Head Over Hooves Farm Sanctuary

02/15/2025

Nova’s got the most adorable and thoughtful Valenswine 🥹❤️

One of the dumpster pigs we fostered a few years ago, Squash, asked Nova to be his special Valenswine, and even sent her a new fluffy bed, a blanket, and some snacks, along with this ADORABLE poem 🥹…

Dear Future Wifey,
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue.
I’ve never seen another Pig
As Beautiful as YOU!
Please accept these Gifts
So your life’s as cozy as Mine.
And then please say you’ll be
My ValenSWINE!! ❤️

Love,
Squash
P.S. My mommy says you have to share any snacks with my Cousins, but I wouldn’t if I was you 😉

She’s a very loved little girl 💖

02/11/2025

This queen loves a good party 🥳🐷😄

Spring weekend are starting to fill up with birthday parties 🥳🎉 Midge would love to help your kids celebrate their birthdays on the farm! Please message us for party details and to reserve your date!
This pic was when we sent Midge to our neighbor Waynes to deliver his bday gift. In all of his 86 years, this was the first time he had a gift delivered by a party pig, and in turn, she got to share his cake with him. She said it was totally worth the walk 😄🥰

02/11/2025

Well, this isn’t what we were hoping for, but what we most certainly expected. My jaw hit the floor and took a good minute to pick back up when Ron told me he felt babies moving around in Nova’s belly yesterday 😳😳😳😳😳 You can see them in the video if you watch closely, especially towards the end. We suspected she was pregnant because her full belly doesn’t match her emaciated body. But I was actually leaning towards her NOT being pregnant a few days ago because the swelling in her back end came down a bit. I was wrong 🙈

We aren’t sure exactly when she’ll deliver, but we’re guessing we have about another 4-5 weeks. I spoke to Dr. Wilbers this morning and went over what signs to look for, what to expect, how to best care for Nova and her piglets from here on out.

This little girl is such a fighter and is getting stronger by the day, we’re seeing great improvements. As much as we wish she didn’t have to go through a pregnancy and share her nutrients she so desperately needs for herself, we’re happy she’s with us to help her through it 💖

02/10/2025

🤩 Best Farm In Bucks County 2025 🤩

We’re so excited to have been nominated for the third year as best farm in Bucks County through Bucks Happening! We were voted Best Farm in Bucks in both 2023 AND 2024 by all of YOU 🤩 We would love to be awarded that title again for 2025, and we need your help to do so!

If you think we deserve to be voted best farm in Bucks for a third year, you can vote through the link in comments. You’ll find farms under the category “Everything Bucks”. There’s a 2 step verification process, and votes don’t count unless you enter the code they send to your email.

Thanks in advance, farm friends! 🥰

02/09/2025

Please Share! 🥳

🤩 Best Farm In Bucks County 2025 🤩

We’re so excited to have been nominated for the third year as best farm in Bucks County through Bucks Happening! We were voted Best Farm in Bucks in both 2023 AND 2024 by all of YOU 🤩 We would love to be awarded that title again for 2025, and we need your help to do so!

If you think we deserve to be voted best farm in Bucks for a third year, you can vote through the link below. You’ll find farms under the category “Everything Bucks”. There’s a 2 step verification process, and votes don’t count unless you enter the code they send to your email.

Thanks in advance, farm friends! 🥰

https://bucks.happeningmag.com/happeninglist/2025-everything-bucks-farm/

02/09/2025

Cadbury and Klondike are ready for tomorrows big game 🏈🦅

126 likes, 4 comments. “Cadbury and Klondike are ready for the big game 🏈🦅😄”

02/07/2025

💫💖Super Nova 💖💫

We can’t believe it’s already been a week since Nova’s second chance at life started! We decided to bring her inside a few nights ago. With the extent of her care she requires, this makes things much easier and allows us to spend more time with her (and we’re happy to not have to go outside all hours of the night to feed and check on her 🥳).

She’s making great progress and we’ve gained her trust 🥹 She no longer flinches and cowers when we go near her, and she seems much more relaxed when we pet her, even rolling onto her side for belly scratches. This is a huge win for us 🥳

Since bringing her in the house, Nova has spent most of her time sleeping, but is eager to eat when we feed her her 4 meals throughout the day and she did explore her pen for the first time this morning. We have a feeling this girl will be taking over the house in no time 🥰

Lastly, shout out to Ron for never saying no 😅, and for building Nova the most perfect space where she can adjust to the indoor life and feel safe in her own area. We decided on Tuesday night we wanted to bring her inside, so he spent the day Wednesday building Nova her own room. 3 of our pigs were indoor/outdoor for the first few years we had them, and we didn’t really plan to have any more pigs living inside with us. But one thing farm life has taught us is nothing ever goes according to plan 😅🥰

02/04/2025

Nova had her first appointment with Dr. Wilbers this morning, and he gave us hope that she’ll do just fine with the proper care and nutrition. We spent an hour in the office going over everything that’s going on with her, and came up with her treatment plan.

