Ghana - Return to the Pig Farm

On Monday the 22nd July, we were back on outreach and back to Genesis farm to check on the pigs. All of the pigs seemed to be fine and the wounds looked to have healed. We each then got to preform another castration. Like last time, after the castration, the pigs were given some more injections.

Whilst I was waiting for my turn to preform the castration, I spotted a scrotal hernia in one of the younger piglets. However the vet didn't treat it as he didn't have the right equipment there. Back in England, the vet would have carried around a number of different tools in the back of their car, however, in Ghana, the vet gets everywhere by taxi so they only carry around what they can manage.

We also checked up on the two pigs with an abscess. One had had an abscess on its leg, which burst when a scalpel was pressed against it. A green mush liquid came out which meant that the area was infected. The second pig had an abscess on its abdomen. This abscess did not pop and the liquid that eventually came out was a lot more solid. The wall of the abscess was a lot thicker than the first and the size of the abscess did not go down after the liquid was removed. Both of the abscess had occurred on joints for we hoped that the pigs would now be able to move the joints a lot better.

Upon check up we saw that the abscesses had drained well so all we did was spray some more antibacterial spray on them. We then spotted another pig with an abscess so we attempted to pop it. This abscess was a lot runnier than the others, but the same colour. This time when cut it burst, spraying the liquid all over the person who cut the skin.

After the castrations and the abscess checking, I noticed that some of the piglets had managed to escape the pens. After placing them back in we noticed that they had escaped again. It seemed that they were standing on the mother, who was led down, and stepping over the gate.