[Merrypig]

Hi, we normally farm cows but recently bought a sow ( 3 years ) and her 13 piglets at market - did the licence of course. The piglets are now 11 weeks old and have remained solidly with the sow and all have done brilliantly.  But the sow is now looking really thin and regardless of how much good quality varied food she has been given we think it is time to take the piglets away. We did this today, the piglets arent very far away ( smallish farm ) and of course the sow isnt too happy. One piglet escaped our clutches and has got in with the sow. So...is it ok to leave her with one? Will she build back up now? Should we have reduced access rather than just remove? I think we will handle this differently next time but just looking for advice really. Sorry for the long ramble!

[SallyintNorth]

For some reason I have only just seen this post now, so apologies you haven't had any replies yet.  That's not like us!  Unless for some reason the algorithms don't put a post into the "new unreads" lists straight away, as seems to have happened here. 

I am not the expert when it comes to pigs, hopefully someone like [member=24672]harmony[/member] will see this now and get back to you.

[harmony]

Hello  [member=224467]Merrypig[/member]  and thanks to [member=10673]SallyintNorth[/member] for getting attention to your post. What are your plans for the sow and for the weaners? If you leave one weaner with the sow for any length of time getting it reintroduced to the other weaners will be difficult. I'd remove it asap. As long as everyone is secure then the sow will soon settle and dry.


For future reference wean around 8 weeks. Letting sows get too thin can mean a long time to get them back to fit.  Do you know any worming history or have you wormed? I would do that now if you haven't. You will need to cut the sows food back to a normal sow ration for a few days to dry her off. Then you will need to feed her up. A dry sow needs 5/6 lbs of food a day. You will need to increase that to get weight on and will take time depending on her condition. Split into smaller feeds through the day.