Opposites.....

Today was tough, probably the toughest day on the farm thus far, but it was also a phenomenal day; a day of opposites. Allow me to explain:

When I walked into the barn this morning I saw that there were three tiny, new additions the the Buckland Farm cast of characters. Three tiny piglets, super soft with big eyes and the littlest hooves you’ve ever seen. Piglets really are as cute as you think they are...

There was a bit of a problem, however. These three had been born at about 3am, and in a normal farrowing (birthing in piggy terms) the whole litter should be out within a few hours. More than an hour between piglets is rare and cause for concern. In Ruby’s case, it had been five hours since the last piglet emerged, and we were therefore quite worried. 

Our worries were confirmed when she gave birth to two stillborn pigs, both of whom were almost twice the size of the ones that were scurrying around my feet. Considering Tamworth litters average out at about 8 piglets, we were pretty sure there were more babies inside her, possibly dead ones, which had to come out or Ruby would be in danger, especially if they were dead, then she could have gone into toxic shock and died. 

While I tried to keep Ruby as calm as I could by rubbing her sides towards the back, opening up her legs so that her pelvis was open and soothing her with my voice, Dan, with the help of much lubrication, felt inside her to see if there was another pig waiting to be born. As it turns out, there was, and this pig was by far the largest of the litter, it was also stuck. 

Ruby had been expected to give birth almost a week ago, and she was getting extremely large and distended. What we speculate happened is that some of the pigs developed faster than the others and somehow blocked the others from being born. Another theory has to do with the fact that the womb of a pig divides into a Y, with pigs developing at either end. This Y shape can become twisted, causing a blockage and inhibiting the birth of the piglets. We aren’t sure what happened, and at this point we will never know, but those are two theories we have. Any thoughts would be appreciated...

But back to Ruby. The piglet was so large that we couldn’t get it’s shoulders through the very small opening in her pelvis. Dan and I both tried and were up to our elbows inside her, trying to get a good hold of the piglet so that we could pull it out. Three hours we tried this, and three hours Ruby pushed and pushed. She is a bad-ass pig and she is the toughest creature I have ever come across. Humans are sissy’s...

We finally were able to get the piglet out, and upon one last inspection of her, we concluded that this was indeed the last piglet. The fact that it brought along the after birth confirmed this. 

Ruby is now in pretty bad shape. It was a very invasive procedure for her and she got tore up a lot inside, she bled quite a bit, but that has stopped. We had no other choice but to proceed this way, as it was an attempt to save her life. We will keep an eye on her, try to get her to eat (which she hasn’t yet) and make sure she feeds the three piglets that did make it into this world. 

I hope she comes through, but I have to wrap my mind around the fact that she may not. But, she did produce three beautiful and healthy little piglets, which is amazing in itself....