Castration of Piglets - Trial run

I would say the initial attempt at castration was a success, although 4 boys managed to escape the snip. We decided to just to the 2 and see how they recover before we end up maiming the entire litter. Unfortunately we didn't have enough free hands for photos but when we do the other 4 either this Friday or early next week we'll make sure we get some gory pics. And then i can explain the whole process step by step. So far the 2 are recovering well and showing no sign of infection, even though they rolled in the stinkiest mud not long after the operation. Beauty (their mother) was not happy with me and still holds a grudge because yesterday she charged me in their paddock and took a pot shot at my leg. I high-tailed it out of there as fast as i could, ending up with only a nasty bruise.

Emotional Last few days

So off we went to Cape Town for our big scan. The 13 week scan of the IVF pregnancy to make sure all is fine and that the little monkey doesn't have any abnormalities. Were we nervous?? YES! But not as nervous as we were for the previous scans. We knew the pregnancy was there and the baby was alive because of those lovely 1st trimester symptoms, but we were in for a shock when we saw that little one moving around inside. All that tumbling and turning, punching and kicking, Alex was worried it was going to get all tangled up in the umbilical cord. After a few minutes of tears, i finally managed to keep my eyes open long enough to watch our little gymnast. We were lucky enough to have a Gynea in training scan us, taking all the measurements of all the bones, heart, head, stomach, bladder, fingers, toes etc and then she called in the Prof who took all the measurements again. A whole hour of our beautiful (alien like) little baby. Every measurement came out normal and we're all on track. What a miracle. Its still incredible to think that this time last year we found out that our chance of conceiving naturally was 0.01%. A few months later our chance of conceiving with IVF/ICSI was between 30 - 40%. And now here we are, not even a year later 100% pregnant! I will forever be grateful to the amazing Doctors, Nurses, Scientist and Embryologists who all had a hand in creating our family. Not to mention the fantastic support we've had from family and friends. We are so lucky.

The following day we met with Dr Thabo, our Fertility Specialist, mostly to say goodbye and so he could have a look at the scan results. He was just as thrilled as we were with the outcome although very sad to have to hand us over to Hermanus for further monitoring of the pregnancy. He has been the most incredible man to have entered our lives in this infertility struggle, supporting, counseling and mentoring us through our difficult journey. To have met a man like that makes all the pain and suffering worth it. We hope to keep in contact with him for a long time. Sob sob.

Now back on the farm life goes on. I dare say today we are preparing to castrate the piglets. It will be our first time and we're struggling with the whole karma thing. How can we do this when we ourselves were infertile? But its for the best as the little buggers keep mating their moms, and we really need to introduce some new blood.  Now for the hard part - catching them! Wish me luck, i'll update tomorrow with the gory photos!

What is the Curse of Stanley?

Firstly let me explain the Curse of Stanley.

Soon after we moved out to the farm, got our dogs and chickens (priority) we decided the next step was do acquire some pigs. We knew about the man in Cape Town who has hundreds of mixed breed pigs and decided that would be the best place to start. Off we went with an envelope of cash - not sure how much a pig costs these days - and our bakkie comfortably straw lined for the live stock.

Upon arriving at the city farm located in Tamboerskloof, we were greeted by a mob of hungry pigs, geese, chickens, a goat or two and if I'm not mistaken i think a baby cow was present. We entered negotiations and settled for 2 young sows which we would look into breeding at a later stage.

We were so happy with our cute and friendly little piglets which we named Beauty and Tambo. We were soon amazed at how much those piglets could eat and frantically planted a field of cabbage (which when harvested they refused to eat).

A few months down the line the piglets had grown and were looking rather fat and lazy. One afternoon while giving Beauty a good scratch, i noticed a drop of milk expressed from her teat. That night we heard a bit of grunting and squealing and behold, Stanley was born. We worked it out that Beauty had been mated on the day we got her.

What a bargain, an extra pig! Buy on get one free! We were so delighted, until a few months down the line Stanley started showing what he was made of and promptly mated his Aunty Tambo and shortly after, his own mother, Beauty.

Now i would just like to mention that my Breeding Pigs guide book states that a male pig is not fertile or capable of producing offspring until its at least 7 months old. Stanley was 3 months old when he mated Tambo and 4 when he mated Beauty.

And since then we have been inundated with piglets bringing us up to date with Beauty's new litter of 8 piglets (6 males) and Tambo pregnant and due sometime mid March.