Managing Miss Bea

Big Bea is in labor.  Finally!

As usual, when one of my animals is ready to have a baby (or 8, or 10), I become nearly (?) obsessed with making sure they are comfortable, making sure the babies have the best chance at life, making sure I don't leave anything else to chance....  Micromanaging at it's finest.

The sheep having their lambs in the spring?  I try to be sure I'm there in case the little lambs need their noses wiped so they can breathe.  Or so that there is help if one of the ewes has a very large lamb being born and it's stuck.  

Bessie giving birth to her once-a-year calf?  I'm out there nearly every hour checking to be sure labor hasn't started, or that she has enough water, or that the door to the cow's living quarters is shut against the west wind if it happens to be a very cold night.

Rabbits....  I've kind of gotten used to that.  There seem to be a lot of casualties with rabbit births that I couldn't micromanage if I tried.  But if I catch a mother in the act, I'll watch from the shadows so as not to startle her, cheer her on and praise her (quietly, of course).

And pigs.  I bring them into the barn, where a nice comfy stall is bedded with fresh straw.  The sows get the royal treatment.  

Not just dry feed, but that same feed DUMPED INTO THEIR WATER BOWL so that they get enough water in the last week of pregnancy.  

Not just an ear scratch now and then, but I stop to rub the tops of their noses, or to scritch my fingers down their spine just to see them squirm in delight.

Not just any old hay (usually it's what the cows reject) but a nice green section of a bale of soft grass and alfalfa.

Not just a quick "here's your breakfast" but a meal served as my alert eye watches for any sign of impending labor.

Not just bedding that they can soil or keep clean at their own choosing.  But when they poo in their nest or bed because they are bigger and bulkier and more clumsy than usual, I throw in fresh straw to cover it, just in case that hour is the hour in which the piglets will make their appearance.

Bea's situation is somewhat out of the ordinary.  Normally, the due date comes, the hogs will be on time or a couple of days late, and then the piglets are here.  It's a joyful day.

No, Bea decided to play the part of princess/drama queen, and has been set up in style in the maternity suite for not just a week or two, but 4 whole weeks.  

I now know exactly where on her snout she likes to be scratched the most.  I know that she will sink into the straw with her nose mashed against the side of the stall, just to keep me scratching the favorite spot.  

I know that she needs to go on a serious diet when these babies are done nursing.  I know that she has a tiny bit of mange on the tip of her ears that didn't start until she was inside the barn.  

I know.....that instead of being in labor for so many nights when she seemed uncomfortable, her body was just taking the dramatic route of getting ready to give birth.  Wheezing breaths, tortured sighs, back leg pulled up to her abdomen, little rhinoceros style tail flicking around when things felt uncomfortable.  Piglets kicking and moving under her skin was enough to get that little tail flicking as if she was going to spill out each and every one of them in rapid succession.

I was fooled into thinking she was in labor many, many times.  The next morning, about the time I could see that there were no piglets in the pen with her, she would perk up and look eagerly for breakfast.

It has been a rather sleepless month.

Instead of actually getting pregnant when she first met the boar back in July, she must have just barely missed her window of conception opportunity.  Had I known that, I would not have left her with the boar in their snug little family nest.  Piglets being born as winter sets in was not in the plans.

Bea apparently got pregnant exactly 3 weeks after I thought she had been bred.  Their fertility cycle is 21 days.  Makes perfect sense.  If only I had known that her already huge belly and dragging milk-makers did NOT mean imminent delivery back on November 9!!!  That would have spared me (and Bea) so much scrutinizing and agonizing and sleepless nights.

So now, we wait.   

She has frantically made her nest, torn it apart, pawed it back together, rested her heavy jowls on the piles of straw, heaved sighs of pain and relief.....taken little naps in between ripples of contractions.

She has fresh water and is choosing not to drink it.  She's much rather paw at the straw that has been repositioned numerous times already.

Her milk makers are full and ready for babies to empty them.  I think she'll be quite relieved when they do.

She has shifted and hoisted and positioned herself, only to not be quite satisfied and do it all again with a heavy sigh as the next wave of discomfort washes over her mountainous body.  

If I was feeling impatient all month since bringing her in to the maternity ward, it was nothing compared to this exhausted IMPATIENCE of knowing that it will all finally end and her babies will be here.  But that is isn't just yet!

By the time you read this, the piglets should be safely delivered and the news should be much less frustrating.  :)

 

Laura