Tag Archives: Mini Pigs

Miracles Do Happen

Things on a farm can be magical… They can also be tragic.  Most weeks, it is a mix of both. 

Truffles’ newest litter

Friday, Truffles, one of my KuneKune sows, went into labor, and after a few bumps in the process, she gave birth to seven healthy piglets.

Fast forward to Sunday evening when she spiked a fever of 105.2.  Thankfully, I have a wonderful, responsive vet that texted me back even though he was camping with his family.  He suspected a uterine infection and said he would be there in the morning to give her an antibiotic injection. 

After he had given her the medication and left, I started to head up to the house, but something made me take a detour to the pig pen to check on mama.  What I found stopped me in my tracks.  With such a high fever, she was a little out of it, and she rolled over pinning a piglet’s head underneath her.

He wasn’t moving. 

In a panic, I ran in and pulled him out.  He was lifeless.  No breathing.  No heartbeat.  No color.  As I held his limp body, I immediately started CPR. 

I know.  On a piglet?  Yep. 

For what seemed like forever, I did chest compressions and breathed into his snout.  After about three minutes, my head was saying, “Stop.  He is gone,” but my heart just kept driving my actions. 

Little one right after he was revived

And then I heard it.  A gasp.  It sounded like an animal taking their last breaths, but it was coming from this little guy.  Fifteen seconds passed, and there was a second gasp.  Then a third.  His heart was beating again, and he was fighting to come back.  I held him to my chest for the next 20 minutes.  His breathing started to even out, but his eyes remained shut.  His body quiet.

I brought him to the house, wrapped him in a blanket, and held him.  Over the next hour, his feet started twitching, an eye partially opened, and he made a little squeak.

I continued to hold him next to me for the next six hours.  During that time, slowly, his body functions came back.  At 6:30 pm, his sucking reflex returned.  Now, he was hungry! It didn’t take him long to adjust to eating out of the milk bubble.

Hoping that snuggles will bring him back fully

The name we gave him in his first three days of life was “Toto.”  In his second life, he has been renamed “Francis” as I know there were higher powers at work on my farm yesterday.  For now, he is eating, and crying, and cruising around like any other four day old piglet. 

I have always believed in miracles.  But yesterday, I witnessed one first hand. 

Francis drinking from his milk bubble

The Three Not So Little Pigs

Baby Wilbur, Hamlet, & Willow

When I first bought my farm, I learned something new about my mom.  She loves pigs.  I had no idea that ever since she was young, she had always wanted a pig of her own.  Well, what self-respecting child can say no to their mama when she wants a pig, and they have a farm that can make that dream happen? 

With mom’s birthday coming up, I decided to get her that pig.  Of course, once my niece, Domonique, heard that Grammi was getting a pig, SHE wanted a pig, too.  So we all piled in the car and drove four hours to the outskirts of the Sierra National Forest where we met a breeder of “Mini Pigs”… Oh, did I have a lot to learn.

We were shown the piglets’ mothers and assured that the babies would grow to this same size, the size of a corgi.  Smitten with the adorable noses and endearing eyes, we bought it (and them), hook, line, and squeaker. 

Mom picked out a little brown piglet with watermelon stripes that she named “Wilbur”, and Domonique and my nephew, Tyler, chose a white piglet with black spots.  He became “Hamlet”.

With two piglets in our arms, my mom casually mentioned that we really needed three, “You know, the three little pigs.” Back to the piglet pen we went to pick out the last of the trio, an adorable black piglet with white markings that Tyler named “Willow”.

Domonique sleeping next to the piglets to make sure they weren’t scared on their first night home & Tyler with Wilbur on “Gotcha Day”

I honestly never thought I would have a pig. I didn’t know a lot about pigs, and I had never really thought much about them either.  Both of those things were seriously about to change!

What the pig breeder neglected to tell us was that the mothers of our piglets were only six months old.  And that pigs grow until they are five years old.  And that a “mini pig” is any pig that is under 300 pounds.  When the pigs hit 100 pounds, I contacted the breeder to tell her.  She told me that I must have fed them too much.  What?  They weren’t fat.  They were just big pigs.

Our trio had been under the care of a livestock veterinarian since they were little, and the vet and I both made sure to monitor their weight as to not have them get overweight. Obesity is a big problem in pet pigs.

Willow, Wilbur, and Hamlet at a year old, pushing 100 lbs. (Photo credit to Sarah Hitzeman)

So our three little piglets turned out to be not so little.  And they aren’t the corgi sized pigs we were promised. They are pot-bellied pigs, weighing in now at a slim and trim 150 pounds at three and a half years old.  Regardless, we love them the same, and they are entertaining, intelligent, and loving creatures.

Even though the breeder offered to replace them for “smaller” pigs when I contacted her about their size, I wouldn’t trade them for the world.  I did however have to build them a much bigger house as what I thought was going to be a mansion for them turned out to be a studio apartment.

Wilbur, Hamlet, and Willow sparked a love of pigs in me, and ultimately, led me to discover the KuneKune pigs which I now keep and breed here at Twisted Oak Farms.

Like all other farm life experiences, there was a big lesson to be learned… Do your research.  Don’t just read the things that support the side of the story you want to hear.  Look at all sides. Make sure that you go into something new with your heart AND your eyes open.

If you want to see more of the trio, check out their Facebook page, The Three Little Pigs.

Tiffanie

#farmgirltough #itsanattitudenotalocation