four month old piglet died.

[brigitte]

I bought a piglet from a farmer in June I will never return to again. He has built a large facility where he breeds for volume and ships lots of piglets somewhere- he won't say where or who buys them, but he sells lots of them for lots of money
I have a local man I can always count on for the three I want to raise twice a year. But this year his older sow only had a few, and I got an allowance of two piglets. Very healthy girls. I needed one more.
I called up the pig farmer and he sold me a young male that had been badly castrated. He said he might end up with "one nut." I could tell already that he was puffy in the back. No matter, I thought the pig farmer knew what he was doing and what pigs would recover from what, so I paid $110 and left with this tamworth cross male.
I fed him for two more months and he seemed alright in the beginning. Then he seemed just a bit off. I gave him some penicillin, which had helped another piglet last year recover from wounds suffered in a coyote encounter, but I couldn't save this pig. I found him dead one morning a couple of days ago. I processed him as if for harvest, quartering the small carcass. my knives aren't as sharp as the ones used by the man who comes to butcher the pigs- but it wouldnt be cost effective to even call him.
The man who helps me and knows pigs said he suspects the castration infringed on the intestine and that as he grew it got worse. He said the only remedy would have been surgery to save him.
I called up the pig farmer and I was stunned by the message I got back- that it was my fault for giving the pig raw milk. Nope, it didnt have scours and the other two piglets are doing fine on the same milk/dry food diet.
I think he is sending my money back, but not sure.
Two questions immediately come to mind- I was hoping not to lose the meat as I know what caused the death. Can I use the meat? or is it not advisable given that I found him dead.
Secondly. If I buy another piglet, how much should I be concerned that a smaller piglet will be beaten up by the now four month old female piglets? I recall mixing them up within a couple of months of age but not more. Any suggestions?

[funnymamma]

If you found him dead and think he may have died from castration nicking or somehow affecting the gut, he could very well have died from sepsis. I would not use the meat for human consumption. I would probably feed it to my dogs though...

As for adding a younger piglet now, I think as long as there was a creep area where the little one can get away if necessary and eat without having to fight off the big girls it would do ok.

[brigitte]

Thank you. I will abide by your recommendations.
I do think he died of sepsis. Though I know so little about pigs, I found yellow fluid in his gut even though dead not long. Not a good idea to use the meat I had a hunch. Just such a waste. (not even if cooked long?) I have no dogs

[northstar]

Do you have chickens? I'd cook it for them, but they love meat.
Marsha

[robynsa]

Sorry that he died!

I personally wouldn't use the meat for myself or anything else, just in case. We have used the meat from animals that died from trauma/accident but I'm very leery of eating anything that was unexplainably dead.

I would put the new piglet with the others, I'm sure it will be fine.

[brigitte]

Thank you. The majority wins. I am certain it was the "trauma" of the bad castration, but I don't want to take a chance. I am heartsick that all this work and the beautiful red pig must be cancelled as a loss (and the buyer who wanted him in three more months) I am still stunned by the pig farmer's reaction, not at all apologetic for selling something that was clearly doomed from the beginning (and he even admitted it had a problem!) But then I should have paid attention to my own hunch and not bought him. Lesson learned.

[canesisters]

Those 'hunch' lessons are almost always so hard.
I'm very sorry that you've had this trouble.

[brigitte]

That beautiful red pig is now coyote and bear bait. The older I get the less inhibition I have about speaking my mind. I now have two pigs this round. The man who has piglets for sale sells them all by six weeks. With no separation space, I don't want to risk a pecking order.
Interestingly, I questioned him about parting them from their sows at six instead of eight weeks , which always seemed the standard to me from afar. He said there are many pig farmers today who are separating the piglets at four and even three weeks.
I hate it when youngsters become an economic commodity. He said breeders want the quick turnaround to breed back the sows quicker and get more litters out of them.
Hmmmm.....sounds to me to hint at the dairy industry. How in the world can a piglet thrive after being separated from its mother at three weeks old.
For two of my cows, the cycle of breeding is now firmly every two years.

[suzorse]

piglets are weaned a lot of times at 4 weeks if they are eating good on their own, I wean when they are eating good might be 5 weeks and might be 7 as it depends, another reason for weaning when eating good is to get the sows out of the crates if used , I use 1 and I want her out ASAP , when the babies are little I let her out for exercise but once they get bigger it is to hard letting her out and then bringing her back in ,with piggie escapes ,as they stay in the farrowing area till sold at 8 to 12 weeks , it is on dirt
Suzanne

[haecklers]

suzorse - my pigs only lay on their babies the first night (if at all) and after 2-3 days I feel completely confident there will be no more accidental squashings. Why not try letting the sow out of the crate after 3-4 days to enjoy her babies and her freedom?

It seems silly to me for them to wean the babies at 3 weeks to get the sow bred sooner - it only makes a difference of 2 weeks, and there's no guarantee she'll even breed back the first try. I have weaned at 5+ weeks before, tho, because my little sows will nurse the babies until they're skin and bones if they have a big litter.

[suzorse]

no one I know of weans at 3 weeks , usually 4 to 5 weeks as it really depends on the piglets when you wean ,and they do not go to new homes till 8 weeks and are around 35 +lbs , I never breed back a week after weaning my self , I tried letting her out with the babies at 2 weeks but she was catching them on the fence ,as at the time I did not have a bigger better piglet proof area , so was letting her out away from the babies every couple days , her pen was cattle panels not pig panels , and my pig pens are portable
sort of so nothing permanent , I would love to have some of the nice set ups I have seen
for farrowing ,but I have to make do with what I have , my very first farrowing was a disaster doing pen farrowing , instead of a crate ,I had the crate modified from its original state so it was more comfortable for Porkett ,wider at the bottom
Suzanne

[brigitte]

If I had more time, I would like to learn more about this. I visited the "other" pig farmer today who spoke of three week weaning and questioned him about it. He said they are taken from the sows, much as a calf is taken from a cow in a commercial dairy, and given a milk replacer supplement of some sort, and special feed. The idea is to get the sow to breed back in exactly five days, to get her to produce three litters a year. In my head I heard the echoes of dairy farming for profit, not for the benefit of the animal. He takes good care of his pigs and doesn't let them go before five or six weeks (which I think is still way to early) but the goal is to move animals and fast.
I was horrified by the "crates" The sows have not an extra inch to move around in until the piglets are born and a few days old. But some of the mothers, allowed to farrow outside or in big pens with individuals who have a history of laying down just right, don't role over on their young. I wonder if giving them the opportunity to learn to nurture makes a difference, and if those crates just make things worse.
You can't help but be entertained by all those young pigs, and the big sows that grunt and chortle and nudge their young- they are very very smart animals, but sorry, some of those 800 pound sows and boars are just plain....scary. I know, if their your kids their pretty good looking. I won't ever give up cows to raise pigs. They are there for the milk for me.