[Tamsaddle]

Nearly all of our litters are a result of AI as we have no boars, and so far we have found it very easy to do and had almost 100% positive results first attempt.   We also inseminate only once a year for spring litters, so each sow has a dry period of about 6 months.   Nevertheless, I check vulvas daily from weaning onwards to check heat dates and whether they are happening at regular 3 week intervals.   Our 18 month old Tamworth sow Mango who had her first litter without problems at 13 months old has been having extremely regular heats - or so I thought.   Every third Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday she shows an increasingly red, swollen vulva, followed by less redness and the swelling disappearing completely by the following Monday.  Then in the intervening period a pale pink, small neat vulva, very different indeed.
 
We have now gone through 2 such cycles with the semen ordered on time from Deerpark and attempted AI on her, but something has gone completely wrong.   Usually, with a combination of stroking, back pressure, mucus at the vulva entrance, strange ear movements and boar mate, we have been able to pin-point which was the peak day and deliver the three doses just when needed.    With Mango there has nothing but intense hostility and disinterest over every single day she might/should have been on heat.  Barking at us, leaping around, zero response to boar mate - sort of, just go away and leave me alone.
 
On each occasion we have tried to get some semen in, I have been allowed to wipe her vulva clean, insert the catheter and get a lock.   That doesn't seem to bother her particularly or cause her any discomfort.   But standing around at her back end makes her very cross, she runs off again and again, and eventually lies down so her vulva is stuck in the mud.   All these shenanigans succeed in expelling the catheter. 
 
What is so mystifying is she appears to be on heat (red swollen vulva every 3 weeks), yet appears to be not on heat (complete disinterest), simultaneously, and we are at a loss to explain what on earth is the problem, and whether she is or isn't.    The only two things we can think of are, firstly, her hatred of injections, and possibly her thinking we are trying to get a jab in.   Secondly, this was one of the few pigs who had a natural service for her first litter, so this is her first experience of AI, and she definitely does not like it.   Could she be pining for a real live boar?  Do you suppose it is possible for psychological factors to over-ride pig hormones?   I would have thought not, most of our sows are absolutely gagging for it on a deliberately dry month, but am wondering whether anyone else has ever experienced anything like this before.   
 
By the way, she is well in every other respect, eating, pooing, weeing, and quite civil to us when we don't have catheters and suspicious buckets in view.   Took her temperature the other day which was quite normal, and all regular jabs are up to date.   
 
Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has any thoughts or ideas as to what could be going on.   I do know that leaving a sow too long can result in infertility, but it is only 6 months since she weaned, and since then has had an unbroken set of 3 weekly swollen red vulvas, which would seem to me very unlikely if she wasn't coming into heat every 3 weeks as she should.  Hope someone can throw some light on this - Tamsaddle
 
 
 
 

[HappyHippy]

Your story made me  Tamsaddle.
Poor Mango 
It does sound like she's looking for a boar  I was thinking that while reading it before I got to the bit about her having a natural service first time round - that just confirmed it for me 

Will be interesting to see what others think though.

[rispainfarm]

I'm impressed with how organised you are and on the ball with it all, checking vulvas etc. But I agree with HH, she is just not impressed with AI, she needs a man!

[pheonix]

6 mths since she was weaned? so shes 8 mths old? usually 10 mths old is the recommended age for a first mating- presuming shes a tamworth or native breed.
id just wait. one of my sows was irritable during her seasons and we had to put her behind a gate to ai her but she still took. she was also a pest to vaccinate. some are just more placid than others. cant blame them for wanting the real macoy, when this sow did have a boar, she adored him and they would cuddle up together all the time as if they were in love   

[Sbom]

I think she meant 6 months since her last litter was weaned.......

[Tamsaddle]

Yup I got the ages a bit wrong.  First litter aged 13 months old, weaned 15 months old, now she's 21 months old, not 18 as I first said.  So still quite young for a sow, generally speaking.  Interesting what Phoenix said - Mango too looked madly in love with Hugh when they were together making litter 1, cuddling up, and seemed quite bereft when he left at the end of his 4 week stint.   So perhaps that's the answer, though I still don't understand why she would be so reluctant to have AI as she cannot have any clue what we are trying to do - Tamsaddle     

[Fowgill Farm]

quite bereft when he left at the end of his 4 week stint.   So perhaps that's the answer, though I still don't understand why she would be so reluctant to have AI as she cannot have any clue what we are trying to do - Tamsaddle   

She does have a clue what you're upto and having had the real thing she thinks you're a pervert so agree with the others she needs a boyfriend, you could try trapping her in a crush and AI'ing her but i think the stress of that type of insemination would probably make her ingest or abort.
mandy

[Tudful Tamworths]

I may be wrong (hope so) but, because of the behaviour you mention, I'd hazard a guess at cystic ovaries.
I posted somewhere else on here about it, I think. I had a sow which I bought already in pig at auction. She had a normal litter, but subsequently got aggressive every time a boar went near her. Injured three pretty badly. One particularly forceful boar wouldn't take no for an answer and eventually served her, but she didn't get in pig. She went for sausages and the cystic ovaries were discovered then.

