Monday, March 28, 2011

The Ultimate Pet

I've had kittens in the house, and I've had puppies ... I've had goat kids and a calf; but this is the first time I've ever had a piglet!


The poor little guy is two weeks old.  He must have been stepped on by his mom, because he was limping.  His 12 siblings saw that he was struggling, and thought nothing of shoving him out of the way to take the best teat.  So, this morning we found he had been shoved away from mom and away from the heat lamps, and was very, very cold. 

Andrew brought him into the house, and we used a small syringe to give him some cow's milk.  We placed him on a blanket on top of our wood stove to try to gradually warm him up.  It was about mid afternoon that he started perking up, and is actually taking milk from a lamb's nipple on an old pancake syrup bottle (whatever works -- we didn't have a pop bottle). 

He isn't out of the woods yet.  Hopefully he will be more perky by morning.

Maybe we should name him Wilbur, and maybe some day he will have a tiny friend named Charlotte ...

6 comments:

Cora Beth said...

I hope your "Wilbur", or whatever you decide to name him, does well! I am currently sitting up with one of my calves who our guys found in a mud pile, cold and unable to move. Dad actually took the poor little guy into the shower to get him cleaned off! I just got home from work in town a while ago and am now trying to revive the little guy with heaters, blankets and warm milk. Such is farm life in the Spring time!

Chris said...

Wilbur it is!

Wendy said...

Any more success with the piglet? We had pigs, when I was a kid, but I don't remember ever having to help any piglets. There is a sow milk replacer and I've read that goat milk is easier for pigs to use. Do you guys milk goats? I forget.

Tom Scepaniak said...

I gotta just weigh in here! When I was a young'un, maybe ten or so, we had a little pig like that and that thing got to be one of the family. These were during the Green Acres days on TV and of course our pig was named Arnold. Most of the time when he got a little bigger he'd just sit outside in front of the barn. We'd come out of the house and yell, "Arnold, get over here", and he'd run lickidy split to the house door and in he'd come. He was kinda house trained :) and was a pretty clean pig. Never forget when he'd come in the house and jump up on the couch and watch Green Acres with us. Let me explain, this was about the last season we lived in that house and were building a new one so ma let er slide back then:) But as time went by little Arnold got kinda big and I'll end the story there.....

Marci said...

I have never had to raise a little piglet either. He sure is cute. :)

Kelle at The Never Done Farm said...

Awwh, piglets are adorable after the first week, IMHO

Glad he's pulling through and pray he continues to thrive as well.

We have a bum lamb that was not thriving and with some TLC she's now gaining and doing well, she's still not out of the woods, but well on her way.
Blessings,
Kelle