Well, THAT Day Didn't Quite Go As Planned

Photo by Mrs. FC.




I know... based on yesterday's post, you clicked here expecting some gardening post. I was supposed to be planting blueberries and grape vines as I recall.

I was also going to start deer proofing a section of garden with a really tall fence. The grey skies I had mentioned in Sunday's post had almost instantly turned bright blue after I finished my pancakes, and the day outside was looking beautiful.



In between clicking "publish" on yesterday's post and going out to garden, I had one little household chore to do.

A sink drain was slow dripping into the cabinet below it and I had bought a new drain thingie to replace the old.

Should be a simple job, off with the old, on with the new. I even bought a spud wrench so the job would go quick.



I grabbed my tools and slid under the sink.

Piece of caaaaaa.....



Three hours later, I grabbed the dremel tool and cut off the offending spud nutflangethingamajig from hell that was apparently welded to the old drain with 19 years of goo. It had resisted hours of wrenching, pounding, cursing ...

When it finally came loose, I began wrestling the new drain into place.



Another hour and I was outside. I had repotted one tiny blueberry plant when I noticed that our show pig, Chewie, was not feeling well. In fact she was in distress and was going down hill.
Fast.

Pigs can die suddenly from stress, often without any reason obvious to humans.

Chewie was crashing.

I dashed inside, told the crew she was in dire straits, and we all went into pig emergency mode.

Junior went off to buy Gatorade, Mrs. FC grabbed a giant syringe that we keep for this sorta thing, I went back out to comfort Chewie and call Denny, our pig expert.



By this time Chewie was lying on her side, barely breathing with her eyes shut. I knelt beside her rubbing her ears and belly as I talked to Denny on the cellphone. We went down a list of symptoms and she came up a mystery, which meant it was probably porcine stress syndrome.

She did feel warmer than usual and the possibility of an infection of some kind seemed plausible too.

Electrolytes and an antibiotic were the suggested treatments.

Junior arrived with the Gatorade and we mixed a cocktail of leftover doggy antibiotic and orange Gatorade. This was syringed into her mouth in small amounts.



In a little while she stood up and walked around. She even did some snuffling in the dirt, but not with her usual enthusiasm.

Mrs. FC put a towel down in Chewies shelter and sat with her, comforting her, and slurping Gatorade into her mouth with the syringe.



Late last night, Junior went out to check her and she was up and eating from her feeder.
Wonderful!

A few minutes ago, in the predawn darkness, I slipped her some Gatorade and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the contents of an antibiotic capsule mixed in. She got up to greet me when I walked out and fed from her feeder while I scratched her ears.

I don't know if we are out of the woods yet, but those are positive signs.