Brownie's Fourth Farrowing:

-March 2019:



Image of two tropical backyard pigs just before mating
Pinkie and Brownie November 10 2018



March O1:

Images of a tropical backyard sow in
          the morning beofre farrowing

6.30 AM: Normal Feeding time. Fatima damps down the area around the farrowing pen to keep it cool

Images of tropical backyard sow
          building a nest before farrowing

 2.30 PM: Fatima notices nesting behavior and gives more dried banana leaves for her to build a nest with

Images of area around a pig pen
          being watered to keep sow cool when farrowing

  2.45 PM: Fatima again waters the area surrounding the pig pen -to cool it down. The electric fan is switched on.

Imges of hungry tropical backyard
          sow hours before giving birth
4.00 PM: Normal feeding. Brownie is hungry as usual.

5.00 PM: The fan is switched off and Brownie rests

Imagews of tropical backyard sow
          farrowing in the night

9.00 PM: Brownie makes occasional soft grunting sounds. Is probably giving birth -but too dark and distant to see.

Imges of tropical backyard pen while
          sow is farrowing in the night

 9.20 PM: Several squeals and grunts are heard

Imagws of tropical backyard sow
          while farrowing
11.00 PM: We hear more squeals -probably from fighting piglets


March O2:

Inmgws of hungry tropical backyard sow
        in the morning after she gave birth in the night after farroi

 6.30 AM: Brownie is hungry as usual. Several piglets are running around the pen

 -it's impossible to to count them as some may be hidden in the nesting material.

Tropical backyard sow with newly born
        piglets
 7.30 AM: Normal suckling routine seems established.

Images of tropical backyard sow with
        piglets, the day after farrowing in the night

 9.40 AM: Fatima counts at least 10 live piglets and two dead ones

-which we did not retrieve as we did not wish to disturb Brownie
.
Images of tropical backyard sow recovering from
          farrowing in the night

 9.45 AM: Brownie is very tired and Fatima switches on the fan  -at its lowest setting.

Images of tropical backyard piglets
          the day after being born
1.00 PM: Everything seems quiet and normal. Mother and litter seem content and comfortable

Images of burial of dead piglets
 4.00 PM: Fatima counted 12 live piglets -and we recovered and buried 4 dead ones (cause and time of death unknown)

March O3:

Images of tropical backyard sow with piglets

Images of tropical backyard sow with piglets
 6.30 AM: Brownie seems quite happy this morning. Eating and drinking normally.
                 It is difficult to see the piglets amongst the nesting material.

Imagws of dead tropical backyard
            piglet
                 Buried another newly dead piglet -and Fatima thinks there is still another dead one in the pen.
                 We are thinking of cutting the piglets teeth -just to prevent trouble later.

Images of tropical backyard sow and piglets
                 The fan seems to help in keeping the pen cool. No sign of fever -after Fatima gave antibiotic in water while nest building.

IMages of tropical backyard piglet
            rescued after suffocating
3.00 PM: A piglet got suffocated while suckling on a hind teat. It took s few minutes to get food and persuade the sow to stand up. Finally we were able to get her up and collect the piglet from between her feet. It was unconscious -but revived quickly when shaken and slapped.
We decided its chances of survival in the pen were minimal -so have taken it out, fed it and put it in a box as a temporary home.

Iages of tropical backyard sow
            loose in the garden
3.30 PM: Auntie Brownie seems to be quite fit, but still gets angry sometimes when suckling. Fatima decided that it might be good if we cut the piglet's teeth to avoid them harming and upsetting the mother when suckling.
The animal technician arrived -and we decided to try and let Brownie out of her pen, distracting her with a bath and food, while the technician put the piglets in a box and cut their (milk) teeth. Fatima had also spotted another potentially weak piglet and wanted to take it out for special care. We intended to keep it in the box after teeth cutting -so we could give it special treatment later.

Unfortunately, Brownie refused to be distracted. She could hear the revived piglet in the house -and tried to go to it. Then she heard the squeals of the others as the technician put them in the box for treatment.

Images of tropical backyard sow
            upset by animal technician cutting piglets teeth
Brownie, ran around the garden desperately looking for a way into the pen. She also tried to jump in over the fence. Luckily, the technician was finished and we could let her return to the pen before she could do any real  damage to people or property.

At the last moment, Fatima could not remember which was the other weak piglet and so all of them were returned to the mother -who quickly calmed down as soon as she saw they were unharmed.

Images of tropical backyard sow
            inspecting her piglets after their teeth were cut
By this time -it  was already afternoon feeding time for the animals.


March O4:

Images of dead tropical backyard
            piglet

6:30 AM: Another dead piglet in the pen.

Images of tropical backyard sow with
          piglets

Otherwise, all seems normal.

Brownie seems to have learned to look at the fan when she wants it switched on....

Images of rescued tropical backyard
          piglet

The rescued piglet has learned to drink foster milk from a bowl.

Images of weak tropical backyard
          piglet being removed from the pen

Fatima decides another piglet needs removing from the pen. It is very thin and will have to learn to drink from a bowl too.


March O5:

Images of tropical backyard sow with piglets

Images of tropical backyard sow with
          piglets
Everything seems normal. Some piglets have discovered the creep space -and the exit... but fairly tentatively, at least for now.

Images of tropical backyard piglets
          being hand raised

Images of tropical backyard piglets being hand
              raised
The "rescued" piglets seem happy -the emaciated one is looking better already. They have both learned very quickly to drink from a bowl. They are fed about every two hours during the day and about every three hours at night.


March O6:

Imagws of tropical backyard piglets
          with sow on the sixth day after birth
Everything still seems normal again today.

Imagws of 6 day old tripical
          backyard piglets explorig outside their pen
Some Piglets have started exploring the garden outside the pen
Images of "rescued"
          piglets in a temporay pen on the balcony of a tropical house

Images of tropical backyard piglets being hand raised
          on the balcony of the house
Fatima and our helper have built a temporary pen on the balcony to house the two hand raised piglets.


March O7:

Images of tropical backyard sow with
          piglets -day 7

Images of tropical backyard sow with piglets -day 7

Another normal day.....

March O8:

Images of tropical backyard sow with
          piglets

Imagws of tropicval backyard sow and piglets

Imagws of tropical backyard sow with piglets born one
          week agao

One week old tonight!

-------------------------------------------------

 Piglets 2015
Butlig's Diary

PIGLETS -June 2016
More Piglets
Even More Piglets

Auntie Brownie's Second Farrowing (2017)
No.Three's Third Farrowing (2018)

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 Piglet Mortality Log
-------------------------------------------------



Garden Diary
March 2019

Country Life
Project Land
Project Home Farm


 
Trevor Batten
 <trevor at tebatt dot net>
 Baclayon 2019
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