The story of Francis P. Oink
Things on a farm can be magical… They can also be tragic. Most weeks, it is a mix of both.
On Friday, May 27, 2022, Truffles, one of my KuneKune sows, went into labor, and after a few bumps in the process, she gave birth to seven healthy piglets.
Fast forward to Sunday evening when she spiked a fever of 105.2. Thankfully, I have a wonderful, responsive vet that texted me back even though he was camping with his family. He suspected a uterine infection and said he would be there in the morning to give her an antibiotic injection.
After he had given her the medication and left, I started to head up to the house, but something made me take a detour to the pig pen to check on mama. What I found stopped me in my tracks. With such a high fever, she was a little out of it, and she rolled over pinning a piglet’s head underneath her.
He wasn’t moving.
In a panic, I ran in and pulled him out. He was lifeless. No breathing. No heartbeat. No color. As I held his limp body, I immediately started CPR.
I know. On a piglet? Yep.
For what seemed like forever, I did chest compressions and breathed into his snout. After about three minutes, my head was saying, “Stop. He is gone,” but my heart just kept driving my actions.
And then I heard it. A gasp. It sounded like an animal taking their last breaths, but it was coming from this little guy. Fifteen seconds passed, and there was a second gasp. Then a third. His heart was beating again, and he was fighting to come back. I held him to my chest for the next 20 minutes. His breathing started to even out, but his eyes remained shut. His body quiet.
I brought him to the house, wrapped him in a blanket, and held him. Over the next hour, his feet started twitching, an eye partially opened, and he made a little squeak.
I continued to hold him next to me for the next six hours. During that time, slowly, his body functions came back. At 6:30 pm, his sucking reflex returned. Now, he was hungry! It didn’t take him long to adjust to eating out of the milk bubble.
The name we gave him in his first three days of life was “Toto.” In his second life, he has been renamed “Francis” as I know there were higher powers at work on my farm that day. He was eating, and crying, and cruising around like any other four day old piglet.
I have always believed in miracles. But now, I have witnessed one first hand.
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