I never thought my next blog would be about a loss on our farm so quickly. We planned and researched for over a year on kunekunes and how to care for them as well as how to prepare our farm (fencing, housing, etc.) for their arrival. We had anticipated the day they would arrive for months. Most of the days leading up to their arrival were focused solely on making sure we would be able to meet their every need.
If you have followed along on our journey, then you know that we may have went a little overboard on their housing. We enjoyed building and learning as we went. And we sure did learn a lot! We researched what they could and could not eat in addition to pasture grass, which is their primary diet especially as they get older. We tried to take in as much information as we could but nothing in all of the research, preparation and planning could have prepared us for what was in store.
We drove almost 3 hours one way to pick up our little piglets on Saturday, March 31st. Blake and I spent the entire next week, almost every waking minute, with the new additions. We learned about their personalities and we fell in love with each one the minute we had them.
We were told by the breeder to de-worm the pigs in two weeks, so we did that at our local vet’s office. That was on Friday, April 13th. By the next day, our Lilly was sleeping more than what we thought was normal. The next day on Sunday we noticed she wasn’t grazing like our other two and by Monday evening we knew we had a sick pig on our hands. Now, granted, on Saturday, I was sending messages to animal friends and my vet asking about some of the signs we were seeing. We were also using Google as a reference too. But nothing really answered the question as to what was happening to Lilly.
Lilly wasn’t eating much but she was drinking water so we thought that was a good sign. She was constipated and not grazing so we were giving her apple water and apple sauce and even pumpkin puree to help with that. Nothing worked. On Tuesday we took her to the vet and were given something to coat her stomach and for an infection just in case she had eaten something that didn’t agree with her.
By Wednesday morning we knew Lilly was in trouble. Since, this is an honest blog there’s no other way to put it, but she was dying and we knew it. I raced Lilly back to the vet and by this time she was limp and not moving very much. They drew blood and told me that they needed to get fluids in her. They agreed to keep her overnight and I left without her, awaiting a call later to tell me what the results from the blood work were. The results were not positive. Lilly’s liver enzymes were off of the charts. She had toxicity in her system. In fact, the vet told me that she didn’t expect Lilly to live through the night but that she would do all that she could. They could not get an IV in Lilly for fluids so they did fluids under her skin, which is not as effective, but it was all that they could do.
That was a rough night at our farm. Piper, Lilly’s sister who had been with her since birth, seemed a little lost. Red, our companion male pig, who was always in charge (or at least he thinks he’s in charge!) kept grazing way past the time they normally do. It was like they were waiting on Lilly to come home before they could go to bed. Finally, I guess they resolved to themselves to the fact that Lilly wasn’t coming home and they went into their house. Normally, Piper and Lilly would go to bed curled up together and then Red would pile on top of them both. But that night, Piper walked around in circles for a bit, still looking for Lilly. Red was kind of by himself in the doorway. It was like they didn’t know what to do. It was heartbreaking. We just watched them and cried because we didn’t think Lilly would live through the night.
The next morning I didn’t hear from the vet immediately so I had a glimmer of hope. I am an educator so I was in testing and I couldn’t check my messages until mid morning. I did get a message that Lilly had lived through the night and was eating and drinking! I was so relieved and thankful. I went to see Lilly after work and got to hold her and love on her. She was still a little wobbly but she nipped at my finger and I just knew she was going to just keep getting better and better. I was told that they needed to continue to give her fluids and antibiotics and hopefully she would continue to improve. I left there with guarded joy because she was doing some better.
Early the next morning that little bit of hope was gone when I received a call saying that Lilly had died sometime during the night. Devastated and heartbroken. I know that may be hard to understand us feeling this way about a pig, but it’s the truth. Until this day, I never knew I could love a pig so much.
That entire day, we all questioned ourselves as to was it something that we did wrong? Was there something we didn’t know to do and that made her sick? Our daughter Kaylee said it best in her Facebook post:
“We had the joy of having you for 19 days, but we loved you long before that. Countless weeks were spent preparing for your arrival at our home, along with your brother and sister. You were the topic of many conversations before we ever met you. When you arrived home, you only stole our hearts even more. When you love something so much, so quickly, nothing can prepare you for when it is taken from you. I can’t help but to think how unfair it is that you were taken from us so early, but I find comfort in the fact that you are no longer in pain. We had you for 19 days, Lilly, and we loved you every single second of it. Rest easy, sweet girl.”
We may never know why Lilly became so sick and why she died, but all we know is how sad we are for the loss. But we also know that our dream of our small hobby farm continues and we will move on and we will find more joy with our farm animals than we could ever imagine.
