New Drug's Save Valuable Sheep

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 100, 27 September 1948, Page 3

New Drug's Save Valuable Sheep

Delivery of the young in abnormal eases involving a Caesarian operation is becoming a practice as standard and successful with animals as it has been with human beings. This is due to the availability of the new drugs such as penicillin and sulphonamides, which have saved valuable stud sheep as well as dairy cows. It is known probably to most farmers that such a means of saving valuable animals is now available; but within the last few years in New Zealand quite a number of successful operations of this sort have been performed on dairy cows by veterinarians attached to the different veterinary clubs . being formed throughout the country. Last year, probably for the first time in New Zealand, the Caesarian - technique was successfully used on several stud ewes in the Poverty Bay district. Recently, within a period of four days, two such successful operations were performed by the veterinary staff of Massey Agricultural College. The first case was that of a pedigree heifer which could not be delivered of her calf by ordinary means owing to an anatomical deformity. The calf was dead before the operation was performed, but the heifer made a rapid recovery and within a week of the operation she had joined the dairy herd and was milking remarkably welkin the second instance the same operation proved necessary for a valuable stud Southdown ewe. In this case the lamb was alive when ' delivered - through the flank. Here ' again the mother made a rapid and uninterrupted recovery. ' ' The Caesarian operation is naturally a major one, involving through the flank an incision measuring upwards of 12 inches in length. Needless to say, the ' operation can be performed only by a qualified veterinarian, with the aid *of a general anaesthetic. It is all-important to operate promptly if the progeny as well as the dam is to be saved. The dam’s prospects of recovery are also poor if she has been subjected to prolonged rough handling in a vain attempt to deliver her young before the operation is decided upon.