24: Pig Style

Sunday
2:00pm
R comes home to find J snuggling with a piglet (something he doesn't do without cause).  Turns out that this piglet was found in a mud puddle made by his momma when she dumped her water over to cool down.  The piglet is ver cool to the touch and basically unresponsive.

3:00pm
R settles into her own snuggle, holding the piglet skin to skin in a "kangaroo care" fashion.  She starts to call friends for advice.  One person suggests she simply let the piglet die.  :-(

4:00pm
R mixes up some gatorade and feeds the baby via syringe drench.  There's not much response.

5:00pm
R passes the snuggle piglet off to K and goes out to make some kind of shelter for Ruby and the piglets as she is not in the right pen and has no shelter.  It begins to thunder, lightening, and rain.

6:00pm
R's friend comes out to help with the shelter.  They fashion something with a table and a tarp that Ruby seems to be ok with.  The plug in a heat lamp, even though it means 300watts of energy per hour!

7:00pm
R decides to try a warm water bath with the piglet.  It seems to help.  She dries the piglet off and gives her more oral electrolytes.

8:00pm
The boys head to bed and R settles in with the piglet, a hot water bottle, and a good book...prepared for the long haul.

9:00pm
J gets home from work and decides to go out to check on the piglets and the shelter.  He comes back inside with a second piglet, very cold and shaking.  R begins the same process with this little piglet, warming him in a warm water bath.  He begins to sieze.  She doesn't hold a lot of hope.  J decides to bring all of the piglets inside for the night to make sure that they stay warm enough.

10:00pm
J brings the piglets inside but we're missing two.  He goes back out to check for them and finds them crushed under the table, very cold.  We put the healthy eleven into a dog crate lined with straw and snuggle the other two into a few blankets and the hot water bottle, and R heads to bed.

11:00pm
J removes the hot water bottle and goes to bed.

12:00pm
R checks on the babies.  All fine.

1:00am
R checks on the babies.  She snuggles the two back into their blankets.

2:00am
R checks on the babies.  All fine.

3:00am
R checks on the babies.  Some grouching from the crate, but all are fine.

4:00am
J checks on the babies.  The two chilly ones don't look good.

5:00am
R checks on the babies.  The two chilly ones are dead.  Everyone else is fine.

6:00am
R begins to move the babies into a laundry basket to take them out to momma.  She finds the bottom piglet unresponsive.  It is warm but she suspects asfixiation.  She wraps the baby up in a blanket.

7:00am
R takes the piglets back out to their momma in the laundry basket and they happily greet and start snacking.

8:00am
R returns with the piglet in hand from dropping the kids off at school to meet the mobile slaughter truck.  It's here for Freightliner and Oreo.

9:00am
R goes inside to feed the piglet.  He actually takes some milk from the bottle.

10:00am
R and the piglet snuggle.

11:00am
R and the piglet prepare to head into school to man the book fair.

12:00pm
R and the piglet are told that they cannot stay at the school together.  She decides to put the piglet in the car during the fair...it's nice and warm but not too warm for the piggie.

1:00pm
R checks on the piglet in the car.  She feeds the baby a bit of milk and goes back to the fair.

2:00pm
R and the kids head home with the piglet.  R and J manage to move Ruby and Jaws into opposite pens so that Ruby will have her own shelter.  R takes the piglet out to his momma.  He seems to be doing ok with the other piglets but is a bit confused about who his momma is.  We'll continue to check on him throughout the afternoon to make sure he's ok.  But it looks like he'll do fine.