[Tamsaddle]

Oh dear, was beginning to think there might be an easy-ish solution to our problem, re-engage the services of Hugh or another, until Liz's post about possible cystic ovaries.  How very very worrying.   Importing a boar here is not the simplest of things to manage at the best of times, particularly as now we only have two sows, but is infinitely more complicated at the moment with most of our available spaces like slithery underwater lakes.   It would be too awful bringing a boar over to these horrid conditions only to have him repeatedly and fiercely rejected by Mango, if indeed she has got some underlying condition like cystic ovaries causing her to behave like this.
 
Last year when two of the sows had natural services, one at our premises and one away, we possessed four sows and quite a few young gilts so everything could be jiggled around to provide company for any pigs not being served, quite important when you have Saddlebacks and Tamworths and do not want any cross breeding to take place.   
 
At the moment Mango is sharing her plot with 3 four month old Tamworth girls while our other sow, Rosie, is away being served by a Saddleback boar;  AI for her was impossible over the Christmas/New Year holiday as the postal service shuts down for days on end.  When she comes home, very probably pregnant, I had been planning to re-unite Mango and Rosie and separate them from the youngsters once again;  Rosie can be quite fierce and a bully with younger pigs.   If I were able to import a visiting Tamworth boar for Mango, would it be very unwise to have a pregnant Saddleback sow in the same plot as them, or would the boar just ignore her anyway if she is already pregnant?   
 
What a major nightmare this is becoming.   And beyond drastic if one has to cull one's last remaining Tamworth sow to discover whether or not the problem is completely unresolvable either way, with AI, or with a boar;  there are no live symptoms for cystic ovaries according to the Pig Site.   We may ultimately just have to accept defeat and have a final Tamworth-piglet-less summer, what a sad end this would be, as this is to be our last year of breeding and keeping pigs.    A very    Tamsaddle
 
     

[Tiva Diva]

You might just try sedating her with a dose of beer - we use sweetheart stout. It might calm her down enough to tolerate the AI and it's easier than getting a boar in. There's almost certainly a blood test you can do for cystic ovaries - ask your vet (though if she hates injections it might be tricky).
I'd try the beer - my husband says it worked for him - don't think he's talking about pigs, though 

[Tudful Tamworths]

So sorry if I've cast a cloud over things, Virginia/Tamsaddle. It was just the first thing that came to mind. Hope it's not the case x

[Tudful Tamworths]

Just out of interest, is this a home-bred sow, or one bought in?

[Tamsaddle]

Home bred, had her from her the very first minute.   One of Amber's, my beloved very first sow who got a spinal abscess 10 weeks after her babies were born, from which she sadly never recovered.    I am still hoping Mango does not have cystic ovaries as she is still so young (Pig Site said it usually affected older sows).  Also her first mating, pregnancy, farrowing and lactation of her first litter went so incredibly smoothly, not a single hitch anywhere along the line.   I can't recall her having any ailments of any kind throughout her life, and she is certainly not fat.
 
But the thing that is bothering me is the absence of the additional signs of being on heat, namely, standing to back pressure, mucus on the vulva and other things I have always seen in the other pigs.  Anyway, please don't apologise Liz, on the contrary I am very grateful - cystic ovaries are undoubtedly a possibility, and I would never have thought of it in a million years without you mentioning it - as you said on another post, one of the huge benefits of a forum like this. 
 
We've decided we will probably try and give her one further go with her boyfriend boar, Hugh, but will remain very watchful indeed of any refusal/aggressiveness towards him on the basis of what you went through with your sow who did end up having cystic ovaries.   Did the aggressiveness continue throughout the minimum 21 days the boar will have to be here, or just over the specific time he was interested in her?
 
Even though things are not looking good, at least I now feel better informed than before I posted yesterday, with various pointers and clues as to what might be wrong, and that lifts the gloom a little.    Thank you everyone for your contributions, until Liz's they were all very amusing, especially me being a pervert !!      Tamsaddle

[Tudful Tamworths]

Hi Virginia,
Sorry my post wasn't amusing! The sow I bought was two years old when I finally gave up on sending boars into the lion's den. Had her first litter aged 1yr 4 months, weaned litter at 8 wks, and then spent 7 months trying (and failing) to get her back in pig.
Good luck with the real boar - at least you'll soon know one way or the other. Keep posting - very interested to hear what happens.