Our pigs are on pasture and munching on grasses and legumes all the time, but they always (and I do mean always) come barreling out of the woods when they hear us walking down the path to give them their daily ration of grain each day.
One evening last week, we noticed that Peggy, one of our younger sows, wasn’t with all of the other pigs waiting for dinner. We whistled and clapped and tried to entice her to come and eat, but she wasn’t the least bit interested.
We have a few tricks when this sort of thing happens and we tried them all, including offering her a couple of hard boiled eggs – a prized treat for a pig. But, she wouldn’t even nibble.
The next morning, the same thing. And then, she stopped drinking. This is dangerous for any 300+ lb animal. But, it can quickly turn catastrophic in the high summer heat, especially since Peggy’s pregnant and due in just a couple of weeks.
The most pressing task in these sorts of emergencies is getting to the bottom of what is actually going on, so we can figure out the appropriate solution. And doing this detective work fast.
Was it something poisonous she ate in the woods? Could she have a bacterial infection? Or a bad parasite? I considered getting out the microscope to inspect her manure (we actually do this regularly to check on the pigs’ gut health), but then it hit us.
Maybe she’s severely dehydrated? We wrote this off initially because she has a full water-tank in her paddock and none of the other pigs in her paddock were heat stressed. But what if, somehow, she never figured out how to use the nipple waterers we installed a few weeks ago? Turns out, this was exactly the problem.
For the past week, we’ve been nursing Peggy back to health. First, we had to help her get re-hydrated which, for a short time meant using a little device to install water up her rectum (not fun, but incredibly effective!).
Once, she started to drink on her own, she turned around pretty quick. First, eating wet grain and then small bites of dry grain. Now, she’s back to her ususal self, wolfing down her rations in about 30 seconds like the best of them.
We were obviously reminded of a very important lesson this week. And now comes the challenge of teaching an old dog a new trick. Wish me luck. I’m afraid I’ll need it.
Your Farmers,
Jenney & Greg