Archived News

28th February 2009

This was Prudence's first farrowing (and mine!) so she was likely to have a smaller litter this time.  However the farrowing was much quicker than I had been expecting. 

In an hour Prudence gave birth to five female piglets and two males.  I was expecting most of the piglets to be born head first but the first piglet arrived rear end first, as did the majority! They are quite varied in colouring, one is pinkish white with a few black spots, like his father Pery.  There are two with ginger colouring from their grandfather who was a Tamworth and the other four had a mix of black and white.

Christopher and I had a really exciting and educational evening but unfortunately things didn't look so good this morning. 

It is quite common for one or two piglets to get accidentally squashed by their mother in the first 48 hours, because they don't move out of the way quickly enough.  Prudence has her own barn in which she can move about freely, we don't use a farrowing crate to restrict her and so it is quite possible that she might squash a piglet.

I found an injured piglet unable to walk round to feed alongside the others.  I helped the piglet get a good feed and then took it in to warm beside the Aga. 

Despite more milk and keeping her warm there was no improvement.  With no ability to use the back legs there was no option but to put her to sleep.

I hope we will still have six piglets tomorrow