[c day]

my sow has been crushing piglets, every time i go into shed another one, this is her second litter and she was great with the first, she seems depressed and tired alot wont get up when i shake feed bucket, she is eating but not herself,she had 9 piglets alive and 7 dead now ive only 6 left and counting,i dont have a farrowing crate but have farrowing rails round the shed but no good they have a corner of shed boxed off ply with heat lamp in it but are always out beside sow. 

[HappyHippy]

That's not so good, sorry to hear it 
How high is your heat lamp ? If it's too high there won't be enough heat to tempt them away from mum ? Is their bedding wet at all ? they won't lie on it if it is. Was the farrowing normal ? All afterbirth expelled ? Has the sow a temp ? Has she got access to PLENTY of fresh water ? What age are the piglets and is she getting enough rations to account for feeding them (by the time they're 2 weeks old, you should add an extra half pound of food for each piglet to what she's getting) Does her udder seem normal, not excessivly hot or swollen ? It could just be that she's a bit depressed about being indoors, but without knowing all of the above it's difficult to know for sure.
Was it 16 piglets she had altogether and 7 of them born dead ? I think that's quite a high mortality rate, if that is the case it sounds like there may be an underlying health issue with the sow - better to get it checked out.
HTH
Karen x

[robert waddell]

what we have found the first 4 days is when the sow flattens them it is heartbreaking to get them flatpacked however with this weather they wont go to the heat lamp they go to mother and do not survive long what temp is it in the shed this is critical in these temps we lost a whole litter last time the weather was like this and latter found out it is quite common with low temps were you at the farrowing for 7 to be born dead there is some other problem as with any problem the more info the better the solution

[Hilarysmum]

Cant help but heart bleeding for you (and her must be gutting to give birth and lose them)

[c day]

no bedding fine and dry i put another heat lamp in with piggies its 24 degrees in their wee house now, they are 5days old now, but outside with sow its baltic freezing -6 at most, shes getting all her extra feed and clean water and her temp is 39.5 so its pretty normal.she had 9 alive and seven dead which i think is a pretty high mortality too,i was with her for first seven but had to go inside at two in morning due to cold, has been pretty bad here.she had really bad scour while farrowing also

[robert waddell]

off the seven that you were at their birth i am presuming they were alive when you left if it was to cold for you imagine what like it is for new born piglets(shower or have a bath then stand outside you wont survive) also when the sow is suckling the piglets or farrowing she is for want of a better word comatossed also at farrowing the piglets inside is like an airfix kit in your case 8 each side she lies on one side gives birth to the 8 then goes over to the other side to expell the remaining 8    dead piglets or mummified ones have a different colour to flatpacks also they could have been born in the sack and drowned also type of bedding/amount and callous as it may seam wellcome to the real side of pigkeeping  the temp thing at a recent meeting with sac they showed you thermal imaging of a sow and piglets at birth the heat loss of the piglets is alarming even rubbing with straw/rag warms them up and dries them if every piglet born survived the country would be awash with pigs to the suppermarkets delight

[Eve]

c day, how are they doing?

[c day]

hello all, ive six piglets left, sow is in better form up and about making plenty of noise again, i put two heat lamps in the creep area for piglets and they have now made it home so they are staying out of mammas way.
thanks all

[little blue]

good to hear they are doing ok....

[onnyview]

Sorry to hear of your problems. but glad to hear your sow is better, sounds as though she's picked up an infection late on as that behaviour doesn't seem right.

We've had sows farrow recently and it's a nightmare. We ended up using 2 heat lamps per sow and whilst farrowing and for the 1st 24hrs until the piglets were able to find the heat lamps well we also used a gas heater to raise the ambient temp in the farrowing shed. One thing to also mention is that a friend of mine  has recently seen a lot of dead piglets that have been squashed to death by their siblings, he's seen this especially in recently weaned piglets without a heat lamp.

I am sure we've just been very lucky but we've had 1 sow farrow 14 with one born dead (drowned) and 1 squished. The other farrowed 11 and none squished so far.

[robert waddell]

yesterday we moved the hamlops and mother into the turkey shed first time since they were born have they been spread out sleeping usually in a heap never had any weaner's squashed did you r friend have enough straw/bedding



also like to add last year when we brought the hampshires home the only time we saw them was when we fed them the rest of their day and night was spent burried in their straw