Out in the pen with Russ I found what looked like bloody urine. If you have been reading this blog, you know I immediately panicked. I knew he had a rough day but he hadn’t been acting like he was sick. I start googling and I knew it couldn’t be good. There is no vet opened here that will see a pig. The emergency vet will only see dogs and cats. I have antibiotics on hand here but hate to give it to him without knowing the actual problem. He is eating and drinking fine. He is still wagging his tail and acting normal. I came inside and a couple hours later my husband says, come on let’s go check on Russ. So we get up and go check on him. He is comfortably laying in the dog house. He was asleep but we distributed him. He grunts and reluctantly gets out of his house. He goes over and urinates and it’s completely clear. I’m not sure what it was I saw or thought I saw. I went over and looked and sure enough, completely clear. He acted a little upset that we woke him up. About that time I look over and he is backing himself into his house and bringing more straw around him. Ronnie will be checking on him throughout the day tomorrow and if he sees anything he will take him to the vet.

I have come to realize in the last couple of days that my newest dog, Bella, a black lab and my newest pig, Russ have an undeniable bond. Bella checks on Russ every time she is out. She stays by his side when she is out also. She will stick her head in the hog panels. They will walk back and through the fence together. It’s really cute. I didn’t realize fully they had bonded until earlier today. Russ was really happy to be with Bella out of his pen today. We will definitely have to do that more. I went out earlier to hang out with the pigs and went into the pen with Russ. I sat down on the ground and had him do his belly flop and was rubbing his belly. I think Bella thought Russ was hurt because she whined and cried and tried to crawl through the hog panel. Obviously she is too big to fit but she was sure trying. It was so funny. She finally made enough noise to get Russ up to show her he was fine. Silly animals.

I haven’t posted in awhile but I have a story this morning. Just a little back story first to get you caught up to where I am now. You know we added Russ to the farm a couple weeks ago. He was in a pen on his own to heal from his neuter. He has been running the fence row with the other pigs. So this weekend my husband and I got him in the pen with the other pigs. I was hoping they would get along and he would live in there with them and we could double the room in the pen by getting rid of the middle fence between the pens. It didn’t go too bad yesterday. There was some fighting but they really didn’t do like I thought they would. Didn’t even fight over food. In my head, I though, this was either than I thought. I went in the house and went to check a couple hours later. I didn’t want him to be without shelter and the top hog in that pen, Bacon Bit, hadn’t let him in the shelter. I go out and sure enough, they hadn’t accepted him enough to let him in the shelter. So, I took the dog house from the pen that he had been using and put it in that pen. I went back inside to let them figure it out. I ended up sleeping in this morning. When I got up, I started my feeding routine. I let the dogs out and they ran around a minute. I look out toward the pig pen and I see Russ... took me a minute to realize he was out of the pens completely just wondering the property. I panic. I get daisy (one of our black labs) back inside. And as soon as that happened Russ just walks up to me like, hey, good morning. I walk him back to the pen and was surprised he just followed me. I panicked because most of the others just run into the woods and it’s days before I get them back in. I put him in the pen and go to let Daisy back out. What I didn’t do was latch the bottom of the gate and I let Daisy back out and here comes Russ again. Daisy loves to try to herd the pigs when they get out. My worry was she has not acted friendly toward Russ since the beginning like she did with the others. So, I start screaming for Daisy. Well, she isn’t listening and add in my other lab, Bella, and they are running this pig in circles. I can’t get him back in because they want to chase him around the property. I just knew he was going to end up in the woods, which is my worst fear. At this point, Russ is in between the big pig pen and the little pig pen. He is standing between the fencing and the railroad tie. He is trying to catch his breath for a minute and is desperately trying to get back in the pen but can’t where he is. So is daisy at this point. Then once Daisy catches her breath and gets a drink of water, she is trying to get him out of there and the chase begins again.  I know I sounded like a crazy person screaming for the dogs and the pig. If I had been thinking rationally I would have just told Daisy to bring him to the pen and she would have. My husband comes out about then as I’m screaming like a crazy person and I said please get Daisy. He had no idea what was going on. I said Riss is out and he went in to put shoes on. Russ and Bella actually have a very strong bond so once Daisy was in the house, Bella calmed down and so did Russ. He just walked back to the pen with me. This time I latch the gate, top and bottom. I’m tired from chasing them also. I hadn’t even fed any of the animals yet. But, I needed a minute. The donkey is braying, the goats are bleating, the rest of the pigs are screaming. The wind has picked up and it’s about to pour down rain. I finally get myself together and go feed the animals. My husband is out with me trying to figure out where he got out and how the other pigs in that pen didn’t follow him out. Can you imagine 5 pigs running around?? Oh that’s a nightmare I hope to never face. The only thing we can figure is Russ got out while the other ones were asleep in the shelter which means he was probably out all night. He crawled under the fence they had been digging under and I hadn’t latched the gate when I put the doghouse in that other pen last night so he was able to walk right out. Looks like he has been rooting up in several areas throughout the night. I got the doghouse back in his pen and fed and watered him. I went back inside. Just went to check on him and the poor guy is exhausted. He was sound asleep in his pen. The moral to this story is, I don’t think he wants to be in with the other pigs. He has created more of a bond with my dog than with the other pigs. But in reality, he hasn’t been around other pigs except when he was a piglet. I’m not sure what happened in his first home, but the second didn’t have other pigs and the third only had a dog for him to interact with. So, we will be building him a shelter like the other ones have and leave him in there alone. He can still interact with the other pigs and still have his own space. Poor little guy.

