The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: velcro on April 07, 2011, 07:24:58 pm
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Our boar (Rolf the GOS), is coming up for 3 years old.
One of his tusks is now cutting into his skin causing injury and bleeding.
HELP - What do you suggest we do !
He is a very big boy around 250 kg.
Thanks
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I know nothing about pigs but I think you need an expert to trim them back.
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He will eventually get an infection in his sores :( there is a useful item on www.nationalhogfarmer.com (http://www.nationalhogfarmer.com)
I hope he is a big softy ::) Good Luck
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poor fella .... :)
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Hi, my boar Eddie decided to get himself strung up on the pig netting one Sunday morning and I had to release him by cutting the wire. The noise he made whilst in this position, probably woke most of the people in the surrounding area. Fortunately, he is an enormous baby and made more noise about his situation, then any harm he was in. After he was released, he luckily had no damage done and I kept a close eye on him. I was a bit worried about his tusks and read up on them and found out that they can break off naturally. If you do go down the route of getting him de-tusked, they do grow back, which is unfortunate. The only thing you can do really, is to get your vet to sedate him and de-tusk him and while he is out to maybe give him a shot of penicillian for his sores. I have seen in books that you can de-tusk by restraining a boar and using a cheesewire, but even though my Eddie is the biggest and softest boar alive, I would not want to go down this route in case it upset him so much that it altered his easy going personality.
Tess
Pennymoor Herd of Gloucester Old Spots
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Boars tusk's do grow, and can often curve back into themselves.
Near the gumline they are like teeth - that is sensitive, and trimmmed back too far, they will not only be very painful, but a source of infection. Further out there is no pain as they are dead.
If you have a boar with curving tusks, normally they need trimming back every 12-18 months or so.
If you are not familiar with doing this yourself, or have been shown how to do it, then this is a vet job, and typically they would sedate.
You can use a rope to restrain the pig (technique needs to be known heer) and then cheeswire, but unless you have been taught or shown, I would not recommend you attempt this.
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Just reading this has given me the heebie jeebies, my teeth are all on edge now. :D
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Hi Velcro
Gerry our old retired boar is 6yrs old and he had a tusk curled round which was like Rolf's cutting into his skin. Now we are very lucky in that Gerry is a big old softie and when he sleeps he is completely comatose so we took some dehorning wire and i stroked his head and tummy while OH put the wire round the offending tusk and sawed away with the wire, it only took a few minutes and Gerry never even knew we'd done it! I now have the tusk we cut off as a pendant! If we had had to sedate him or get the vet in to do it i think the old lad would have had a heart attack so this was best for us. I have to say we did this in the doorway of his house so that if he did take umbridge we could make a swift exit. It depends how well you know your boar, it sounds to me like your chap may be a bit of pain so might not let you near his mouth which as the other suggested means its a vet job.
HTH
mandy :pig:
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Thanks for replies.
He is a softy but I don't want to risk losing fingers, hand or anything else.
I had a good look this morning when he was eating ( no problem there!) and I don't think its turning in on itself I think its just catching the outside of his face.
He is also comatose when asleep but not sure I want to do it myself.
Unfortunately here in Normandy we don't have a specialist pig vet but I will go and see the big animal vet and ask if he can do it.
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Snared and cheesewire is always the best option. I do know one other way, but if you don't know what your doing then it is best left alone. :wave: