nogsland

We forgot one simple rule the other day and now we are both living with the consequences.  We had two people driving separately for a number of hours to pick up boar piglets for breeding.  Chris had built a new run so that it was easier to catch them. And so it was. Unfortunately we had omitted to keep in mind that what keeps a mother and piglets in, also prevents you from having an easy escape route if you need one.

When Matthew arrived after a long drive to pick up the first piglet, Chris hopped in to grab one.  What usually happens in the piglet squeals, mother gets upset, has a bit of a go, but then Chris and aforesaid piglet make their escape over a fence and everyone settles down.  Unfortunately this time, Chris did not have an escape route and before we knew it, Georgina was lunging at him time and time again biting at him and the piglet.  Before we knew it, Chris was on the ground, when he finally let go of the piglet, but not before Georgina had taken a huge chunk out of his leg. We managed to get Chris out of the enclosure and Georgina calmed down having won her battle.

I then proceeded to be useless as a first aid helper, only managing to get the first aid kit but then not really knowing what to do with it. Thankfully, Matthew proved to be much more sensible and worked with Chris to strap him up so we could get him in the truck. Despite a change of shirt, he stunk of stressed male pig, hard smell to describe, but suffice to say, it is not one you want to be up close and personal to for any period of time. Matthew kindly stayed around to wait for the other people who were due to arrive to give them the bad news that no pigs would be passing hands today and we set off for the 40 minute drive to the hospital.  We realised on the way, you wouldn't want to be doing this drive having been bitten by a snake, It's a long drive when you are anxious. Later we had even more reason to be thankful, as it became apparent on inpsection that Georgina had missed biting through an artery by mm. As Chris proudly pointed out, you could look in the huge hole in his leg and see the artery pumping !

Another up side, is that I think we provided something different to the ER staff on a Sunday afternoon who hadn't dealt with a pig bite before and found it quite amusing.  They initially thought I was quite mean not sitting next to Chris and sitting instead at the end of the bed until they got up close and smelt male pig on him then they got a bit more understanding.

The end result of all this is that at some point Chris will need to go into hospital to be stitched up, however, the surgeon who we hare now bosom pals with, won't operate until all risk of infection has passed, which apparently is not yet. So two weeks on, Chris is just starting to walk a bit more but can't do a lot if it involves any bending of his leg. I have had to become a farmer's wife (not something I excel at) and we have all now learnt our lesson, never underestimate a mother when you try to separate her from her young.