I'm assuming born dead due to size - probably the last piglet. Question is: What is the normal color of the after farrowing drainage?! I need to know if I should be concerned about retained piglets!! It is very minimal but, looks a bit like sour milk. Not green or yellow like infection but, I'm used to a more serous or bloody drainage from all my other stock - goats, dogs, etc. Shall I become more worried than I already am or is this normal in pigs? Mom is up and about and quite fond of her new brood!
I don't think you have anything to panic about but did you find the afterbirth? If possible, I like to be with my sows at farrowing until the afterbirth is expelled and then I know that everything is fine. However, a milky discharge is not unusual and it sounds as though your sow is fit and well if she's up and about and feeding her pigs. Stop worrying, sit back and enjoy. You will probably now waste many hours watching these piglets. They are the neatest little creatures Cheers, Ronnie
Thanks for the info! In a perfect world, I like to wait for the afterbirth too but...yesterday wasn't a perfect world! :haha: I didn't find one in the pen but, I'm guessing they'll eat it like other animals will? (gagging). They are SO adorable. We've raised many a feeder but, I've never seen them so small. I even snuck in and stole one for a few minutes. I was very, very careful attempting to get a little piggie until I found one that wouldn't holler and then got out really, REALLY fast!! I'll have to post pictures when I have time. Thanks for giving me one less thing to worry about.
Yup, I think you're ok too. Sows having problems aren't usually up, feeding and actively feeding their offspring. They are the BIGGEST whiners if something is going wrong or if they aren't feeling well. If there is any question, consider a shot of LA200 for prevention.
Yes, they do eat their afterbirth and while it may seem gross to us, there are two very good reasons for it. It is full of protein which doesn't go amiss when a mother has hungry young and has just expended a huge amount of energy birthing the little sods; also the less smell of blood there is around, the less chance of predatory animals turning up for a free feed. If you have the time to spend with your sow, you will probably find she will be quite happy for you to sit in her house and "babysit" her youngsters. They'll walk all over you, tug on your clothing, try to eat your footwear and finally flop all over your nice warm lap and go to sleep Up until last year I had an old heading dog that loved piglets. I don't know how often I found her and a litter fast asleep in the sun while Mum went off to graze. I also used to have a pet sheep which would let litters run all over him while he was sitting down and use his back as a jumping board. When they had finally exhausted themselves they would lie all over him and go to sleep. I kick myself now for not having taken photos. Cheers, Ronnie
Just wanted to jump back on and tell you helpful folks that everyone continues to do just great. Summer vacation starts after this week so, we'll have lots of time to enjoy them. Hopefully next weekend I'll get mom moved out to pasture so they'll have lots and lots of fun in the grass. Thanks again! :dance:
Thanks for the update - it's always good to hear the end result. Enjoy your holiday time Cheers, Ronnie
Thought you might like some pictures! They're sooooooo cute! And...you were right, she doesn't mind a bit that I hold em! They squeal she turns around a grunts an "Oh...it's just you" and goes back to what she was doing. We had school kids out today and everyone got to hold a piglet! Quite an experience! Still in Pig...her name is Speckles of course!! Mom Pig and her Brood Ahhhhhh....
What happened to the other pictures. Never mind, I did get to see them before they disappeared. Lovely pigs and she is doing them very well. I thought you might get a lot of enjoyment out of them and I bet nothing else is being done around the place. What breed are your pigs. Cheers, Ronnie
Neat looking group! I will second that, what breed are they? She looks like she has some gloucestershire old spots in her or something. Or large black?
Haven't a clue! Speckles came from a farm where they had mostly the pink pigs! Hamps?? The boar was all black. York?? My FIL had a pink sow and a black boar. He called the resulting pork, "Yor Hams"!! :haha: They are a blast! My folks were here today and saw them for the first time. My Mom is absolutely terrified of Speckles! ROTLF. Of course Speckles "hammed" it up and gave a couple good barks to emphasize the point and maintain her reputation. Don't know why the pics are so unreliable. If you hit the refresh sometimes they'll come back when they weren't there before. Beth
It also provides valuable antibodies to pass to the piglets. (the placenta). If you find she is having trouble having a bowl movement after, give her a can of pumpkin. We do that to all our sows after they farrow. If she gets constipated, she will stop milking and then she will get mastitits...one heck of a mess. Make sure and up her feed by one pound every day. It depends on the feed, but we usually feed between 12-18# day depending on litter size and sow.
It sounds like everything went ok, the white milky mucis is normal for the first couple of days after farrowing or so I have noticed with my sows, the one thing I would be most concerned about in the future is that she "cleans" herself (dropping of the placenta) and that she gets up to eat and drink, watch for this especially. I had a sow in Febraury how normally had 15 piglets per litter and died a week after the babies were born due to retained piglets. The vets here do not have any experiece with pigs so it was a very sad day. The one thing I noticed first was she had a very long labor and did not eat. My other sow who just had 8 piglets two sundays ago is known for expelling placenta sacs between piglets and delivering the last piglet in a sac 3-14 hours after the rest of the litter has been born. Just some things to keep an eye on and I hope future litters go as well as your last litter. That first litter is always fun to watch.
haha your seem to have ur breeds mixed up... Hamps have a white band around their mid-secstion...look like and oreo...and yorks are all white. Durocs are all read..and Poland-Chinas are polka dotted. I bet yours is a result of what u said and York and a Hamp. Nice looking sow! What color hog was she bred to...a black one? BEST OF LUCK AJ
