Agalactia in sows

Agalactia in sows, the failure of a sow to make milk available to her litter, is illustrated by an urgent night call concerning Marigold. Her udder contained milk, but none could be expressed until James Herriot treated her with pituitrin. The case distinguishes a failure of milk let-down from a lack of milk or mastitis, and shows how promptly identifying that difference could avert the starvation of a large litter.

The Problem and Its Signs

At about one o’clock in the morning, Mr. Worley asked James Herriot to come because Marigold had farrowed that afternoon and he feared she had little milk. She had produced fourteen piglets. He was worried both about the sow, who was lying inactive, and about the litter, which appeared hungry.

The piglets’ condition made the delay consequential: Herriot observed that they were not being nourished and understood that a litter could weaken if it stopped trying to suck. Yet Marigold’s own signs did not suggest that she was gravely ill. She had eaten as usual, and her temperature was normal. Those details mattered because the apparent absence of milk did not, by itself, establish what was wrong.

Herriot examined the udder by drawing on the teats in turn. The piglets, moved aside during the examination, tried to suck at his fingers, but he could not express even a bead of milk. At the same time, the udder seemed full, even engorged. The mismatch between a milk-filled udder and no milk reaching the teats became the key evidence in the diagnosis.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Herriot identified the condition as agalactia, while ruling out mastitis and saying that Marigold was not really ill. His explanation was that something was interfering with the let-down mechanism: milk was present, but was not being released. This distinction directed the treatment away from addressing an infection and toward restoring milk flow.

He told Mr. Worley that an injection ought to bring the milk down. In the account, pituitrin is described as acting within a minute; the procedure itself required little skill, but its effect was conspicuous. Herriot gave Marigold three cubic centimetres deep into the muscle of her thigh. She did not object, and remained attentive to Mr. Worley while he stayed close to her.

After putting away his syringe, Herriot waited briefly before checking the udder again. The speed of the change made the moment a small demonstration as well as a treatment: the milk had not been absent from the sow, but its release had been interrupted. When Herriot tried to show that it had come down, he aimed the stream past Mr. Worley and accidentally sprayed his spectacles. The mishap punctured the suspense without changing the medical result.

Recovery and Significance

Mr. Worley then tried the udder himself and confirmed that milk was flowing. The piglets quickly settled to suckle in a row, replacing their restless competition for nourishment with the feeding they had lacked. Their response showed the practical consequence of correcting the let-down problem: the litter could obtain milk, rather than simply relying on reassurance that the sow possessed it.

The episode turns on a compact sequence of observation, distinction, and response. Marigold had eaten and had a normal temperature; the udder was full, yet Herriot could not express milk. Taken together, those facts supported a specific explanation and a targeted intervention. The narrative emphasizes both the risk of leaving the piglets without nourishment and the speed with which the case changed once the cause was addressed.

The relief was also shared between farmer and veterinarian. Mr. Worley’s anxiety had been sharpened by the size of the litter and by his close concern for Marigold; after the injection, he could verify the result with his own hand. The case therefore presents agalactia not as a generalized account of sow illness, but as a particular postpartum problem in which available milk and accessible milk are not the same. Its resolution depends on recognizing that difference before the piglets lose the strength to feed.