Lurch – the rescue piglet

I honestly don’t know if Lurch, the little rescue pig who has difficulty walking ,is getting any better.  Every hour or so I get her up and stand her and walk her about so she exercises her muscles but she still falls almost immediately until she warms up then falls every few steps. After a while she can walk a little way without falling and loves to stand in  a puddle for a while.  I imagine she is looking sturdier then realise that much of this is wishful thinking.

She has a wee enclosure right next to Molly’s piglets and somehow manages to get herself right up against the pig panel so she can sleep next to them. They pat her nose with their noses as they rush past.  She is happy there feeling part of the play I am sure, often I find one sleeping right next to her – touching through the wire panel.

This is her favourite for day time sleeps so I leave her out there as long as I can in the night until the mosquitoes get to me. But after dark the mossies are ferocious. All my life they have seldom bitten me – it is a family joke – but this variety has not read that particular memo. So at night Lurch sleeps in his big blanket on the rug by my bed with Boo.  Due to her proximity and quiet of the night last night without storms I have detected a wheeze in her breathing.

I have been wondering why I have chosen to put so much energy into the life of this little piglet. I just refuse to give up on her. She is so feisty and determined to rise when she falls, pulling her little head up  hard but her body will not follow.  She is nineteen days old now, drinks milk and water really well, and has ocassionally started catching herself before she falls and lowering her rear onto the ground when she needs to rest but she cannot get up off the ground unless I help her

She cannot survive without me and yes –  here she is –  beside the bed,  lying contented in her rug, sleeping.

I will make an appointment for her at the vet not because I think they can cure her but because I want to know why she is like this. Why four of the surviving litter were like this – initially I thought it was injury – now I wonder if Tahiti incubated a large number of deformed piglets then proceeded to kill them. And if her piglets did not grow properly in the uterus then why. I worried about her during their gestation. Do you remember? These are the questions I want answered in case there was something I got wrong during her pregnancy. Some kind of defciency. I know many sows get shots during their pregnancies, maybe this condition is one of the things they inoculate against.

Yet, none of the pig breeders I have spoken to have ever seen this. Most of them cage their sows at farrowing time so are able to save the babies very quickly when the sows begin to savage and then they put the babies in with another recently farrowed sow and they grow just fine – they do not see crippled or badly formed piglets like this.

I am not sure Lurch will live long enough to see the vet.  I work and work with her during the day but her body needs to move properly of its own volition for all the intersecting  functions of the body to work.  But I have not given up – we will continue with the piggy physio.  I am trying to be realistic but it is not working this time.

And the other survivors are an odd bunch, one is really tiny, one is huge and grey and hairless and ferocious, and one is a normal sized piglet but with a closed eye and no hair. They are noisy and fight all day. I have put a long drainage pipe in there so the little one can hide from her sisters.  It is small enough for her to dart down and the big one cannot fit.  I had to take their house out of their pen because the big ones kept trapping the little one down there and chewing on her. They have bitten her tail right off.  But they are all thriving and soon I will open their gate and let them run about the barn too.  They will do better when blended with Molly’s bunch. Molly’s mob have good manners so they can teach the new ones.  And we will watch the tiny one – see how she goes. If she gets harrassed I will hook her out and sell her on straight away.

Tahiti is in with Molly bossing her around as usual but at least Molly has company and another pig to sleep with. Tahiti will continue to grow and will be sold at the Sale Yards when Difficult goes across. This will coincide with Molly going in with Manu.

We all must remember that a short good life is as important and worthy as a long good life.  All animals here get considered,  and gentle care whether they are forever pets like Sheila or destined to be sold or for the table or just visiting.  Living or dying. They get the same gentle good treatment. I think  this little soul is destined for the short version of life –  I am fairly sure. And I am learning from having her close by. But for today we have more puddles for her to play in  so it is time for her and the dogs to get up and get on with the milking.

I am alone in my work again today as Nick is still on Days Off –  lots to do.

Much love

celi

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