Why I will never use Oxytocin again
A traumatic week of valuable lessons that I will never forget...
After the week I’ve just endured I thought I needed to put my story out there – not only in the hope that perhaps another pig farmer may read this and learn something, but also to clear my head and make sense of it all.
Warning: I have included details that some people may find confronting and upsetting. I have also withheld some details that really don’t need to be told. If you’re a farmer and you think you could be in a similar situation, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Monday....
Monday morning should have been the start of a very productive week. Scott was heading off down south to tend to bee hives in central NSW and I had a list of chores and a multitude of orders to work through for next week’s pork orders.
Scott headed off bright and early and I went down to the pig paddock to do the morning feed run and check on one of our sows, Cindy, that was now three days overdue. She was showing signs of farrowing the evening before and I was expecting to find a beautiful new litter suckling on their mum.
I was surprised to find Cindy still preparing her nest and wandering around, but I left her alone and decided I would come back a little later to check on her.
Later that morning I headed back down to the paddock, fully prepared with OB gloves, lubricant and a bucket of fresh water. She was now lying down, which meant I was able to perform a quick internal examination, but I couldn’t feel any piglets stuck in the birth canal.
I called the vet to explain the situation and he suggested I come in immediately to get some Oxytocin (the drug used to induce labour). So, I jumped in the ute and headed straight in. I told the vet exactly what I had done so far, including an internal examination up to my elbow. I took the vials of Oxytocin and rushed back home to give Cindy her first dose (he gave me three low doses that needed to be given every hour if it didn’t work after the first dose).
The Oxytocin started to work within 15 minutes and you could see her womb contracting… but still no piglets came. I waited two hours before giving her another dose… again no piglets came. I decided against the last dose of Oxytocin.
By this stage, Cindy was getting tired and I needed to give her a break. I went about my normal routine for the rest of the day followed by my usual afternoon feed run. She still hadn’t delivered.
Baffled, I came up to the house, had something to eat, then decided it was time to consult “Dr Google”… and so I googled, “How to remove a stuck piglet”. I was overwhelmed by the pages of information and detailed videos, but within 15 minutes I was armed with the knowledge I needed and at 10pm I headed back down to the paddock with my usual array of farrowing gear (gloves, water, lubricant, etc) and a torch.
Following my new found knowledge, I squeezed in behind her on the dirt in the shelter. I knew I was in all of the muck behind her, but I also knew I had no choice. I gently slid my gloved arm into her and this time I kept going until I was almost up to my armpit (yes, that is just over 50cm!). I found two piglets tangled together coming out back legs first and stuck just on the other side of the cervix. It took about 5 minutes of twisting, pushing and pulling to finally get the first one free and I slowly pulled it from her.
Amazingly, it was alive!! I was so excited and I exclaimed, “Cindy, it’s alive! It’s alive!”. I rubbed it all over and cleared it’s airway before putting it down by her side.
I immediately entered her again to pull the other piglet that had been facing legs first. It too was alive (but only just).
The next piglet was head first, but stillborn. The next also head first, but alive. After that, I was just pulling one stillborn piglet after another. I got to five stillborns and she stopped contracting. I performed another internal examination and couldn’t feel anything. It was now well after midnight and we were both exhausted. With every muscle in my body screaming out, I slowly got up off the ground and left her for the night.
Tuesday....
The next morning, the piglet that was poorly the night before had passed away – she now had two babies left. I gave her some long-acting penicillin to prevent her from getting sick (from me having to enter her so many times).
I dropped into the vet to give him an update and told him I had given her penicillin. He said that was the right thing to do and one dose should be enough.
I had to go to Kingaroy that day and when I got home I was so exhausted I fell asleep for two hours – my body was sore and oh so tired. That afternoon when I went down to do the feed run Cindy was in the wallow trying to cool down. When she saw me she got up and came over to me and basically pushed her rear in my face for me to check her – when I did I was shocked to find two legs just inside the entrance and had to use both hands to pull the piglet gently from her (we were now up to six stillborns).
She was still very uncomfortable and after a couple of hours I convinced her to lay down for me. I did another internal examination and found a piglet stuck on the other side of the pelvis. I didn’t know what to do because she was closing up (getting tight) and I didn’t have the strength to pull it.
