This has been a very stressful fortnight here on the farm. Not only have the temperatures once again soared back into the upper nineties and low one hundreds but we have been on pins and needles in the pigging department. As you may recall, Mary farrowed a lovely, seemingly healthy, litter of piglets pretty much right on time and I was looking forward to having piglets galore running around in a few short weeks what with she being the first of the four sows to farrow. Then came the devastation of heading down to the farrowing pen to find a dead piglet followed by two more little ones until there was, and still is, only one survivor out of a litter of twelve.
A necropsy was performed by our vet on the first piglet that passed away with a liver sample being sent off for analysis in the hopes of discovering the cause of the piglet deaths and hopefully ruling out a devastating virus that I have come to discover is pretty prevalent in pig herds across the entire world, Circovirus. Through talking with our vet Colleen, corresponding with my dear friend Sharon who is an incredible veterinary pathologist at Arizona State University as well as being the sister of dear pal Lynda, reading and researching all I could on the virus I have come to discover it is a nasty little bugger that can run through a herd with devastating consequences. If this indeed was something that had been lying dormant in Mary then all my pigs had been exposed and I would most likely lose the following litters of piglets just as Mary had lost hers. In the meanwhile I had to follow strict isolation procedures with Mary and her surviving babe which also meant I was in a dither as to where Sweet Pea, the next girl in line to farrow, should be put to have her babies as I could not place her next to Mary.
Daily we waited to see if the test results had come in with a yea or nay about the circovirus diagnosis. I poured through my veterinary manuals to see if I could come up with any other ideas of what causes jaundice, anemia and death in piglets all the while pestering Colleen’s office to see if news had come through from the lab. Sweet Pea was fast coming up to her due date and we were desperate to know what was going on even if our hands were tied and there was nothing pro-active we could do about the situation. That was the hardest part, not being able to “fix” things. One thought kept niggling in my mind however. Years ago we had a mare who foaled and through a tragic accident, a few days after the baby was born mum had to be put down. We ended up raising the colt Bab’s on a goat, a nanny that had the condition whereby she could conceive, carry her babies to term, deliver successfully but when they started drinking her milk it was like a poison to them and they would die. Could it be possible this was what was going on with Mary? Could that even happen in pigs? I knew horses have this condition as well as cats, goats and sheep, but pigs?
Finally the day Sweet Pea was due to farrow, at least as far as my calendar suggested, the lab results came in. No circovirus! Oh my gosh I cannot tell you how relieved I was! Then came the diagnosis… Neonatal Isoerythrolysis or NI for short. This is the name for the condition whereby mum’s colostrum becomes lethal to her offspring and yes, it turns out pigs can get this condition. But why had all the girls been able to farrow lovely litters with Casper as the dad early this spring? Why no problems then? Well it turns out, just as with an allergic reaction, which is more of less what this is, there has to be at least 2 exposures before it occurs. An incompatibility in blood arises between mum and the boar, causing mum to make antibodies which in turn are passed on through the colostrum to the babies. Unfortunately this incompatibility causes the babies blood cells to be destroyed, thus the jaundice, and subsequent demise. Oh no… now a new worry!
Ramona who is actually due to farrow by the calendar today is Mary daughter. Will she also have this blood disorder with Casper? Sweet Pea and her mum Paula have similar breeding is it possible they too carry this problem when bred to Casper? In a couple of days am I going to go out and find Sweet Pea’s babies are turning the dreaded yellow jaundice colour?
But that my dear reader is not my only problem in the piggery this summer, it is turning out to be a devastating pigging time for me. Sweet Pea was due to drop her piglets last Sunday and normally she is pretty much on time so I was starting to be concerned when Wednesday rolled around and still no piglets. I had moved her into the farrowing pen next to Mary since the all clear for circovirus had come through. She was settling in, making her nest and I was sure she was getting ready to pop as she was so very uncomfortable. But no babies! Then the weather warmed up… a lot! All of sudden we were back in the one hundred degree range and despite a mud wallow, showers frequently during the day from the hosepipe, Sweet Pea was very hot! She finally decided to start farrowing on Friday and when I went out to be with her after feeding she had already popped out 2 piglets, one had not been able to get out of his sack so did not make it. She popped out another five and all were doing well when I left for a few minutes to do a couple more chores. I soon returned only to discover she had just delivered a huge piglet who had a faint pulse but was not breathing. Despite my best efforts, including rescue breathing and CPR… yes CPR on a piglet… he passed away. The temperature rose and with it so did Sweet Pea’s. She passed afterbirth and seemed to settle down to the business of nursing her remaining six piglets.
Well, nine piglets total was an “OK” number for her to have I thought so I once again left to get more chores done. When I came back about half an hour later there were two more piglets, very big ones, dead in the straw and Sweet Pea was obviously very overheated. I managed to convince her to follow me outside and cooled her off as best I could but she was so very, very hot. This was not a good sign. Poor girl finally felt better and went back with her babies while I of course did nothing but fret and stew! I had to attend a farmer’s market in Condon yesterday and Darrell too was out of town but despite being very busy at market my thoughts were always drifting back home to Sweet Pea. I knew it was once again an awfully hot day and upon arriving home my first task was to immediately head down to the farmyard to tend to the pigs as the temperature was 100 degrees… in the shade! Sweet Pea was contentedly in her house but sadly she had lain down on two of her babies sometime during the day when I away. To say I am feeling despondent would be a grand understatement
With dread I headed down to milk this morning and peeked into Sweet Pea’s enclosure. Were the remaining four piglets all there? Had she lost any more? Were they a good pink colour or was the telltale tinge of yellow starting to show, a harbinger of neonatal erythrolysis? Yes, as of this morning Sweet Pea has four nice healthy piglets nursing on her. It is sad to look into the pens and where there should be twenty odd piglets running around there is only five, but I am thankful for the five. Ramona will be farrowing next followed by Paula. Will this be a turning point in my pigging season? Will those girls drop litters with no problem? Only time will tell, a stressful time to be sure but what is farming without a little stress thrown in for good measure!
At the end of this farrowing season there will be some hard decisions to make. Do I keep Casper and replace some of my girls or possibly all of them if further issues arise? If all the other sows piglets do not show signs of NI do I just cull Mary since I know she is incompatible with Casper? Or do I throw in the towel…… no, as I write those words I realize I will not throw in the towel, I will get through this bad spell and move onwards. Darrell is right there behind me, encouraging me to move forward, supporting whatever decisions I make. Yes, this has been a devastating and disheartening past few weeks, a very stressful few weeks, but then I go down to the farmyard and see Mary’s little survivor running around with tail straight up in the air without a care in the world, happy as a Lark. One survivor out of twelve… if she can plug along then by gosh so will I…