Things are looking up. As of this morning Carol, as Lisa calls her, started eating well from the eyedropper. She still hasn’t taken to the bottle but for now we will take what we can get. She gets up and grunts at us when she is ready to eat again. Far better than she was even yesterday. We realy didn’t know if she was going to make it but now we are feeling more confident.
Busy weekend. Lisa was on a business trip and Friday, the day she was to come home she had to go into the hospital. She is home now and almost back to normal.
Saturday I woke up to find the bull and six happy goats in the garden. Immediate schedule change. Spent all day re-stretching fence and adding two strands of barbed wire over the top.
Next I moved Eva and Lola and their piglets into the main pasture and moved Hank back to the front with Willie. They forgot that they used to be friends. Exactly why we cut their tusks last weekend. All they could do was push each other around. It was HOT HOT and humid. I was afraid they might overdo it but they eventually stopped and headed for the water and mud hole.
Got back in the house at dark and realized that we were out of food for the inside dogs and cats. So I jump in the shower, and head to town to get something to eat for myself and stop by the store for critter food. Finally crawled into the bed at around midnight.
Sunday started way too early. Pretty much spent from the heat the day before I decided to catch up on inside chores after getting all the animals taken care of. While feeding the zoo I noticed that two of our KuneKune cross sows were missing so the hog hunt was on. Patsy had 7 new piglets and Loretta had nine.
All were up, eating and doing fine. So I went back to the house to clean up the place so Lisa didn’t come home to too big a disaster. Taking a two person operation down to person, some things don’t get done in a timely manner.
Monday, NO water pressure. Also means no hot water. We have a tank less water heater and it will not kick on if there isn’t enough pressure. Thankfully I had filled up the stock tank the night before but there was still some things that needed water. Some time while I was taking care of everyone the pressure came back up. Good thing, I really wasn’t looking forward to a cold drizzle of a shower. Running late so there was no time to check on the new piglets.
After work I worked in the garden waiting for Lisa to get home then we went to check on all the animals. Specifically Dozier the squirrel, Georgia the goose and then the new piglets. We went to Patsy first. All was well. Lisa picked up a couple of the piglets and they snuggled under her chin. Then we headed for Loretta half way across the property. As we approached her I saw one of the little orange and black piglets laying on its stomach three or four feet away from Loretta and the other piglets. As I got closer I could see that flies were all over it and thought it was dead. I scooped it up and found it was still alive but in serious trouble. No time to do much more than count noses and see that all the others were fine. Back to the house we went as quickly as possible. We keep several bags of vitamins and electrolytes just for this type of occasion. The piglets temperature was only 97.5 and should be 101 to 104. We got her on a heating pad and then started giving her sugar water with the powdered electrolytes added. She wouldn’t even attempt to take a bottle so we were using an eye dropper. Sticking it in the corner of her mouth we would add just a tiny bit at a time until she would swallow it. Her breathing was very fast. At one point it was about 150 breaths a minute. We were going very slow with the fluids not only to prevent shock but also because we were afraid she might get it in her lungs as fast as she was breathing.
At about 10:00 she stood up and walked out from under the towel to get off the heating pad. When I checked her temperature it was 101.2. She still wasn’t interested in eating so I gave her more fluids with the eyedropper. Then I placed her in a plastic tote with a towel and the heating pad. Then I draped another towel over the tote to keep it warm inside and called it a night.
Tuesday, I checked on her first thing. She had moved off the heating pad but was grunting and squirming when I picked her up. She felt a little cool but not as bad as she was the night before and her breathing was about normal. I mixed up some fresh cows milk, a little sugar and some of the electrolyte powder. Again she showed no desire to take anything so it was the eyedropper again. I got a good bit down her while Lisa held her in the towel and heating pad. After feeding her and getting her back in the box we went about our normal morning routine of taking care of the animals and getting ready for work. As I was heading for the door I thought I heard something from the box. When I looked in she was standing up nosing the heating pad control that was hanging in the box. I think that if I would have had time I could have taken her to Loretta and she might have nursed but there just wasn’t time. As I was going out the door Lisa said she would try to feed her again. The piglet is going to the vet anyway just as a precaution. If nothing else they can work with her throughout the day and maybe get her to drink from a bottle. They will probably give her an IV to get her fluids back up because I know we weren’t getting enough in her with the eyedropper.