We got Russ a week ago and had him neutered. Well, thankfully I knew that it would take a few weeks for him to completely be sterile, so there was a pen built especially for him. During the last couple of days, my two that need to be spayed went into heat. I’m still working on this. Well, since Russ’ hormones won’t completely level for up to 60 days and he isn’t completely sterile yet, there has been some behavior issues. I know those will level out so I’m not worried about it and am not rehoming him. He is now jumping up on me due to the others being in heat and him still having those hormones when around a female in heat. He cannot get to them, though he has tried to. I’m making this post to show how important it is to spay and neuter your animals. They are all a little miserable at the moment but that is all going to change soon.

I am heartbroken tonight. My sweet Pepper is having difficulty walking. She is a 10 year old Australia shepherd, blue heeler mix. She has been with me since she was a puppy. She broke her leg when she was a puppy and she does have arthritis in that leg. She has a limp when the weather is bad but normally she doesn’t have an issue. She started limping last night and had difficulty getting into the porch. I thought she had something in her paw but she didn’t. I knew something was wrong because she let me touch her paw, she hates that. I left her alone last night and let her rest. This morning she was limping but not terrible. When I got home from work. She got up and went outside, she ate and did her business and I let her back inside since she seemed miserable. I got her inside and she collapsed. She was unable to get back up. I picked her up, all 103 pounds of her and put her on a blanket to make her more comfortable. She did more to a different blanket but she was scooting and dragging her back legs. She is still trying to play with me. I’m letting her test for tonight and if she isn’t better in a couple days, she will be going to the vet. I’m so sad. She has been my baby since she came to live with me. She has been through a lot in her life; broken leg, stones in her bladder, etc. She is such a good dog but she is struggling and I hate it. I’m sad tonight. 

Poor patsy has been constipated again. I’m not sure why. I water the pellets down for that reason. Poor thing was so miserable. I got some baby formula and mixed it with warm water. Added some pumpkin and baby food. I made enough for all 8 pigs to make sure they got enough. Works every time. It didn’t take long for her problem to be fixed. I absolutely hate when one of them is having a problem. It just makes me hurt for them. I will be adding more of these things to their diet more often so this doesn’t happen. It’s about once a month for poor Patsy. She is my timid little girl. She loves the pumpkin and eating off the spoon. Brutus got jealous and bit me for not feeding him off the spoon so I had to remedy that. Russ loves it also. Definitely don’t want him getting constipated after surgery. I’m watching him closely.

The night we put Russ (the new pig) into the pen, we started hearing coyotes and super close and it was still daylight. Freaked me out completely. I stayed outside until well after dark making sure all of the animals were okay. Came in and sat down to relax and watch tv with the hubby. I was definitely on high alert. I thought I heard them again, so we went outside with a gun and a flashlight. Things are well lit where the pigs are and I keep getting told not to worry about it. I really try not to, but it doesn’t usually work. I constantly think about it after I hear coyotes. I always worry for nothing. I got up the next morning almost running outside to check on all of the animals and they were all fine. The joys of living in the country.