This little Purbeck piggy beat the odds (From Bournemouth Echo)

This little Purbeck piggy beat the odds

8:00am Saturday 28th November 2009

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A fun farm near Wareham is ringing to the patter of tiny trotters. For Pansy the pig – the porcine pride of Farmer Palmer’s farm park at Organford – has overcome the odds to deliver a happy, grunting litter of nine perfect piglets.

Farm boss Sandra Palmer said the litter’s arrival had capped a comeback for the saddleback sow, who had temporarily lost the use of her legs just weeks before her confinement.

“At the beginning of October, the staff went out to do their morning checks and found Pansy sat down and unable to stand.

“We called in the vet, moved her sty to shelter her, and brought food and straw to give her some comfort,” said Sandra.

The staff’s TLC paid off. Within a few weeks Pansy was back on her trotters, but even further removed from the likelihood of flight than the average porker.

But last Friday – exactly three months, three weeks, and three days after a night of passion with her curly-tailed beau – Pansy began a difficult labour that tested farm staff to the limit.

Sandra paid tribute to colleagues Cara Turner, Michelle Cox and Emma Shaw, who helped Pansy in her hour of need to safely deliver her young family.

“The girls had to deal with four breech piglets.

“They cut and tied the umbilical cords as well as cleaning the piglets’ airways.

“It was a very emotional and exciting time for the staff involved.

“If the birth had happened at night she could easily have lost some of the piglets,” said Sandra.

Pansy is proving to be “a great mother” according to farm staff, and has taken pride of place with her grunting brood in the farm’s animal barn.

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