I called Scott to tell him what was happening and incredibly one of the guys he works with, Ben, was listening in to the call and it turns out he used to work in a piggery. After we ended our call Ben called me back to talk me through it. I tried everything he suggested, but still couldn’t get it to budge. After 30 minutes or so Ben called me again to tell me he’d spoken with his father and from his father’s own experience he assured me that I could leave it and it will come out on it’s own (possibly in pieces, but it will come). He also told me I will need to continue with the penicillin for 5 days to ensure she doesn’t get an infection. So, at 8:30pm, I gave her a hug and headed back to the house, had something to eat and fell asleep.
Wednesday...
Nothing really happened on Wednesday. Cindy was still very uncomfortable. I had to make her come back to her two remaining babies to feed them, but she was staying strong.
Thursday...
I headed down to the paddock at around 5:30am to do a quick feed run and load four large pigs on the trailer to go off farm. Sadly Cindy had rolled on one of her babies during the night and there was just one little girl left.
I did my return trip to Biggenden and when I got home I immediately went back down to the paddock to check on Cindy. She was in the wallow and when she saw me she got up to reveal she had another piglet coming out, so I quickly pulled it from her. I realised this wasn’t the same piglet that I had tried to remove on Tuesday night, which means she must have already passed that one somewhere in the paddock and we were now up to 10 (or more) dead piglets.
I took her little girl up to the house to look after her for the afternoon. She was dehydrated and hungry. Surprisingly, she ate a whole banana! Then we had a sleep on the lounge together.
Later that afternoon, I took the little girl back down to the paddock. I got Cindy to lay down again in her nest and tried to get some milk from her for her baby. Only small amounts of milk would come, but I thought it would be enough to give her a decent feed before nightfall.
Friday...
I went back down to the paddock early again to check on both Cindy and her little girl. Cindy had vanished from the nest and had left her baby to fend for herself. She was hardly breathing – I actually thought she was already dead because she was so cold. I tucked her up under my t-shirt to get some of my body heat and quickly finished the feed run.
I went back to find Cindy. She was lying about 20 metres away and had passed another two piglets and the placentas. This now brought the total to 12.
I rushed back up to the house with the little piglet up my shirt. I wrapped her in a towel with the hot water bottle and heat bag to try to get some warmth back into her, but I think I already knew it was too late. She had hyperthermia and I held her in my arms when she took her final breath. My heart broke.
Saturday...
Cindy was a little brighter on Saturday morning, but still not eating. She had her last penicillin injection, which should mean she will start eating within the next day or so.
Sunday...
Cindy passed another stillborn piglet in the afternoon. It wasn’t pretty. You could see she was immediately starting to look better – hopefully, this was the last! Her total litter count was now 14 (that I knew of) – I can see that Cindy is just as devastated as I am.
Monday...
Cindy finally started to show some interest in her feed in the morning, which is a great sign! She didn’t eat much, but she did eat.
Hopefully this means that Cindy is now on the road to recovery. She’s still very poorly, probably from the course of penicillin and you can see that she’s very sad that she lost her whole litter. She’s a beautiful strong well natured sow.
She may never be able to carry again, but we will give her a few months to recover to see if she’s interested in mating again. It will be entirely up to her.
In retrospect...
I wish I had not used the Oxytocin and I do believe this is what caused her unborn piglets to die. If I had known that an internal examination needs to be that deep I would have been able to clear those two piglets on Monday morning and she would have likely had a very easy normal farrowing.
I also regret not removing the two piglets that did survive. Cindy had gone into survival mode and she wasn’t interested in looking after those piglets – which is understandable. I could have waited until she had pushed out all of the remaining piglets and then put them back with her.
I also don’t understand why we didn’t cover the problems faced during farrowing when I did my Certificate III in Agriculture (Pork Production) – why isn’t that included in the curriculum? We covered all of the signs of farrowing, the “hazards” of handling a pregnant sow and expected timings, but none of the “what ifs”. FYI – We don’t really have any hazards with our girls – as you can see, they trust us completely.
Valuable lessons...
Listening to the advice from an experienced farmer is priceless. We have to remember that vets can’t know everything about every animal on the planet. I think I owe Ben’s dad a carton of beer!
Oxytocin is not something that should be relied on. It’s a very powerful drug (even in low doses) that can have severe side effects. If a sow has a blockage (ie: a stuck piglet) and is administered Oxytocin to induce labour, she can literally squeeze the life right out of them by crushing them. This is because the piglets are not able to move out of the womb due to the blockage and are therefore pushed up against each together. I know that now, but I didn’t know enough about the drug before using it on Cindy… I will never use it on any of my pigs ever again.
I can’t dwell on the mistakes I made this week. Yes, I’m very sad (and tired), but I need to take what I’ve learned and move on knowing that I will never make the same mistakes again.
