My micro Pig.

Question

Pancake   When I was holding her this evening and she was sleeping I noticed her shaking. I picked her up and she almost fell limp when I laid her down her head fell to the side and she woke up. It almost seemed as if she were dead; however breathing completely normal. When I put her on the ground she walked and even ran completely normal and acted just fine. Should I be concerned? What should I do?

Answer
I am not a veterinarian and can not make a medical diagnosis over the internet. But I don't think this is something to worry about just yet.

We don't have any scientific documentation, like sleep studies or brain scans, to "prove" that pigs dream. But they certainly seem to dream. They might shake or twitch or grunt.

When people are dreaming, there's a switch inside the brain that shuts off body movement. When that switch doesn't work, people go sleepwalking. It's safe to assume that pigs have a similar switch to prevent them from sleepwalking, too, which would account for the limpness.

Pigs can sleep soundly. My older pigs sometimes sleep like the dead, and I have to touch them to wake them.

However, if piggy seems to have seizures when awake, or if piggy is awake and normal and suddenly falls limp, then there is something wrong and piggy will need to see a vet. Write down everything that happened just before the incident, and describe the incident in detail.