Nova has some respiratory issues, and it’s likely that she’ll be more prone to respiratory infections throughout her life because of prior infections left untreated, particularly as a piglet. We knew her breathing wasn’t right when we picked her up on Friday, and her previous owner said she “always breaths like that” when I mentioned it to him. Her eyes are also swollen and draining, but we’re hoping a 10 day course of antibiotics along with eye ointment will help clear things up a bit for her. Dr. Wilbers did say not to be surprised if we always hear the whistling sound we hear when she breathes because of untreated infections in the past.

Her confirmation is a mess. Nova’s legs are splayed and her front legs are shorter than they should be, and much much shorter than her hind legs. This is likely due to malnutrition, and possibly being in**ed. He said to expect arthritis to set it earlier than it would if she wasn’t in such poor condition.

At first, Dr. Wilbers suggested we do an ultrasound to see if Nova is pregnant, but after talking about it a bit more, he said we’ll just hold off and see what happens over the next few weeks. Her back end is protruding significantly. This either tells us she is in heat and it just looks more prominent than it should because she’s so thin, or she’s pregnant. Pigs cycle every 21 days, so we should be able to tell over the next few weeks if things change. If she is pregnant, our guess is that she’d have another 4-6 weeks to go. Dr. Wilbers is hopeful that with proper nutrition and care, she could deliver healthy babies, but we’re obviously praying hard that she’s not 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

Nova’s quality of life is very important to us. Dr. Wilbers gave us the hope we needed, and said once we get her healthy, she’ll have a great life. It’s very frustrating to know that most of Nova’s issues could’ve been prevented with proper care. I asked Dr. Wilbers if he sees cases like Nova often, and was sad to hear him say yes without hesitation. It’s not fair. They deserve so much better. Now that she’s with us, our perfectly imperfect girl will only know a life that’s filled with endless love and belly rubs 💖

Thank you to everyone that’s donated to help our sweet girl. I told her everyone cares so much about her already 🥰

02/02/2025

💫💖NOVA 💖💫

It’s a long post, but I wanted to give details because many have been asking for them since seeing this sweet girl in our stories. We’ve given her the name Nova, signifying her new beginning 💫

We got a call last week from another farm friend asking if we had room for any pigs. She was contacted by someone in need of rehoming their animals, and fortunately she was able to help with some of the animals, but didn’t have room to take any pigs. She got me in contact with the owner so we could see what the situation was, and it was far more urgent than we initially thought.

While talking to him, he said one of his two pigs wasn’t healthy, and he knew she needed better care than what he was able to provide. He said she got pregnant very young, and never seemed to grow after that.

Ron and I picked Nova up Friday afternoon. She is 3 years old, and if we had to guess, she’s 25-30lbs, which is 1/3 or less of the weight she should be. Her body condition is extremely poor, to the point her spine and hip bones are very prominent (as you can see in the third pic where she is laying on her right side)

On top of her being so malnourished, there’s a high probability Nova is pregnant 😔 She was penned with a male pig, and neither of them are fixed. There are also things we’re seeing with her, leading us to believe she is. This adds a whole other slew of potential issues. The male pig she was with was likely eating all of her food too, since he was much larger than her, which would explain part of the reason for her being so thin. Poor nutrition is definitely a factor here as well, but it didn’t help that he was eating whatever they were being fed.

We had The Farrier Group out earlier in the week to trim our other pigs hooves, and as soon as they saw the post we made a few hours after getting her home, they called and volunteered to come out on their Sunday off to take care of Nova’s much-overgrown feet for us. They came this morning and she was understandably very scared. If I had to guess, this was the first time she’s had anyone trim her. Ben and Gus worked very patiently with her, understanding how nervous she was to be handled. They did a wonderful job, and I know she felt instant relief.

Nova will be seeing Dr. Wilbers tomorrow morning for a full assessment, and together, we will all come up with her plan to get her healthy.

Although we wish it were sooner, we’re glad her previous owner asked for help, because who knows how much more time she would’ve had. We’re hopeful she’ll have a bright future ahead of her with proper care 💖

If you’d like to contribute to sweet Nova’s care, we have a few ways to donate. And as always, from the bottom of our animal-loving hearts, thank you 🙏🏼❤️

Venmo--farm

Zeffy link in comments (can also be found on our website)

Checks made out and sent to
Head Over Hooves Farm Sanctuary
1405 State Rd.
Coopersburg, Pa 18036

(last 4 digits are -0777)

02/01/2025

Days like today weigh heavy on my heart. We took in another pig in desperate need of care. I’ll formally introduce her sometime this weekend, once I can gather the words to explain her circumstances. But for now, she’s tucked in safe and sound, nestled in a pile of straw with a full belly ❤️

01/30/2025

🐷🥰

01/27/2025

Cadbury and Klondike are excited for Sunday Alpaca Grams 🤩

Go Birds 🦅🏈🥳

01/26/2025

The love between our 2 bigs just melts my heart🥹❤️ They really are a perfect match 💙💜

01/23/2025

Today felt like spring compared to the rest of the week 😅

We’ve been talking to other farm friends throughout the week. Lots of us checking in on each other, sharing advice and complaints, and making sure we’re all hanging in there. This week has been exhausting, both mentally and physically, but we’re managing, and it helps to have such a supportive farm community 🥰

Pretty sure this is the longest cold snap we’ve had since moving to the farm 6 years ago, and definitely the longest January in history 🥶🫠😅
Come on spring!