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Congrats George! 11 is great! This is whole new game, now, don't go naming your food!

Eleven? That's a whole load of bacon right there. Congratulations George!

Glad to hear your wait is over George. Eleven piglets sounds like a goodly number to keep track of.

Thanks y'all.

Linda stepped on one and put a long, deep gash in its side that fortunately didn't breech the abdominal cavity. I asked Youngblood what to do and he told me to, "Put some burnt motor oil on it. That's how papa would have done it."

(Anyone ever heard of doing it that way? I know that every boar he's ever castrated, he doused the wound site with kerosene or burnt motor oil and he has never lost a pig. He did have one develop an infection once but that was after he had a stroke that affected the fine motor skills of his left hand. that lack of fine motor skills (and general, age-induced orneriness) caused him to make a far larger incision than he ever made before. Penicillin cleared it right up and that pig topped out seemingly without ill effect.)

Instead of following his advice about the burnt motor oil, the little snorter was whisked out of the pen and into the house while Linda was eating. We poured some hydrogen peroxide into the gash then slathered the entirety of the wound with neosporin. The little pig seems to be none the worse for having suffered such a tough start in life.

One thing this little bit of a medical emergency has taught me is how woefully ill prepared I am for dealing with medical emergencies. As of today, I've started assembling the list of medical supplies that Kelly Klober suggested in his book Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs.

(Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs is a book that I could not recommend highly enough.)

George, I grew up around shade tree mechanics. Used motor oil was considered to be the best thing to put on any cut that wasn't bad enough to require stitches. Peroxide and Neosporin are probably a better choice, since you had them handy.

That is just plain awesome.

Yes, tis awesome having new life on the farm.



They've gotten good at it.

What's more, they've gotten good at breaching their pen. Tomorrow is a fence fixing day lest they find my fall tomato patch.

Those are some nice looking Berks you've got there, George. Short faces, balanced midline... got some good blood there.

Congrats again!

Here's hoping you got the tomatoes protected George. Having had livestock for a little while now, my money is on the hogs, but a man can hope.