Thread by @malone_j71

Sometimes being a farmer really sucks, my experienced sow, in a cold snap, lost her whole litter and that is a serious financial set back for us. The sow was devastated, and we were too, so heartbreaking, we don't usually do winter piglets because they need to be kept very warm,

and we have an unheated barn. The sow had other idea's and had broken into the boars' pen with another gilt. A few weeks back with one of the winter storms we had, she had 10 beautiful healthy babies and it then a cold snap came at night, she had lots of bedding but was not an

experienced momma with the cold and birthing piglets. Piglets go into shock and hypothermia very easily in the cold. They have zero body, so by the time she was done birthing, several were already extremely affected by the cold. We do not crate our pigs, but also momma pigs are

one of the most fierce protectors of their young on this earth. One does not just reach in and pick up a piglet and think they will remain unscathed for it, not even an extremely normally friendly and tame momma sow pig like Petunia.

Sows like to birth quietly, then they will spend hours laying and nursing their litter for the next few days in the nest they have made. Petunia is 3 yrs old, has had numerous litters and has never lost or squished one of her piglets which is very common in pigs.

her being agitated and the cold, she lost most of her litter by nightfall, my husband and I made a wall from pallets to try and push her back and get the last 4 babies in the stall, we got them eventually, not without injuries to ourselves, one was not doing well at all and i

was not surprised when it died shortly after, 2 were extremely hypothermic and lethargic, probably internal injuries from her sitting on them as well. 1 was perfectly fine but we took him in the house to warm him as well.. we then left the babies in the house by the wood stove

to warm them in heated towels and warm pop bottles wrapped in more towels, the 2 hyperthermic ones, slowly revived as they got warmer, me and my husband went back to her stall to build a crush gate that she has never needed and to put up a heat lamp , which are highly dangerous

in barns and around pigs, but I didn't think we had a choice at this point in time, it was frigidly cold out and they had already been severly chilled and then don't want to nurse and get warm milk to help warm them up. Well Petunia didn't want her babies away from her, she

destroyed most of the crush gate and her babies never survived. She pulled them back in with her and then sat on them in a misguided attempt to keep them warm. She was an extremely sad pig for a few days, and extremely agitated, unlike I have ever seen her.

Knowing our gilt, who would be a first time momma broke into the boars pen with her, i was feeling double anxious and dreading her farrowing. We put up heat lamps, tons of straw and built a crush ahead of time , she also destroyed the crush, pigs are mighty destructive I

might add, which is why heat lamps are so dangerous near them because they won't leave anything alone. They are extremely curious and need to examine everything. We went into the barn last night, I always do a final check before bed, throw some more hay in on extremely cold

nights so goats and pigs have a snack to keep generating body heat overnight. I see willow laying down and hear some soft groans and knew she was in labour,

well see that sweet baby just laying there, barely moving, barely breathing, it was another frigidly cold night, had to get my husband to devise a way to get the baby out of the stall so we could try and save it.

We ended up using a a horse poop scoop and bending all the metal ends into a scoop shape, I opened the back end of the stall door and "pretended" I was going in to distract willow, if I really went in, she would seriously injure me, my husband managed to scoop up the baby and we

Took it to the house to try and see if we could save it, I didn't hold out much hope, it was completely limp and not even trying to move, but I needed to try. We warmed up towels in the dryer, cut up a wool sock & made a "sweater" to try to get and keep some body heat in,

Laid the baby on the coach right where the fan from the wood stove blows, so it was getting lots of nice warm air flow. Noticed it's ears which had been literally frozen back against its head, where starting to relax and move a teensy bit. So warmed up some milk and corn syrup,

and very gently syringed some into their mouth. Baby pigs can aspirate and get pneumonia so easily, so have to be very gentle and slow. Basically it just laid there with milk in its mouth for quite awhile, then it slowly started shivering (shivering helps warm them up) and their

core body temps was still freezing cold and so was its little feet. We had it unbearably hot in the living room to keep rising their core temps, i was on the computer and glanced over and it had its eyes opened slightly, its ears were relaxing & it was trying to move its head.

I was so so happy to see that. They were still very stiff and cold, I kept occasionally picking them up, rubbing them all over and moving their feet and legs, I couldn't believe how long it took for that poor baby to lose how cold they felt. It started trying to wiggle, so we

kept moving it in different positions often to take advantage of the extremely warm wood stove, and we put a hairdryer on low in the other direction. I was feeling much more optimistic about its chances. So adorable in their wool sock sweater. 🥰

Normally baby pigs do not like being picked up and protest and squeal a lot, and that brings momma on the fly, wanting to kill whoever made them squeal, lol .. This baby up to this point hadn't made a sound. Even when I was picking it up and massaging them.

So I was a bit worried about that, they also still weren't making much effort to move by themselves, but occasionally I noticed their head trying to move, another good sign, I gave them a bit more milk with corn syrup for energy, that picked them up a lot and even though they

still mostly let it sit in their mouth, they were slowly moving their mouth and tasting it now. Then it picked its head up and made a soft noise, so I massaged them some more, this was now almost 3 AM, They started bobbing their head up and down and searching and I knew it was

finally getting warmer, and looking to nurse but they still didn't have control of their legs yet and I knew if i took it out before it could move well, they would get squished/and or walked on. So we laid them on the mat in front of the fire, that

mat was warm, and they just snuggled right in, lol .. still had the hairdryer on low from the other direction too. I knew once it had a bit of nap and regained its strength enough to walk, we could try them back with momma and let them nurse. The warmer this little piggy got,

the faster it's tail wagged ... 🥰 .. I was so tempted to try and raise this baby by myself, but the mortality rate of feeding newborn baby pigs is high. So I reluctantly took them back out to its momma, who had 2 more babies, low litter rate but maybe a good thing for this first

time young momma in the frigid cold, who is figuring out how to keep them close to her for warmth, and burying them in straw when she needs to leave to keep them warm. She has one advantage with her breed, she is mostly Mangalista, a curly coated woolly breed, she is doing a

fantastic job keeping these guys alive, in - 17 degree weather. This morning, everyone was still alive and doing great, and I couldn't have felt any more relieved. Great job you're doing, Willow
, so proud of you. 🥰

Hang in there little babies, in a few days temps will lower for a bit of a break, so thankful you are doing so well, bellies full of milk, mom is doing a wonderful job. Shook some more straw over them after I took their pics, they are hanging pretty close to the heat lamp,

which I can't hang down close enough to give a lot of heat for fear of a barn fire, if mom and dad start playing with it and knock it down into the hay.

Tonight, they were playing, and it is quite a bit warmer out, I think they are going to be just fine. Dad broke through 2 fences and climbed a pallet wall to come and visit and say hi .. he has finally settled back down, I guess determination is his middle name too, lol