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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Do you do this alone?  How do you hold the pig still enough?  I remember 
something about my grandfather using some kind of constriction band, I 
believe.  ...bobf 



----- Original Message ----
From: Robert Walton <waltonrp AT gmail.com>
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 2:27:05 PM
Subject: [Homestead] Got pigs

I'm back in pigs, picked up two little red buggers today. I like
having pigs. They eat all the scraps, failed cheese batches, old milk,
whey, etc. They are also a friendly homestead animal. Good investment
in the current economy. Planning to butcher one around Thanksgiving
and the other around Christmas. I'm just not letting them get bigger
than what will fit in a 50 gallon barrel when I need to scrape them! I
learned that lesson last year.

Now, I need to castrate. I've just held the legs while grandaddy did
it years ago. I have iodine and razor blades. I got these steps off a
web page:

1.      Hold the piglet by both hind legs with its head down.
2.     Using the thumb, push up on both testicles.
3.     Make an incision through the skin of the scrotum over each
testicle in the direction of the tail.
4.     Be sure the incisions are made low on the scrotal sac to allow for
fluid drainage.
5.     It does not matter if you cut through the white membrane of each
testicle or not.
6.     Pop the testicles through each incision and pull on them slightly.
7.     Pull each testicle out while pressing your thumb against the
piglet's pelvis.
8.     Thumb pressure on the pelvis is important to ensure that the
testicular cords break off at the point of your thumb
rather than deep inside the body, which may promote development of a hernia.
9.     If necessary the testicle may be cut free of the cord using a
scraping motion.
10.     Cut away any cord or connective tissue protruding from the
incision and spray the wound with antiseptic.

Anyone care to give me any additional tips?

Rob - Va
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