Episode: Episode 75/ Season 3 / June 18, 2024

Johnny’s Journey: From Struggle to Strength

On January 30th 2024 at about 12:15 in the morning. Loretta Lynn gave birth to 4 piglets pretty quickly. They all were born in less than 2 hours. Johnny was the first piglet born in this litter. He was born at about 12:15 and at birth he weighed 7.5oz. Pretty quickly after the other 3 came. This litter from the very start seemed very normal. They were all doing well. When I have a night birth I put a mattress down by them so I can be there and check on them and make sure everyone is eating and going to the bathroom. I also check to make sure no one is sneezing or coughing and that everyone can breathe and that mama is doing well and she passes all of the afterbirth. That morning I was woken by a piglet that I could tell was frustrated. Piglets are born very quiet because they are prey animals. The fact that a piglet was making a lot of noise was odd. I got up to see what was going on and I saw Johnny and he was continuously trying to nurse. I thought he must be having a hard time so I held him up to help him. I noticed that he was giving up. It was like he had no strength because he wasn’t getting anything. I don’t like to step in unless absolutely necessary so I waited and watched and took note that again and again he was trying but not getting anything. By morning I saw that he was laying away from his mother and siblings. He looked very thin compared to his littermates. He was not gaining weight. As I continued to watch I realized that if I did not step in he would be dead by the end of the day.

We keep colostrum on hand from our milk cow from when she gave birth to her calf. I took some colostrum and thawed it out and offered it to Johnny. He lapped it up very quickly. Bottle feeding is very dangerous for a piglet because they can aspirate the milk and that can cause pneumonia which can lead to death in a piglet. So I never use a bottle on a piglet. I teach my piglets to pan feed. It usually takes about 24 to 48 hours to teach a piglet to pan feed. For Johnny I used an 8×8 baking dish that I put just enough colostrum in for him to stand in and drink. Within 24 hours he was a pro and sucked it down. On the first day he lost weight, he went down from 7.5oz to 6oz. I didn’t know why he wasn’t able to nurse. But since he was losing weight I supplemented him with the colostrum and goats milk. Raw goat’s milk is amazing for piglets. If you do not have access to raw goats milk you can get a can of dry goats milk in the baking aisle. You mix it with warm water. I used that and mixed in colostrum and put it in a pan for him to eat. I fed him about 1 time per hour but if I heard him whine or heard his siblings eating I would run down and feed him sooner. He was able to feel satisfied very quickly. By Thursday evening he was up to 7.23oz. He was gaining during the day but at night he would drop down in weight again. I was hoping he would be able to nurse at night but he wasn’t getting anything still. After 2 nights of losing weight I realized that I would have to feed him during the night as well. By Saturday morning he was 8oz and he started to finally gain weight. On the day the piglets turned 1 week old, something happened, he was nursing! What happened when he was born was that his mouth was just too small to nurse properly. But within the week he was able to grow and nurse properly. I wasn’t sure that she was going to produce enough milk because he hasn’t nursed for a week. I continued to supplement and weigh him for 2 more weeks to make sure that he was getting milk from nursing. At about 1.5 weeks I noticed that he was having a hard time pooping. His little butt got sealed over because his poop was wet so I cleaned up his butt and he immediately started to go. This continued to happen for several days. It can happen with any piglet but especially with runts. Every day I was nervous that he wasn’t going to make it. I did everything I could think of including giving him liver water and continuing to weigh and supplement him as needed.

He ended up getting milk that dried on his back and it made it so the new hair didn’t grow in on that spot. As he got older I was able to wash it off and use castor oil on his spot to keep it from getting more dry. Eventually it flaked off and his hair grew in.

Another thing I did was get a grounding mat out on the days he wasn’t feeling well. I noticed he was always laying half on and half off the grounding mat. I also noticed that within a few minutes of putting him on the grounding mat he would become active and he would stay on it the entire time he was able to use it.

He started to do great and was nursing on his own and gaining weight and being active. He is doing so well now and I don’t expect him to have any issues growing up. I want to thank everyone who cheered for Johnny. I am grateful that I knew what to try to help him to grow and thrive. I have learned a lot from this situation so I’m hoping to carry that knowledge on in the future. If you are interested in seeing all of the behind the scenes and the really hard things that I have to do sometimes you can subscribe to my Instagram account where I share everything.

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