JHP Homestead Farrowing Thread - Now hand raising piglets!

JHP Homestead

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Today is Gert’s due date! She was looking pretty miserable when I checked on her a couple of hours ago. Not sure that she’s in labor or anything yet. If pigs are anything like horses or cows, it’ll probably still be days .
I hope not though. I’m so excited!
 

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I took this picture about half an hour ago. Her belly seems lower than it did before. She was wanting her supper so I guess she’s feeling a bit better than earlier.
38C6E561-36D8-48EF-AE5F-EFC325FEEF34.jpeg
 

luvmypets

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I took this picture about half an hour ago. Her belly seems lower than it did before. She was wanting her supper so I guess she’s feeling a bit better than earlier.
View attachment 63260
I say a few more days, but hey no pig is the same!

With her litter you should try socializing them as she allows. You may have to wait until they are weaned. All my piggies are super friendly, so it makes basic chores easier. All of my sows, except one(herd queen Prissy) let me in with their piglets as Ive gained their trust. It really helps if I think one may be sick or injured. Instead of having to dance around an aggressive mom I walk in pat the sow on the forehead and examine her babies(normally I just take a ton of photos). I don’t know how many pigs you plan on raising but if you are breeding you want the mums to trust you. I had to pull my first piglet from the birth canal a few months ago, the sow knew me and although she was in distress she let me in her space to help her. You never know when an emergency may occur so having calm animals in those scenarios is always a must. :)

Also if she trust you enough she will allow you to express milk. Most websites say milk means babes will arrive in 12-24 hours but for my girls its more around 7-10 days.

Good luck for your girly! Praying for a great first time sow!
 

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I say a few more days, but hey no pig is the same!

With her litter you should try socializing them as she allows. You may have to wait until they are weaned. All my piggies are super friendly, so it makes basic chores easier. All of my sows, except one(herd queen Prissy) let me in with their piglets as Ive gained their trust. It really helps if I think one may be sick or injured. Instead of having to dance around an aggressive mom I walk in pat the sow on the forehead and examine her babies(normally I just take a ton of photos). I don’t know how many pigs you plan on raising but if you are breeding you want the mums to trust you. I had to pull my first piglet from the birth canal a few months ago, the sow knew me and although she was in distress she let me in her space to help her. You never know when an emergency may occur so having calm animals in those scenarios is always a must. :)

Also if she trust you enough she will allow you to express milk. Most websites say milk means babes will arrive in 12-24 hours but for my girls its more around 7-10 days.

Good luck for your girly! Praying for a great first time sow!
Thanks for the info! We only plan on having a sow or two, mainly to breed for meat for ourselves and extended family.
I wish she was socialized a bit better herself. She’s otherwise a nice pig. When we got her I just put her out with our feeders and didn’t handle her much. I’m going to try to handle her babies a lot more.
 

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We have some piglets but it’s not going well. She was in labor with one piglet born when DH checked on her at 21:30. The 2nd piglet was born by the time he came in and got me.
The 3rd piglet was huge and breech. It took Gert about 15 minutes of really hard pushing to get it out and it was still born. She had one more right after that but then there was nothing for an hour, despite a lot more pushing from Gert.

So we did some searching on the internet and decided DH should give in and check things out. He could reach a piglet and pulled it out alive. So now we have 5 live and one dead.

At this point Gert got up and moved around, then laid back down. She was still pushing every now and then, but not very hard. After 40 minutes of that, DH reached in again. He could feel another piglet in there but it’s upside down. It’s pretty far in her still and can’t seem to make the turn in the birth canal. DH couldn’t get ahold of it so we called the vet. The vet said to reach in as far as DH could and to try to get a rope or something around the piglet to pull it out.

DH has tried that for an hour and is exhausted and frustrated. Every time he gets the piglet moved a little bit forward, he loses his grip on it and it gets sucked back in. Gert has basically given up pushing and seems exhausted as well.

So we called the vet again and he recommended oxytocin and is going to give that to DH along with a snare. DH is on his way to the vet’s house now to pick that stuff up. Hopefully it helps, otherwise I have no idea what we’ll do.
 
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