Castrating Piglets and Worried

[Sumatra503]

The time has come to castrate our first piglets on Mom's farm. She tried to do it, but froze, so now it falls to me to do it. I have read up on it and i'm sure I can do it, but I must admit that I'm a bit worried. I have heard so many horror stories about castration going badly.

I need to know, Is it really as bad as everyone says or is pretty uneventful usually? I'm thinking uneventful myself, but that doesn't halp much to stop my worries. Please help me calm down about this.

I sware if anyone posts anything related to animal cruelty in this thread. I have to do this end of discussion on that matter.

 

[Brindlebtch]

When I was at A&M in pre-vet medicine, we castrated piglets. Easy to do, and we had this yellow sulfa powder that we put in and over everyhting. Worked out fine. Probably could do the same thing with Wonder Blue! Nobody got infected. Its a good idea to castrate when the weather is cold, then you don't have to worry about flies and germs as much, so I think there is much less likelyhood of complications.
Go for it!

 

[Sumatra503]

Thanks. No worries about warm weather here. It's been frozen for about 3 days now.

We have sone iodine and some blue liquid my mom picked up and says is better than iodine.

 

[arabianequine]

I am no expert on this and could not actually cut anything myself. We do band though but we have only banded bull calfs....why not band them? If you are cutting can you put blood stop powder on it if needed?

I don't envy you.

Good luck!

 

[EweSheep]

I was a pre vet student at a college and had some experience in this.

Do not feed them in the morning of castration, if you are going to hold them up or have someone hold them up, be careful, those piglets are strong!

Straight razor blades were the best....my Dad tried using a very sharp cutting knife. BAD choice, poor pig was screaming. Should make ONE swift cut, pull out the testes, cut the cord and spray or powder the cut area and let them go back into the pen. It will bleed a little but not gushed out kind of thing.

We did six piglets that day, all done within an hour....took a shower afterwards, we stank LOL and our ears were ringing from the deafening squeals. Before you know it after a few days, all is forgotten by the pigs and they think nothing of it.

No local or painkillers needed.

 

[Teach97]

younger they are the easier it is...

worked on a rather large hog operation (read that as one of the largest 5) anyways...depends on size on how easy it is and how many folks it takes to be efficient and fast.

How old are the pigs?

 

[lil'turkeymama]

Its not hard at all to do.Its just a thing that needs to be done,think of it like that.And do it .We have done them at a few days old,very easy and I have done some that were close to 150 lbs,not easy at all.I was told by a old neighbor that raises hogs to this day to use a 55 gallon drum.You hold the piglets back feet and lower him into the barrel and then just hold his feet down over the outside of the barrel.It puts them into the right position and they are easier for one person to hold while the other cuts.I have had someone hold the mouth closed to cut down on the really loud squeals.Don't stop it but its not as loud.We always just spray with blue medicine.I like to wash the area with warm soapy water before.I don't know but I would think it might help get rid of a few germs.Best of luck.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

When we had Black Angus we would use the rubber band method. It is a kit with the metal band stretcher and very small bands that you would just stretch and release onto the testes. The testes would just fall off. Is it different for piglets??

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

When we had Black Angus we would use the rubber band method. It is a kit with the metal band stretcher and very small bands that you would just stretch and release onto the testes. The testes would just fall off. Is it different for piglets??

Cutting is actually better for the animal than banding. Banding has a higher risk of infection because the scrotal sac actually rots off. It also seems to be more traumatic.​

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

lil'turkeymama :

Its not hard at all to do.Its just a thing that needs to be done,think of it like that.And do it .We have done them at a few days old,very easy and I have done some that were close to 150 lbs,not easy at all.I was told by a old neighbor that raises hogs to this day to use a 55 gallon drum.You hold the piglets back feet and lower him into the barrel and then just hold his feet down over the outside of the barrel.It puts them into the right position and they are easier for one person to hold while the other cuts.I have had someone hold the mouth closed to cut down on the really loud squeals.Don't stop it but its not as loud.We always just spray with blue medicine.I like to wash the area with warm soapy water before.I don't know but I would think it might help get rid of a few germs.Best of luck.

We would castrate ours at about 3 weeks old before the testicles dropped. Dad would put 2 small slices a couple of inches inside the back legs, in the belly & pull them out that way. I haven't seen any that have dropped their testacles in a few days. Did y'all go through the belly?​