[Bodger]

The only very slight downside, is that there are only two gilts out of the eight and that my choice is going to be a little bit limited as to which one, or ones that I might keep.

[sabrina]

lovely little piglets 

[Bodger]

No milk at the bar, a distressed lethargic Pru, a visit from the vet, four injections and its fingers crossed for the morning.

[Possum]

You've done the right thing by calling in the vet. Thinking of you all.

[Miss_Clare]

What a shame Best of luck to Pru and her piglets!

[Liam_86]

hope alls well this morning!

[Bodger]

I'm just waiting for another visit from the vet.

[HappyHippy]

Oh no, poor Pru 

I presume the vet gave Oxytocin last time round ?
It sounds like there might be something retained inside 
I'd be tempted to give more oxytocin (it helps expell from the womb and encourages milk production/let down) and a dose of stresnil and then (once it kicks in) try a quick internal - proper scrub up before or long gloves, plenty of lubricant and an anti-biotic afterwards.

Keeping  and sending reiki vibes for you all 

[Bodger]

The piglets are OK at the moment, we just have to hope that they continue to be so. Its poor old Pru that's in bad shape. As I said, we've started to give the babies some milk replacer and here we are giving them their last feed last night at just after ten o clock.
 


 


 


 


 


 

The problem that we have coming up, is the wedding at the weekend and at  the moment the piggies need  half dozen feeds a day.

[Tamsaddle]

I have been in this dreadful pickle before too.   You should try bowl feeding them as soon as possible - it is very messy as they all want to drink out of the same spot in the same bowl at the same time, but saves hours of time on individual bottle feeding.    To get them used to it, push their snouts into the milk over and over again - from the moment they take the first lick themselves they will get the message and lap it up as fast as you can pour it out.  Even if you can only get one self-feeding to start with, the others will soon copy.    If this works, and as they are still very young, start off with feeds every 4 or 5 hours, then start increasing the amount and the time between feeds, but hopefully they will be back with Pru by then.   Best of luck, I know exactly what you are going through!

[Bodger]

Within the last half hour, I think that she may have rallied that little bit. She was spark out again this morning, so I gave her some sugared water where she lay and a few rounds of soaked bread.
  About half an hour or so later she got up and had a few pellets from the bowl. Then I went out in the van and fetched some more pellets from Wynnstay and in the intervening time she'd eaten most of what was left and she was moving the empty bowl around the yard. She also gave me a couple of grunts as if to say is that all? I've also followed Rena's advice and fetched some molasses, so I've sprinkled some of that over another scoop of pellets and she's eating them right now.     Its very much a ray of hope and I'm hoping that she's started to get back to how she should be. Thanks for all the words of advice, now just keep your fingers crossed that the improvement continues.

[Blinkers]

Ohhh John, that sounds like a possible turning point, got everything crossed for you    Give Pru a gentle hug from me  .    Well done mate  and to the whole family who have obviously rallied around to help.    I'm sure if you took the piggies to the wedding with you, the guests would love to bottle feed them  .....only joking.   Hope you find a piggy minder today  .

[Bodger]

She's still not producing milk for the piglets, or if she is, very little of it. We've just fed them again and the next feed will at three this afternoon. Hopefully with that plus what Pru is providing, we'll be able to cope until the piglets are weaned. has anyone any idea why there isn't any milk? She'd obviously fed her previous litter very well.

[Blinkers]

When something's not well the milk seems to be the first thing to go and they put their all into trying to get better/stay alive    and she'd almost certainly reject the piglets now because they will all smell different etc.   She obviously had something going on inside her which made her ill, although doesn't sound like you'll ever know what but lets hope she now makes a full recovery (my suspicion errs on the Mastitis theory).   She's never had a problem in the past and so unlikely to be something that'll happen again  , just one of those unknown quantities I'm afraid.   

[Tamsaddle]

Will she let them suckle?   If so leave them with her as much as possible, as suckling encourages her to produce more milk.   It's very difficult deciding, other than how much the piglets are growing, whether they are getting enough or not, and in the past, sows we've had who had to have oxytocin jabs due to poor milk supply have recovered and been able to feed their piglets normally again.   In the meantime, I would once again recommend you try bowl feeding, as per my previous post this morning.   Six weeks of bottle feeding several piglets would be an absolute nightmare and take forever.   You would get very tired indeed.   With bowl feeding, the whole lot vanishes for the whole litter within about 5 minutes max.