Piglets!
Five on the ground. One in the house. More to come?
Piggy Lou must have started around 4 or 5 this morning. The temperature was still quite chilly, about 40 degrees at 6 am, but the sun was shining and there was no wind. She went ahead and dropped them in her fresh-air nest, not in the shelter. One was blue and very cold, so I brought her in to warm up in front of the fire for a few hours. She’s since gone back out and seems fine, as do the rest.
Two quite large piglets were born dead, for whatever reason, so that’s sad and disappointing. Piggy Lou is still laying down, whether just to nurse or because she’s got more in there, I’m not sure.
We’ve got thunderstorms in the forecast for tonight, so that’s a bit worrying. As is the prediction for storms with hail tomorrow. The piglets are entirely mobile at this point, already wandering away from Piggy Lou and coming back, so they’ll have no problem getting into shelter, should they figure out where it is. I’m actually concerned for my big mama at this point. Will she go in if it starts to rain? Will she get chilled in a storm after the exertion of an all-day delivery?
Will babies be trampled in the tumult of finding and getting into one of the shelters? Will the weather be just too cold for the piglets? Piggy Lou has already gotten up and switched which side she’s laying on several times in the course of delivering, so it’s clear she can watch out for them when she moves, but I’m concerned that wind and rain and mud will complicate things.