The odd thing about this, well maybe not so odd because it always seems to happen this way, is that this piglet is the only one that has been spoken for. Marcie even came to visit us and made a request for a solid orange and an orange with spots guilts. These litters had four orange piglets but only one was a guilt and now she is the sick one. I guess the good thing is that she will be very friendly from all the handling if she makes it.
Yesterday was release day for Dozier the squirrel. We opened his cage after his 3 weeks of getting used to the outside. He is doing very well. We didn’t make the mistake with him that we did with Stella. She was far too friendly with us, the dogs and probably didn’t have enough fear of fox, coyotes or hawks.
We also moved Georgia the goose out. The idea of having a pet goose as “Mother and Father Goose” do is just too much trouble if you aren’t home all day. She is still very friendly and I expect she always will be but she is an outside goose as she should be.
Today we finally found the time to cut the tusks on Willie and Hank. Now we can put them back together without them killing one and other. Last time we put them together after having them separated for breeding purposes I thought we lost Willie. He ended up with a huge gash on his throat. Hogs are tough animals but I didn’t want to risk it again. I bought a wire saw and a tool to hold them by the snout.
I had a spare gate so I used it to form a V and ran T posts behind the hog to keep them from backing up. Then I slipped the wire loop over their top jaw and cinched it tight. By hooking the handle over the top of the gate Lisa was able to hold them still. Fortunately they didn’t fight much and only at first. Then they settled down and didn’t give us much trouble at all.
The tools used were bought from Livestock Concepts
Cable Hog Catcher and OB Wire Kit with Handles.
The shower is almost complete. This project has taken far longer than I had planned. Partly due to interruptions. I also didn’t consider all the tile cutting that I was going to have to do once I got to the narrow sections of wall. Sunday every piece of tile had to be custom cut. That is very time consuming.
I should have everything but the grouting done tonight.
Eva gave us 7 more piglets Monday afternoon. Two little boars and 5 guilts. They will be registered and for sale around the first of August.
I don’t know why she insists on having them right next to the fence. She is only about 40 yards from where she had the last litter.
We are still waiting for Patsy, Loretta, and Oops, our KuneKune crosses to have their litters. They can’t be far behind Eva.
Sunday morning when I was feeding the chickens I noticed a half-eaten bird. When I looked around I found that I had lost our last white frizzle rooster, our last polish crested hen, and 3 half-grown chicks. A couple of these just had the head missing. I was guessing opossum or raccoon but wasn’t sure. Sunday night I went out to check on everyone and sure enough there was a raccoon standing over another chicken. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing so I hesitated and missed him as he ran off. I baited the box trap with the dead hen hoping for the best but not expecting much. Especially after being shot at.
Monday morning I found him sitting in the trap. I almost felt sorry for him and was thinking about taking him off somewhere, but then he chose to growl at me not once but twice. He won’t be killing anymore birds.
On a lighter note. One of our Royal Palm turkey hens showed up with two chicks. I thought they had all stopped laying by now so that was a pleasant surprise. Now if she can just keep them alive. They have the hardest time. We lost all three of the chicks that had three mama hens. The last one was fine one minute and after I made my rounds feeding everyone it was missing. I found it laying not far from where I had last seen it eating. I’m guessing that it got trampled but I didn’t see it so I really don’t know.
Rose, our pet turkey hen hatched out two chicken chicks a couple of weeks ago and now she is sitting on another nest with the chicks sitting on her back. I’m keeping food and water nearby so that isn’t an issue. This hen has a strong mother instinct and will set in a minute. Usually not until her chicks are much older though. I don’t know what got into her this time.
