Orphaned Piglet and Carolina Rains

Apr 14, 2023
3 min read

Updated: Apr 18, 2023

With having as many Animals as we do, sometimes one will get tossed to the side, and rejected by the mother. We don't really know why this happens, and sometimes its for a reason, and others, there may not be one. Here's a quick story about 1 who just didn't seem to make the cut.

Now she is living in my office... for a moment.

So the piglets were born between April 7th, and 10th to completion, Yielding 19 little plumps of giggles. All looking healthy, and happy to be alive. There was one problem. That night, and the entire weekend, was slated for heavy, heavy rain. And we got it.

We've had a few piglets born in the rain, nothing new, they seem to choose it. Maybe the thunder scares the piglets out of them? Har Har? No? Maybe?

We'd prepared for the rain, and knew it was gonna be a weekend of it, so we did our best to prepare for it. We generally spend a few hundred dollars on straw and shavings to build up their nests and houses before big rains. We also added a new tarp on their roof, button up any wind holes, because rain inside a pig house, can be the end of piglets. Especially if its cold.

After the rain passed, most of the piglets that were birthed by a total of 3 sows, had found their way into the bigger house, which had the heat light. The bigger house can house all of them, but they prefer to have their private hotel when birthing. Each wing of our house for them has a room.

The piglets made their way into master open room, and of course, that's where the heat lamp and bodies were. They piled on each other like a cartoon, but it worked. The sows were a little confused. After a few days, they shared in milking, and there was no longer an easy identity among who was who.

Previously a problem we would encounter, was too many piglets in one house, and they can get squashed or be killed. Their counter parts weight 250-450lbs, and accidents do happen. This batch, we haven't lost a single one!

So back to the "Orphan" part..

So after the rain dried, we noticed this one piglet, who ventured over into the male pen. We let it be, and hoped it would wander back eventually. Well eventually never came. Couple days later, she was still in there, and wasn't leaving. We'd taken her back to the mothers, but they showed no interest in her, and knocked her around when she moved among them. It became clear, she was rejected. We're not really sure about how this process works, and sure there is more science at play, but for now, our experience has told us we have to do something fast, or she won't live long.

Piglets need Colostrum, a component found in their milk (and other animals) that is essential to life past 24 - 48 hours. This teaches the piglets immune system how to .. be an immune system. If not, the simple bacteria in the air, can kill them. We learned this the hard way, in our early years of starting. It was sad, and we paid a price to learn.

So we brought her in, cleaned her up, and began a regiment of Milk Replacement and Colostrum cocktail. We keep this among other vet like components on hand at all times.

That's the key!

When we picked her up, it was immediately noticed she had no strength, and could barely bite and squirm. We assessed she was dehydrated, and likely missing milk over at least 12 hours or even more. With this many piglets, monitoring is a hard game. So you have to act fast if you notice anything unusual.

It took 2 full days, but now she plays like a dog, and knows who we are. We cant re-introduce her at this point, so now the strategy is different. We've done this before, and