These Berkshire babies haven’t faired well. They were all born Saturday when the weather was nice. By Sunday morning, the temp had dropped 30*F and still going down. I had to leave to bring things to my mom who was in an automobile accident and lives a few hours away.
Landry & I loaded up food for days and headed east, thinking the babies had a good start. But when raising animals, you just never know. Cleo is a seasoned mom, so we didn’t fuss over the babies until they started dying. It turns out she was not producing enough milk, in spite of a nice full udder.
We tried everything, but they kept dying. We brought the last 3 in the house Sunday night. We nursed 2 of them back to health. The tiny 3rd one died today, after Owen sat up dripping milk into its mouth most of the night.
The combination of severe cold weather and substandard nutrition was more than their bodies could take. So now we have 2 piglets in a box, next to the fireplace, nursing a bottle every 2 hours.
So frustrating and disappointing, but part of farm life. As a wise old farmer once told me, “The only people who don’t lose animals are the ones who don’t have any.”
On the other hand, the litter of blue piglets are happy, healthy, and growing daily. I’ll show you those tomorrow.
Dr Vet Sonya 