The first piglet was tail first, one leg out, the other tucked in. She pushed for hours, but couldn't seem to pass the tucked in leg. After about three hours she finally let me help. I retrieved the leg and she passed the body fairly quick. It was obvious the piglet had not survived at this point and her contractions stalled out. I left her alone, thinking when they picked up again she'd pass the shoulders and head. I was wrong. An hour later she still had not passed the first piglet. I helped remove him. She labored the entire rest of the day with no progress. I was at the vet's office half an hour before they opened. He agreed with me that the only way to remove them was by cesarean. He warned me that chances were they were all dead. I told him (as I had been saying since our first visit) my priority was her. He told me there was a slightly enhanced risk due to the prolapse issues, but ended that sentence with, "I think she'll be fine." I've never heard a vet say that. Every vet I've ever been to (and believe me I've been to plenty) has taken the route of pessimism. I left there confident we would have a pig, but no piglets. I was planning on taking a picture of her in the back of the truck to post on here with the title, "Going home!"
I called in the afternoon and they said she had been through the surgery fine, but like we had all suspected none of the piglets made it. He spayed her while he had her open and she appeared to be doing good.
Chris and I were making plans Tuesday morning on who was going to get her when. The secretary had asked me to wait till mid morning, but that wasn't going to work into our plans. I called the moment they opened to tell her we were headed to retrieve her. No vets were there yet and I could tell she did not want to be the one to tell me that she had died in the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment