What a discouraging day! I arrived home from work this morning at 5:30 am, and rushed out to check on "Grandma" our oldest sow, due to farrow on the 5th. No such luck. Denise and I both had to work last night, so Grandma was left in the farrowing pen with the heat lamps blazing and the heat mat warm. Boy was I discouraged as I counted out the frozen piglets. Not one of the 12 had made it to the light only 3 or 4 feet away. I had plans to put down a bigger heat pad for the sows and even an electric space heater today, but so much for plans. A day late and thousands of dollars short. The thermometer said it was 13 below zero, so I guess without help, the little guys didn't have a prayer. Grandma was agitated yesterday, so I knew she was close, I should have stayed home last night.
Lots and lots of "should haves".
The one bright spot today was that the 8 little ones from Missy are still holding on, pretty cold but active. They are about 8 days old. Missy snuck them in before I got her home to the farrowing pen. So go figure, Missy has them alone, still in the sow pen without help or heat and appears to have saved every one she had, while Grandma with all the heat close at hand looses the whole litter.
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