Our Berkshire sow went into labor at lunch today. We have 4 healthy piglets under the heat lamp so far. 1 mummy, which I will show you.
I know, it’s ugly, but part of farm life. A “mummy” is a piglet that died sometime before the sow went into labor. This one looks like it only died a few days ago.
Each piglet has its very own placenta, so the sow’s body simply walls it off from the rest of the piglets. We never know what happens to those mummies. Some diseases can cause an entire litter to be born dead, but one mummy in a litter is quite common.
Now Cleo (the sow) just started pushing again. Let me go see!
Dr Vet Sonya 