The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Sbom on September 22, 2014, 09:39:49 am
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Advise needed......this is the story so far....
Weaned piglets then took to the boar when in season, three weeks later took her back and was served again.
Now piglets due but sow has no bag so clearly not in pig. Now we never noticed her come in season but she must have.
Borrowed a different boar yesterday to keep for a month but obviously this wasn't the right thing to do as she promptly tried to kill him!
Sow now inside and boar outside in run..?
So......will her brief encounter with him bring her in season? Haven't spoke to original boar owner but he was showing us his offspring so presume he was fertile.
Our sow has had 5/6 litters before so we know she works!
Wanted to give her one last chance before sausages.....what the best way forward?
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She has, maybe, a very small litter or will bag up just before piglets are born. Be patient :pig:
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Would agree give her more time. she will not tolerate the boar near her birth time so i'd move him out PDQ. Some sows bag up 10-12 days before farrowing others 24 - 48hrs before. Some nest some don't. Some are ferocious some very quiet. Theres o two pigs or births the same.
Get her to lay down on her side with a tummy rub, let her rest and snore then lay the palm of your hand on her tummy and if she's in-pig you should feel ripples of piglets moving as she sleeps. Let her go ten days past her due date as she can have been served any time over a cycle of 5 days.
HTH
mandy :pig:
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Thanks, would love her to be in pig but last time she had an enormous belly and udder, this time she just looks well and udder is floppy and very empty and she's due this weekend gone.
She is separate anyhow so will keep finger crossed.
Is it normal for a sow to attack a boar if she isn't in pig? She's normally very placid, even when she has piglets.
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i had a gilt who never bagged up at all until 12 hours after the piglets were born. though she did have belly.
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If she's not in season she'll not be very tolerant at all - wait til you see signs of her vulva swelling and try reintroducing them, should be a very different story :innocent:
As long as you're sure she's not pregnant obviously - I did have a kunekune sow farrow a fortnight late (and it wasn't that we missed her being served - she was watched like a hawk ;))
We also don't move sows for at least 4 weeks after service - moving them before this reduces the implantation of the embryos and makes them move likely to abort & reabsorb apparently.
What age and breed is she?
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She is a landrace x large white and has around 6 litters before but only one with us. We bought her in pig and she had 14 piglets three months later. Her belly looks big when she lies down but she won't let me touch it :-\
I keep sneaking up on her and looking if her belly is moving..really hope she's just late developing :fc:
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Do I understand correctly that she was twice served by the boar over different cycles? If so, is her due date for the earlier or later cycle?
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She was served once, came on heat again and served again, which is the date I'm going off. Due this weekend gone. I'll try and get a picture tomorrow, I'm pretty sure she's not but don't have an awful lot of experience with piggy maternity issues as she was our first breeding sow. And as she's a slightly older girl everything is more...well...relaxed...as in tummy, back end etc so harder to see whats big and what's just plain saggy!
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And as she's a slightly older girl everything is more...well...relaxed...as in tummy, back end etc so harder to see whats big and what's just plain saggy!
I know the feeling well :innocent: :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim:
Photo's would help :thumbsup:
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if i remember right i had a sow at least a week late so i was thinking she wasnt due at all. can u see her belly if you are standing behind her?
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(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/chuckie956/imagejpg3-1.jpg) (http://s237.photobucket.com/user/chuckie956/media/imagejpg3-1.jpg.html)
(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/chuckie956/imagejpg4-1.jpg) (http://s237.photobucket.com/user/chuckie956/media/imagejpg4-1.jpg.html)
(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff102/chuckie956/imagejpg1-3.jpg) (http://s237.photobucket.com/user/chuckie956/media/imagejpg1-3.jpg.html)
She does look much bigger when lieing down but it's the lack of udder that concerns me
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i cant see in the picture but does she have an underline? - where her udder line is distinct from her belly? she does have a bit of a belly but she has had alot of litters so who knows. ??? has she got bigger or is that her normal shape?
she has lovely legs :yum: :yum: :o
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She doesn't look in pig from these photos - certainly not due imminently.
Hope I'm wrong though :fc: but there's no udder, doesn't look like she's got any rounding of the belly at all and her vulva looks normal :(
Watch her for signs of coming into season and as soon as she looks ready try reintroducing the boar - she'll like him fine then :love: :pig: :love:
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Thanks, that's pretty much what I thought :(. I'm checking her back end so much now she's starting to get a complex!! :fc: she comes in soon
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Ok, here's the latest dilemma!
We borrowed a boar and three weeks ago he served her, very thoroughly over a couple of days and then we took him home.
This weekend I think she's in season again! Vulva swollen and has a mucus discharge and she is frantic to escape......
Any ideas or are sausages the only way forward.... :-(
Other dilemma is if I have to pay £27 kill and cut up plus 50p/lb for sausages then how much is she going to cost to be done? She is massive, as in tall and long and well fleshed but to my eye not over fat
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Is the boar near enough to give her another try now?
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Yep but this is the third time she hasn't held so I'm thinking there must be a reason? She's not cheap to keep and she last farrowed a year ago now.......
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does you abattoir have a weight limit?
have you considered collecting her from the abattoir and butchering her yourself? it will save you money. could you borrow/buy a sausage maker?
when we wanted a whole sow made into sausages , our butcher quoted approx. £300 in labour though she was fully grown. too much money.
maybe she has fatty ovaries or something.
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I too would suspect a reporductive problem and cull. What's her condition?
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Yep but this is the third time she hasn't held so I'm thinking there must be a reason? She's not cheap to keep and she last farrowed a year ago now.......
Sorry, I hadn't read the beginning properly.
It seems like a crying shame, but if it is going to cost you more than the sausages are worth, it might be better to cut your losses and just have her culled by your local NFSCO collector. A really frustrating thing to have to do, though.
Is the meat still OK on a sow of that age? We have an older sow who is looking a wee bit stiff on her back legs and is absolutely massive, so it is something we are going to have to deal with too at some point.
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We can sell sausage all day long so think we are going to go down that route.
Spoke to butcher today, they do charge abit more as she's bigger but that's fine. We are going for sausage, bacon and mince for burgers/homemade sausage I think.
Or may possibly get them to butcher half only.....not to sure...sad it's come to this really
She truly is massive and my small sausage maker would never cope with doing it all myself.
Expecting around the £2-300 hundred mark but confident I can recoup the cost.
Spoke to auctioneer aswell and he thinks she'd make around £180-£200 at market. I know this would be the easy option but don't want to put her through it :-(.
She's in good condition as being doing nothing since weaning in February but by no means over fat.
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It is a shame, but if you can recoup the costs you are making the best you can of the situation.
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Sorry to hear that Sbom, but if it's any consolation, it should be great bacon and sausage :thumbsup:
I'm with you on sending her yourself instead of sending to market, that way you are in control of what happens.
Good luck.
Karen
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When we sausaged two sows early this year we got about 450lb of sausages from each which cost us around £l/lb for the abattoir to make for us and we sold them all in about 24 hours at £2.50/lb.
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Thanks everyone, think we're going to take her on Thursday......no point dragging it out and the abattoir stops doing home kill soon as they are busy with Christmas orders :-(
Not looking forward to it though :'(
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Get her there just before they open. That way she will be the first through and be gone before she knows it. :hug: :hug: