It's been a busy, but good last couple of weeks. Most of my time has been spent working on our big house painting project, but we also had 10 pigs slaughtered last Wednesday. Andal's did a phenomenal job, and I may blog more about that later, but I want to discuss the semi-miraculous recovery of the sow in the photo above. If you read the previous post, you are aware that this sow was slated to be culled as she was very lame. She was so lame that she wouldn't stand for over a month and we had to bring her a water bucket and hold it up to her mouth to get her to drink. She basically showed no improvement for 4 weeks. With a about a week to go before slaughter, she started to come out of the barn on her own volition, but she was still walking on her "knees" (really her ankles). With about three days to go, she started very awkwardly standing and putting her full weight on one of her front legs. With 2 hours to go before slaughter, she was walking with almost no limp at all.
Now, Jen and I had a dilemma. We had already made the decision to cull this sow, and this was not the first time she had foot problems. It made sense from a herd genetics standpoint to cull her. On the other hand, if we culled her, we would have to keep another gilt back from the current litter, which meant we'd lose about $550 in incoming cash. We also didn't have buyers for the several hundred pounds of meat that would come from the sow. Lastly, we had invested a good deal of time nursing the sow along in the last month, and there was some aspect of emotional attachment and "rooting" for her to make a recovery. In the end, we decided to keep her, but it wasn't an easy decision, and it felt like it was a decision that was made partly based on emotion rather than logic.
She was still limping a bit, and we were wary of reintroducing her to the other sows, as we weren't sure if they would remember her. She had been low on the hierarchy to begin with, so we were anticipating there would be some fighting and that it might re-aggravate her injury. As it turns out, mother nature intervened, and when I came out to do the chores a few days ago, she was not in the barn. I did a quick look around and I started to panic. Since she wasn't very mobile, I'd put up a non-electrified single wire to keep her in the barn, and it was outside the area of the boundary fence. It was possible that she broke through the wire and started wandering off the property. Except, the wire wasn't broken.
Now, Jen and I had a dilemma. We had already made the decision to cull this sow, and this was not the first time she had foot problems. It made sense from a herd genetics standpoint to cull her. On the other hand, if we culled her, we would have to keep another gilt back from the current litter, which meant we'd lose about $550 in incoming cash. We also didn't have buyers for the several hundred pounds of meat that would come from the sow. Lastly, we had invested a good deal of time nursing the sow along in the last month, and there was some aspect of emotional attachment and "rooting" for her to make a recovery. In the end, we decided to keep her, but it wasn't an easy decision, and it felt like it was a decision that was made partly based on emotion rather than logic.
She was still limping a bit, and we were wary of reintroducing her to the other sows, as we weren't sure if they would remember her. She had been low on the hierarchy to begin with, so we were anticipating there would be some fighting and that it might re-aggravate her injury. As it turns out, mother nature intervened, and when I came out to do the chores a few days ago, she was not in the barn. I did a quick look around and I started to panic. Since she wasn't very mobile, I'd put up a non-electrified single wire to keep her in the barn, and it was outside the area of the boundary fence. It was possible that she broke through the wire and started wandering off the property. Except, the wire wasn't broken.
The power of sex was to blame. She had pushed her way through the sliding the door in the photo above, which got her past the boundary fence. Then she broke through the electric fence, and was laying on the ground as close to the boar pen as possible. She was in heat. Reintroduction problem solved.
We've been monitoring her over the last few days, and she seems to be doing well. She's still got a limp, but she's no longer walking on her knees at all, and seems to be slowly improving. Hopefully we made the right decision to keep her, and only time will tell, but it feels good for the time being.
We've been monitoring her over the last few days, and she seems to be doing well. She's still got a limp, but she's no longer walking on her knees at all, and seems to be slowly improving. Hopefully we made the right decision to keep her, and only time will tell, but it feels good for the time being.
Healthy enough to have a good wallow.
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