Midwife at a difficult birth

Doris, one of our Berkshire sows, started farrowing this afternoon, delivering five good-sized piglets in quick succession.

It all went downhill after that as the next piglet got stuck in the birth canal.

I had to strip off my shirt and sweater, roll the sleeve of my boiler suit right up, plunge my arm into dilute antiseptic and then carefully insert my hand in Doris’s vagina and turn the piglet so it could pass through the cervix from the uterus.

The piglet had clearly been dead for some time, which was probably why it had stuck.

Another piglet was farrowed and then another one became stuck.

Again, it was time to insert my arm. This time it was much more difficult as the piglet was very large and well developed.

It took some time to get the piglet aligned, which meant it suffered foetal anoxia and could not be revived.

With the stuck piglet out of the way, the afterbirth was free to come out and then it was time to deliver the piglets from the other horn of the uterus.

Six piglets came out very swiftly this time, but again there were complications with Doris starting to bleed quite freely.

On top of that, the earlier delays meant three of the six piglets were not breathing.

I managed to get one revived simply by clearing its airway and then giving it a vigorous downward shake, but the other two required more effort.

Each one had to have its airway cleared, then be given a firm downward shake, a couple of breaths through the mouth and snout, then another shake, and another couple of breaths.

Success!

Another two revived and joining the throng for nipples.

But it was soon apparent that Doris was still having difficulties as more blood was trickling from her vulva, she was having unproductive contractions and then she had a serious convulsion, arching her back, trembling violently and vomiting.

In a mature sow like Doris, the last piglets in each horn travel around five feet from the far end of the uterus to the vagina.

During their trip along the uterus, the umbilical cord usually remains connected with the placenta and supplies enough oxygen for for the piglet to survive.

But a piglet at the very upper end of the uterus has a much greater chance of the umbilical cord becoming detached from the placenta during farrowing.

The same thing can happen when a piglet obstructs the cervix and other piglets are forced into it by the sow’s contractions.

The lack of oxygen results in dead pigs at birth (foetal anoxia), or weak pigs that die later.

On top of that, placental separation can result in a serious loss of blood for the sow, which is what I suspected was happening with Doris.

The Other Half called the vet while I cleaned my arm again and this time inserted it right up to my armpit.

I found a very small piglet right at the end of my arm’s reach and carefully encouraged it out. It took a few minutes to ease it out, and again it wasn’t breathing.

I cleared its airway and gave it a good downward shake, but to no avail.

Mouth to mouth didn’t work initially either, so there was one last trick to try - stick a finger down its throat.

That stimulated the gag reflex, which stimulated the whole body and with a huge shudder for such a tiny body, the piglet suddenly came to life.

I placed it with the other piglets and waited for the afterbirth.

The blood flow had now started to die away, but Doris then had another convulsion.

Just as she relaxed from that, she had a contraction and a small piece of afterbirth emerged.

About two minutes later, the vet arrived!

The vet gave Doris an internal examination and confirmed there were no piglets left, but there was still some afterbirth to come.

Doris was then given a shot of antiobiotics as a precaution - having had a number of internal interventions that could introduce bacteria - and a shot of calcium to control shock from blood loss.

The vet was surprised that I was prepared to give the pigs mouth-to-mouth, saying most people wouldn’t go that far.

But I’m not most people and I like to give them all the best chance to survive. Besides, in a purely pragmatic sense, it means we have another four piglets.

All 13 surviving piglets are now suckling well and Doris has settled down well, so it’s all looking positive for now.

Probably the best aspect to the whole afternoon though, was that we had friends of the boys visiting.

The two girls and their mum were enthralled by the whole procedure, especially when I allowed the older girl, about seven years old, to come into the pen and watch two of the piglets being delivered.

It’s not something I’d do with just any pig or any visitor, but I’ve trained Doris well enough to safely have one onlooker in with me, while J was very well behaved and calm throughout.

I think she, her sister and their mum will have something to talk about for days.

As for me, I’ve made an executive decision and we’ll have a fish supper for dinner. (Photos to come later.)