[Helencflynn]

Anyone got any advice on this? Our girl was doing brilliantly having delivered 11 piglets and eating and drinking loads. Then last evening, (2 weeks after farrowing) I went in and noticed that she had been sick about 7 times and was not drinking, and was out of sorts, tho still happy to let piglets feed. The vet has been today and checked her out. No temperature, stools are fine and she has eaten and drunk, but not her full quota and she is not bothered about the pig nuts really.
Prior to farrowing she has lived in an ark in our top field, and we moved her into a small barn (with concrete yard) for farrowing and she is still there. So I did wonder if she might be iron deficient (usually spending so much time snouting in mud). She has not been sick agin but is not that bothered about eating and is a bit lacklustre to say the least. Still being a good mum, tho!
Any thoughts would e really appreciated.
Helen

[Fowgill Farm]

Hmm difficult to know whats wrong since there are no obvious symptoms. Try tempting her appetite with bananas, apples, melon, grapes, things that are usually treats. Strawberry milkshake (don't ask!) is one of our girls faves pick me ups!
With 11 piglets she'll be on approx (17lb) 7.5kg feed a day which is a lot to get thro, try splitting this down into smaller feeds (we feed farrowed sows 3x day am, t-time and late pm) as they can get overfaced with wading thro all those pig nuts. A drizzle of molasses over the nuts or mix them in with some veggies will also help and always plenty of water to drink.
A jab of multi vitamins may help too but please keep checking her temperature in case something is lurking but just has'nt risen to the surface yet particularly her temp dropping as opposed to climbing. It should be 38.8degc or 102F.
HTH
mandy

[sabrina]

What about calcium levels, just a thought, are all piglets doing well.

[Tamsaddle]

Were you increasing the feed day by day to get her up to 11 piglet rations?   If so this would take normally take approx. 2 weeks to get to after her farrowing date, if you were following the standard formula of increasing by 1lb every day.   I have sometimes found that our sows just can't manage the huge rations they are meant to be getting, even dividing it into 3 meals a day, and sometimes go off their food and scour badly, though I can't remember any vomiting.    I have found that cutting down the total daily rations helps, then re-introduce a bit extra each day at a very slow rate until you are up to the correct total.   One of our sows who had 13 piglets never managed the full rations she should have had, and had no problem at all feeding her 13 piglets throughout.     Hope it is nothing serious and the situation recovers soon - Tamsaddle     

[Mrs Snoodles]

I'm not so sure about this rationing rule either - I think it depends on the pig. I'd think about cutting back and vary feed in this situation, making sure she is kept warm with plenty of straw.   We dug up tons of failed celery crop for ours - they seemed to love it.   An old pig man this way told me that on his farm (intensive indoors) that as soon as they saw a pig failing they would literally just chuck in a load of mud.  He swore that it worked wonders.