[velcro]

Our Berkshire slipped in her wallow last Sunday and sustained severe ligament damage in her back legs.
She cannot stand and is due to farrow within a couple of weeks.
She is sitting and eating and drinking well and does'nt appear to be in pain and lies down comfortably to sleep
Obviously we have made her as comfortable as possible, clean, dry, and warm.
The vet prescribed anti inflammatorys and vitamin B12 - which has now stopped.
He said all we can do is wait.
Nearly a week on and she does seem to have some movement and resistance in her legs were there was none before and is moving around more but still can't stand.
Has anyone any experience of anything like this and any advice, especially with possible farrowing problems.
We want to give her every chance she is a super pig.

[dannidub2000]

I had a Lop ho damaged her back leg and went lame whilst in pig. Only thing it was a little while before. All I did was cut her feed back so she didnt get too heavy on the leg, but as I said it was a little bit earlier than yours so by the time she farrowed she'd recovered enough to be ok.
 

[oaklandspigs]

Velcro,

What a shame .

I presume that she lies on her side ok?  If so, the  I would not foresee and particular issues with the actual farrowing,and she will not need to strain or use her legs.

I would suspect two main problems post farrowing.

1. There is a much higher chance that she will sit on some of her litter,as she is both less mobile and less able to see where they are. Also as she does not want to put weight on her legs, it is quite possible that she could simply "flop down" on the lots of them.   Whilst I hate farrowing crates, in this case if this is likely to be a problem (and you can summise from how she currently gets her front end up and down) I would be looking to put a couple of strong hurdles either side for a couple of days to try and restrict her squashing ability.

2. If she can't stand, then pee and poo could be an issue for the piglets,presuming she will simply go half lying down maybe leaving this where the piglets are lying. I would make sure that this is being washed away regularly in the case of pee to stop acid on the navels and young skin of the piglets, and clear away poo frequently to reduce infection risks.  Most pigs pee on getting up, and poo after their meals, so you may want to wash as you feed, and do a second round 1/2 hour after the first to clear poo away.  Washing may include drying the area (jumble sale towels are our quickest way to dry an area, and lots of them!) and re-strawing after each meal.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on, as your experience may help someone else in future!

[velcro]

Thanks for the responses.

We constructed a shelter around her when she did the injury which was fine as she was releuctant to move at all, and we were " mucking out " as necessary. She was too big to move physically.
In the last couple of days she seems to be more mobile and is going "shuffle about" has moved a considerable distance given her injurys but not on 4 legs, however 1 of the back legs seems to show significant improvement.
Obviously we are keeping a close eye on her, she has made herself a wallow today and as I speak is snoring away in the evening sunshine.
Her last litter was 12 healthy piglets and as the vet said once she has the litter she will become lighter and this should aid recovery.
We remain optimistic, I'll keep you posted.   

[JulieS]

I do hope everything goes well.  The improvement is a great sign.

Let us know how things go.   

[Hilarysmum]

Fingers crossed for you and her

[Eve]

Good luck!

Eve 

[velcro]

Just an update, Betty had 12 piglets yesterday, one is a little small, but fingers crossed, hopefully she may start to gain some mobility now.

[Hilarysmum]

Wonderful, so pleased, keep us updated congrats to Betty   

[velcro]

The weak piglet keeps getting knocked off the teat by the other brusiers. so I am supplementing her intake with powdered lambs milk but I am not optimistic.

Advice also please we want to try and wean the piglets as soon as poss to give Bettys ligaments every chance of recovery, any thoughts on the earliest we could do this?

[little blue]

commercially, 3 weeks I've heard!
but maybe not a great idea....

could you get hold of any goats' milk, its a brilliant feed and well tolerated... and maybe you could use it to help with the weaning off mum?

congratulations by the way 

[velcro]

In our minds we had thought about 5 weeks.
We lost the weak runty piglet last night. Not really unexpected.

[JulieS]

Congratulations on the birth of the piglets    Not such good news about the runt, but as you say it wasn't unexpected....Still not easy though.

Personally I would try to leave it until at least 6 weeks to wean the piglets from Mum....Unless you fancy bottle feeding them or making up a milk substitute for them (I use Faramate).  Even then they benefit from being with Mum for at least that time if you can.

It all really depends on how Betty... and piglets are doing.  Keep an eye on them.

I'm sure there are others here that will have great advice too.

Good luck and do let us know how you all get on.  Any pictures?

[Hilarysmum]

Like Julie S I would leave them till at least 6 weeks if you can.  If you have to take them away at 3 weeks (absolute minimum (imho) ) then feed them with a replacement milk and if its available there, the very, very high protein full of antibiotics feed that the elevages here use.  It does cost around 40 euros a sack though.

If with her injury she is not falling on them and squashing them then personally I would leave them.  Good luck whatever you decide, she sounds like a really good mum.

[Tudful Tamworths]

How is she doing now? I've only just caught up with this post, but do sympathise. I had two gilts go off their legs in May and didn't walk properly till July. Cost a fortune, but worth it in the end as they are both back to fitness and have won 1st and 2nd in shows in the past month.
Just wondering, did your vet suggest getting her moving whenever possible? Mine did. One had nerve damage after trying to climb over a fence and leaving her back leg behind and I thought she would have to be shot. She was just lying there, motionless, and didn't even react when the injured leg was manipulated. The vet (miraculously, in my opinion) got her up on her feet by lifting her tail to support her (like they do with cattle) and helping her to walk. She had metacam and antibiotics for several weeks, and I had to get her up for physio every day.
Did the same with gilt no.2, which caught mycoplasma arthritis after a show. Neither liked the idea of having to get up (and I hated doing it, guessing how much pain they were in), but it paid off in the end.

All the very best of luck to you. Let us know how she gets on.