She has started limping quite badly. And a fat pig limping is a very sorry sight. 
It is one of her back legs below that rather large ham of a butt-hock. Sorry Char had to say it. I have called around and on occasion a pig will pull a muscle when they are young and growing fast and fooling around, so it is bed rest for her. She is still eating and drinking and coming when she is called so I am going to play ‘wait and see’ for another day or two.. Poor Charlotte.
I have palpated up and down the leg, and looked into her little dainty hooves. Nothing untoward at all. No swelling. No heat. In fact she did not even flinch and just sat getting her ears scratched with no worries at all while John and I looked her over.
Sheila is more than happy to lay down with her and keep her company while she is on bed rest. Maybe she will get her fair share of the feed while Charlotte recovers. That pig needs to go on a diet. A pig on a diet is a bit of an oxymoron!
Apparently Kupa and Tui have the situation in hand.
We had another windy day yesterday with a bit of a nip in the air. When the Guinea Fowl hunch their already hunched backs I know it is getting colder. 
In the real winter they will not even go outside, they just hang out in the barn. It will be interesting to see what the peafowl do when it gets Really cold.
Today I begin The Writing. I will not bore you with the details as I go along. However, if you would like, I will give you a word count so that you can be an informed support team. My goal for the first week is 2,500 – 3,000 words a day.
The Daily View.
Yesterdays temps. Remember that when reading the max and min temperature gauge. You read at the bottom of the little pin. For the highs (on the right) you read the numbers climbing up and for the lows (on the left) you are going to read the numbers climbing down. That is clear as mud. But once it makes sense to you it is easy.
You will remember that The Father – my dad – is charting our temperatures. So here is almost a months worth of Central Illinois highs (blue) and lows (pink). As you can see, the cold is coming! 
Thank you Dad.
And now it is time for the milking and the animals. There is a wee change in routine in the mornings now. I go out to milk in the deep dark with my torch, I open the gate for Daisy, turn on the lights in the barn, put out hay and grain for the pigs, hay for the calf and a little for Daisy, milk the cow, clean up, feed the calf his milk, feed the cats and dogs their milk, feed the pigs their milk, and fill a dish for the peacocks (or they steal the kitten’s milk). Then let Daisy back out to her pasture, turn the lights back out in the barn and leave with my own milk. At this point the barn birds and animals all yawn and settle back down to sleep again until dawn. When the sun comes up I go back out and do the chickens and the sheep, who have slept right through the first shift.
Daisy needs to be milked 12 hours apart you see. Well, as close to that as I can get anyway. It makes me smile to turn the lights back out in the early morning and hear them all shuffle and grizzle then settle back down to wait for the dawn.
You all have a lovely day.
celi
PS For the duration of The NanoWriMo Writing, I am going to suspend the Year Ago Today portion of my daily WeB-Log and please forgive me if I do not get to visit your own sites as much as I would like. However I will certainly be here every morning before dawn, bringing you the news, pictures and weather from the Farmy.
The Kitchen's Garden 
58 responses to “Charlotte the Pig is Feeling Poorly”
Sorry to hear of Charlotte’s sore leg and I hope that’s all it is. Given she’s eating and otherwise acting normally, I bet she just turned it. Silly piggy! I hope she didn’t hurt it wearing heels for her Halloween costume last night.
Good luck with your daily writing, though I doubt you’ll need it. This exercise was meant for you and you for it. 🙂
It is a great exercise, i am thoroughly enjoying it, especially not being allowed to go back and edit.. i really like that!! c
Poor Charlotte! I’m sure both pigs will need extra feed to get through this stressful time 😉
Did Charlotte pull a ham-string? Sorry. I truly hope she is okay soon–it is like having a child who cannot tell you what is wrong, isn’t it. Hooray for your writing–just keep swimming.
Ham string! I already upset roger with the Butthocks.. and just keep swimming is excellent advice.. so i shall.. c
Oh poor Charlotte!! I hope she is better by today….and it is so sweet that her sister is staying by her side for comfort…it’s amazing that animals do that and I’ve had some that stayed near me for comfort if something was wrong…they just know!! Keep us posted and here’s to a great send off with your 1st day of writing! 🙂
Thank you Chris and good morning! c
It’s definitely getting darker. Poor Charlotte, I hope she’s up and about soon. Funny Guineas. All the best with the writing, you’re very brave! 🙂
Poor Charlotte. We will all have to sing to her. Lots of get well songs. Maybe I’ll start out with “hush hush sweet Charlotte, hush hush don’t you cry”. Meanwhile I’ll be counting your words along with you. Good wishes for this journey Celi. Virginia
poor charlotte, she is feeling sorry for herself.. morning virginia.. c
I hope Charlotte recovers quickly but with the cold imminently arriving it sounds like being tucked up on bed rest is a great place to be. Good luck with your writing – 3000 words/day does sound like a lot xx
It goes pretty quickly once you get going.. it is the actual sitting for long periods of time that i find difficult. c
Poor Charlotte!! It really has turned cold for you, rug up Celi! x
I think it’s so great that you and Sharyn are doing the NanoWriMo and hope it goes well and is so fulfilling for you. Poor, dear Charlotte. I hope nothing serious is wrong and that tomorrow she’s on the mend.
We’ve had that happen years ago when we raised pigs. We had to give the pig a penicillin shot and she recovered. Seems like (it was something she stepped on — although we do try to keep things clean — pigs root us stuff that has lain dormant for years on end. We finally decided she had stepped on a nail. Whatever it was she did recover and went on to win Grand Champion at the fair.
Here for good luck with your dear sweet Charlotte!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
good advice, I shall call the vet in the morning, I have penicillin in the fridge, though i cannot imagine getting a needle through that hide. They are out in the fields all day so who knows what they have dug up.. c
I hate to hear that Charlotte is in pain, and even worse, your reader with a pig vomiting blood. Wow! That is really worrisome. Do you have access to the vets at the UI? They should know something!!!
Good luck with the novel. I think I’ll try a poem a day.
a poem a day sounds harder.. I do have a vet who does pigs, I shall call him again tomorrow.. c
Sounds to me as thought you could do with the bed rest, and let Charlotte take over your programme- which sounds horrendous. – and you are stupendous, even taking on the challenge – go well, and hope you enjoy it too….
Charlotte – I honestly think it may be a back problem because of her weight . . . she and me both 😦 ! Hope we both ‘survive’! Feel you need a meditation session before the writing one – now, I am the quintessential ‘A’ personality, but 1/2 hour eyes closed with a good tape – oh boy does it take you into a more balanced world: actually love Deepak Chopra’s voice 😀 !
Poor Charlotte.. you ought to tell her to stop fooling around like that, I pulled a muscle that way once ;D Good luck with your writing, c!
I hope a good rest will help Charlotte. Sheila is a good buddy to stick by her side. Enjoy your NaNoWriMo experience!