Ok I realized it's been quite a while since I've actually posted a blog and I've fell off the blog duties. This issue today kind of made me realize others may actually want to know some of this stuff so here you go .
This evening I went out to do the evening farm duties and found our two year old hog Bella , salivating, disoriented and stumbling around. I went up to her and felt her and her skin was hot to touch. The heat index for today had lingered around 105 degrees. Of course it's been staying that way I know for the last month . Well apparently today Bella finally gave in to the high temperature s and just couldn't fight it off. She'd been doing great dealing with it up to now but today was the straw that broke the camels back.
So I immediately started watering her down with the water hose hoping to dissipate some of the heat. I began to hand feed her water and changed over to Gatorade. I put colder water into her wallow and manipulated the 380 pound behemoth into the wallow to again dissipate the heat. Once she had began to cool I got her to start drinking the Gatorade and she eventually went through two and a half gallons. By the evening hours nearly 3. She did regain her composure and made it into her house resting from the event.
Now I realize this could have been avoided by keeping a closer watch on this hog especially with this heat wave still ongoing. The heat has just lingered for way to long a period of time for the add animals to deal with for prolonged periods . So at this point not only will they be getting wet down throughout the day but added electrolytes in their drinking water that will be changed out frequently to keep cooler and provide some relief. We already have the fans going 24/7 so hopefully keeping the air moving will provide some relief as well.
Lastly I'm hoping this heat wave will end . It's really making it hard on everyone. I especially feel for the animals. They've got to be super miserable in this oppressive heat.
I look forward to fall weather . 🥵
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