Poor, Poor Piggies

Penelope is our only female pig. She is relaxing in this photo, happily enjoying her "femaleness", while her brothers prepare to be castrated...an event that started out quite humorous, but ended in a very different way.
Much of our farming experience has been gleaned from neighbors and friends who grew up on farms. Tending animals is second nature to these folks. They rarely call a vet out to the farm, only for extreme emergencies. We have learned to trust the advice of these successful farmers. We are grateful to them for sharing their knowledge with us.
This round of piggies at our farm has been a unique bunch. After being at our farm for a couple of weeks, I noticed that the males were developing two little bumps on their backside...hmmm...the last round of pigs we had didn't have those bumps...you don't have to be a vet to quickly determine that these male pigs had not been castrated. Oh no!
I investigated our options. You don't need to castrate for meat production, if butchered at a young age, however, the meat may develop an undesirable "boar" flavor. Not good. Two of the pigs are 4H projects, to be sold at the livestock auction at the Albemarle County Fair. The rules state that all male animals must be castrated before they may enter the fair grounds. Ok...I guess that helps in making the decision. I called the farmer who I got the pigs from. He said he would come over to castrate the pigs as soon as possible. He did not seem concerned about the fact that the pigs were getting older. But, time marched on....
We had never seen the procedure for castration of pigs. We have "banded" goat bucks and bull calves. Banding involves using an "elastrator" to put a rubber-band around the dangling sac, causing lack of blood supply and eventual removal of the body part. Pigs do not have "dangling sacs". We knew that banding was not on option.
I'm not sure that the farmer doing the procedure realized how much the pigs had grown until he arrived at our farm. Maybe he would have recommended calling in a vet instead if he had realized? Not sure?
The first scheduled appointment was a disaster! We ran around the pig-pen trying to catch the pigs who definitely knew something strange was about to happen, because they gave us a run for our money! We never did catch them that day, but the farmer insisted that we did not "waste his time" because he thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment of watching the chase! Quite funny in retrospect.

The next day, we coaxed the pigs into a dog kennel, by placing irresistible food inside. Once caught, we put "leashes" around their mid-sections and waited for the farmer to arrive. Then, the funny aspect of this event subsided, and the reality of the procedure set in. Just how was he going to do this? How would we restrain the pigs...we all began to have a sick feeling in the pit of our guts. We had to hang the pigs by their feet upside down. Pigs scream anyway when they are stressed or scared, but we knew what was coming. The screams only added to the awful feeling that we were experiencing.



Once hanging, the farmer located the pigs testicles, made an incision and removed them one by one. Poor, poor piggies! I wish I could say it went quickly and painlessly. After the procedure, the pigs were let down...I tried to make up for it by giving each pigs a bucket of goat milk, which they joyfully slurped down and then ran off. We were quite shaken up. Dennis and I take seriously the call by God for us to have "dominion" over the animals. We were both saddened that we caused pain to these animals. For days, we have prayed over the pigs for speedy healing, comfort from pain and for no infection. God is faithful and all is well with the pigs!

I think the lesson learned for our family is that procrastination in farming leads to animal sickness/discomfort. And this is not acceptable on our farm. We learned to ask the right questions about animals before bringing them home. We are truly grateful to our farmer friends who have helped us learn so much! I continue to be amazed at how much these farmers know and do without a second thought...and without one day in the university!