Still a roller coaster ride....

I was gently reminded by a friend yesterday that I haven’t given any of you an update on what’s been happening with Ruby and her piglets.  I started this blog as more of a journal for myself you see, but as it turns out, a lot of people enjoy reading what I have to say! Go figure. So apologies for the lack of prompt updates....

Unfortunately, Ruby is still struggling. She got better after she finally expelled the last of her stillborn babies, and we she was producing milk for the surviving three. Since then, she has been declining; not producing milk, refusing to eat and being morose and lethargic. We have been feeding the piglets on a product called “Nurse All,” a multi-species milk substitute that we feed them with a nipple screwed on a soda bottle. Two of them have taken to it quite well and drink happily from the nipple, the boy however, hasn’t. He squirms and squeals and acts like a major jerk and is consequentially the smallest of the three. 

But back to Ruby. She started eating solid food again after we gave her some of the same formula we are giving the piglets. This gave her some energy and she was able to get up, walk around a bit, roll over for belly rubs and start to act like her old self again. But starting yesterday, she stopped eating, and wouldn’t even get up without some coaxing. She is drinking lots of water, but no food, not even when we make her oatmeal with whey and apples and all other matter of things pigs love. 

This morning she was being extra cranky and wouldn’t even give her food a smell. This has gotten us pretty worried, but a clue to what was going on came seconds later. She started to pee, and it was pretty obvious that things weren’t the way they should be. It was cloudy and had the consistency of loose cottage cheese, my first thought was a yeast infection, but a more logical conclusion is a urinary tract infection. Poor lady, she is having a really bad week. We banged a shot of penicillin into her this morning and will again tonight, we also mixed some aspirin into her formula, and hopefully this will start to work quickly. She is currently shivering and I am worried because we are going down to the mid twenties tonight. This will be another long night for all of us. 

Garnett is as big as a house now and is currently right smack in the middle of her projected farrowing period, and considering tonight is going to be very cold out, it wouldn’t surprise me if she gave birth this evening. Which would be great, because if she waits any longer, we will have to keep Ruby’s little ones away as they will be large enough to bully all the newborns away from Garnett’s teats. Another potential problem....

On top of all this, Dan and I have been busting out asses working on the 9 million other projects around here, but that’s another post all together....