The Billy Ray Fanpage

Billy Ray is a Hereford Hog born on January 30, 2021 a Triple H Farms in Hamilton, AL. The Harris family that owns Triple H Farms are also wonderful and knowledgeable animal lovers and were able to recognize right off that something with this little guy was off. He was not walking correctly and was not able to keep up with his littermates on eating or growing, but was also less than half their size. They removed him from his litter and had began bottle feeding him by hand but he still would do nothing but drag his front left leg, but they continued trying. They had this little piglet in a box when my dad went by to pick up a sausage order we had made and it was jokingly asked if he also wanted to take the piglet home. If you know my dad, you know he said absolutely not. Where he made the mistake was coming home to tell me about this weak little bottle fed piglet they were trying to give away at the sausage farm. He didn't get the door shut good to the house and I was already in my care headed to pick him up. I called the Harris's and let them know I was on my way to get him and they had him ready for me in a cardboard box that said "fatback", a jar full of goat milk and a bottle. This is where our adventure began.

On February 8, 2021, at 9 days old, I brought Billy Ray home and immediately starting searching for a vet that would treat a piglet. He was just like having a newborn baby with feedings every 2-3 hours, sometimes more. I finally came across Emerson Animal Hospital in West Point, MS, who agreed to take a look at him and see what our options would be. He was only 2.4 lbs and I had already came to terms that the vet was probably going to recommend euthanasia as the most humane thing to do. After an exam and x-ray, they let me know that his shoulder was dislocated in addition to his leg being broken. They had been able to put his shoulder back in and offered to try casting the leg to see if it would heal, they didn't know the outcome but felt it would be worth a try before euthanasia. Obviously my answer was to cast him! After numerous vet visits to adjust and replace splints and casts due to the rapid rate of growth hogs over a 2.5 month period his x-ray showed everything had healed and his shoulder was staying in place! Efforts were a success and this little piglet has been living the life ever since!

We will probably have to eventually have him put down because as his weight and size increase that leg and shoulder will most likely develop significant issues with arthritis and be unable to support his weight, but we will address that when we get there. For now, he's happy, healthy, still about half the size of a normal male Hereford hog his age, still thinking he is a dog and not a pig and loving ear and belly rubs and we are going to let him have that as long as he can!

Unfortunately, we had to put Billy Ray down in late 2022 due to his size and the problems he began having getting around that would only continue to worsen with his growing size. We loved him and he loved life, we miss him every day.