Saturday Night Action

Last year i talked to a young man who had acquired a pig from his boss at work. Apparently the pig was shipped from a Texas Breeder (UGH) and became unwanted not too long after. I am sure this would of been somewhere around $1000.00 in cost after the purchase, medical records and transportation costs on top of the 30 day quarantine for one very scared little baby who had been yanked away from his mom. Note that the breeder shipped this pig unaltered. GRRRRRRRRRRR

Anyhow i do remember trying to get the breeders name out of the guy after giving him an hour of my time to help him care for this baby. He was too call me back, but never did. And he didn't want him either and the next family who took him in loved him, got him neutered and he had a real family for a little while..

Yesterday was join up for Volunteers here as it is every Saturday and only my sister arrived to help. After working outside for several hours we came inside so she could help me put plastic up on some windows in here to try and lower my heating bills here.


By 2 Nancy took off and i sat down here to catch up on emails and the phone rang. The SPCA had a pig in a eviction crises and while talking to them i saw a email from the family pleading for help.

Dec 1 late afternoon a Mom with her baby answers the door to the landlords. Facing eviction as the economy has taken the toll on this family and they are struggling to get back on there feet. The husband finally gets a job and is working 14 hour days and is not home when Mom lets the landlords in. Once she let them in they were allowed to throw her out. I wasn't there but i can imagine the mayhem that ensued from there and this is when the pig bolted out the door in the commotion and took refuge under the porch. And i spoke to both of the family members and i can tell you i cried along with both of them on the phone.

About 20 minutes from here i jumped in the truck to go to the house to see if the pig was still there as the landlords were threatening to take care of the situation in an unfavorable way. A little silver and white pig under the porch trying to keep warm in the hay and the blankets the family took over there. The family was unable to get the little traumatized friend and no where to take him they starting reaching out for help once they found help for themselves. I was able to figure out a game plan and spent a few hours back here trying to rally up help to pull rescue off. NO way could i leave this baby pig out there in this cold one night and at the risk of being eaten.

I called Carol at SAINTS and she rounded up two friends and we headed out here in the dark with flashlights , crate, hay bale string and a portable pen. I saw some fencing and some crates there we could use to pen in the porch. We would go in quiet so this little guy didn't bolt from under our trap. Quietly we placed pallets and wire pen, then secured it with the twine to the deck supports. I placed the crate where i figured the pig came and went as this is key to the way a pig travels. It is was easier to get the pig to go in a direction they know , then in one they have never been even in this situation.

Pigs are more like any feral animal when it comes to trapping them . And out of the 100 plus pigs i have known in my life not one of them will walk into a crate on there own. With or without food!!

Then two of us crawled under the 24" crawlspace and with a light broom i brought we took turns in herding the little boy as he had quite a bit of room under there to retreat too then we did. I cracked my head good on one of the supports under there and i still don't know what one of my hands sunk into. With no place to go as we were positioned well and as best as we could lying down under there he went for the crate, and with one little push we had him.

We were all back here by about an hour and a half later and the girls carried the crate into the great room here and i opened the crate door. He strutted right out tail wagging a mile a minute. He explored all over here and up down the hallway to the kitchen and back while we fed him treats and laughed about our Saturday night adventure.

All the kids needed to be fed here now and my day starting at 6:30 am unthawing a sump pump hose again ended with me starving and exhausted falling to the couch by 9.

This pig and I could really use a sponsor now if any one can help us. He will spent the winter in here as there are no empty piggy paddocks and tossing him in with any body right now is not a good option for this soft little house pig.

He is under a pile of blankets a few feet away from me and snoring every so lightly.

Rocket and ulcers

Rocket has been throwing up off and on for about four months. Because he wasn't continuously sick and had a habit of eating too fast I suspected ulcers. Rocket arrived here after the Chilliwack SPCA contacted me about a pig they had seized for abuse and been living in a junk yard dog setting. His shelter an old car.. that would of been enough to give me ulcers.

Today we watched him closely when he came out so we could get a sample of his poop. I then would have a vet take a look at it. Ulcers in pigs is difficult to detect , one way is to take a stool sample in to be checked for red blood cells. I called Ag west they have a really nice lady vet there and she was on the way to a calving. So we opted to drop off our sample at a dog/cat clinic here in town to be checked for blood and in the mean time she would call in a script for some amoxicillan. I wanted the amox to rule out a possible underlying infection and Dr McCrae mentioned sometimes infection is the cause for some ulcers. Huh..

Dr Loft who kindly took the sample to be tested called me a few hours later and confirmed my suspicion. There is blood in Rocky's stool sample so we will pick up the amox in the morning and get him started on that. I will call Ag West on Monday to find out about to get some ulcer meds.