THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 384, 5 August 1911, Page 3

THE RURAL WORLD.

CASTRATING AND DOCKING

J. G. Clayton, M.R.C.V.S

1 The reasons for castrating lambs require no description. Docking the tail, which is now practically a useless appendage, is performed more tor sanitary reasons, ant! the comfort of the animal, than for any other. Whatever function the tail may have performed in the earlier evolution of the sheep it is now, to a yreat extent, lost. It certainly acts as a protection to the hinder parts, and in the ewe is a protection to the udder. This is the reason why some of the mountain breeds, Dorset Horns, and Exmour sheep, for instance, are often left undocked. Sheep, however, on lower lands, especially when they are to have such succulent food as rape or kale to supplement the natural her bage, are certain to scour when first put upon such food, and the accumulation of faeces and dirt seriously interferes with their thriving and vvellbeing. Consequently the tail is remove about the second or third joint from the rump. Docking the tail improves the appearance of the iamb. It should not be left too long in Jambs intended for export, as, if not properly skewered down before freezing, it is apt to get broken off when handled in the brittle frozen state. The deposition, too, of fat which takes place round the dock in a healthy thriving lamb affords a good indication as to the condition and fitness of the lamb for slaughter, and is one of the signs the fat-stock buyer goes by. The age at which the animals are operated upon varies in different districts and in different seasons. A good deal, too, depends upon the condition of the lambs. This does .not amount to so much in the case of docking as castration. It may be stated that the younger the lamb is the less liable he is to injury from the opera- J tions. Against this, in the case of i castration, is the inconvenience in s operating, owing to the organs being j small and not so easily manipulated, j In a favourable season, with the j lambs healthy and thriving, any age i between a fortnight and six weeks would be thought a safe period. A j great deal depends upon the weather, ; and the condition the lambs are in. If \ it is a favourable spring and the j lambs are doing well the sooner they i are operated on the better.. The i lambs should have a rest of at least a : couple of hours after being mustered ; before being operated upon, and a suitable site should be chosen for the j purpose. The best place is some sheltered corner of a paddock, a iem- ; porary pen buing constructed of ; hurdles, netting, etc., for the purpose. : The operation should ever be performed in or about the neighbourhood ( of the shearing-shed. The latter, , from the point of view of convenience, ; may perhaps be the best, but experi- . ence has shown that no matter how clean it may be kept, serious losses have often occurred when these places ; and their attached yards have been used for the purpose. They are not suitable places in which to perform j surgical operations, and although j rough and ready methods are usually j employed it should not be forgotten that these are surgical operations, and although. Intelligent flockowners ; should even do more, and never use [ any section of ground where cutting j has been done in previous years. By | doing this practically uncontaminated J surroundings each season are assured. The paddock in which the ewes are placed should not be too large. This is necessary for the purpose of the lambs readily finding the mothers after being operated on. J With regard to instruments: one j knife should be kept for castrating, | and another, of a rather heavier J make, for docking. The castrating j knife shoud be kept for that purpose j only, and should possess a keen edge, j otherwise unnecessary punishment is j inflicted on the animal by more than j one incision having to be made in ; order to liberate the testicles. If one j knife is used for both castration and j tailing it cannot be kept sharp, for no i matter how expert a man may be he ; cannot always hit upon a joint when j docking, and although the bone at that period of growth is comparatively soft I it nevertheless damages the edge of ! the knife. :

A supply of clean linen rags and a bucketful of water containing a disinfectant —say, a 1 to 20 solution of Jeyes fluid, or ordinary coal tar dips —should always be handy to the operator, and he should frequently make use of them.

With regard to the methods of oper] ation, there are several, and they depend a good deal upon the condition and age of the lamb, arid also the custom of the district. Different men have different methods, and a few minutes spent in watching an expert operator would be of more value than pages of description. The "pen" being arranged, an assistant offers his lamb to the operator, a hurdle being between them, the operator being on the turning-out side to the mothers. There are different methods of holding: some a-e thrown over the front of the assistant's shoulder, while others are held out by the hind legs. Another method is to pad the top rail of the hurdle with sacking and straw, the lamb being thrown over, so as to enable the parts to be readily got at. If this is done a thin waterproof sleet on the top of the roll is preferable. The sexes should be tallied by the tails of the ram lambs being thrown on one side of the pen and the tails of the ewe lambs on the other. The scrotum, or "purse," has first to be opened. Some men draw up the end of this and cut the end right across, allowing both testicles to escape at the same time. Others draw up the testicies in the "purse" tightly, and separate incisions are made on to each testicle. The removal of the liberated testicles is the next procedure, and again methods vary. The most common way is for the operator to seize the testicle with his teeth and draw the cord upwards and backwards. This is a dirty method. Even in the most cleanly man's mouth there are thous-

ands of micro-organisms, and the fact i that these might gain access to a j freshly made wound should be a deterrent to the practice. If this ; method of drawing is adopted there : are several special instruments ma do to do away with the mouth business. If you will carefully examine the ; anatomy of the organ you will find where the "cord" joins the testicle ■ proper, and that it can bo divided into ; two parts with a thin glistening mem- , : brane between. This is a refold of i the peritoneum or lining membrane of i the abdomen. The fore part contains t i the principal blood vessels, while the j hinder consists of the spermatic duct j and a slight muscle, which has the ' power of drawing up the oragn. The linger should break down this membrane, the knife introduced, and the hinder parts of the cord cut; then, with a twist or two of the finger and j thumb, the forepart of the cord is ' drawn out. There is practically no I bleeding by this method. Others, i again, draw out the testicles and cut the | cords straight olf. This often causes I a lot of bleeding, but in the majority | of cases it does little harm, at most | a temporary faintness of the animal I occurring, which, however generally | goes off quickly. As the lamb gets j older the risk of the operation in- ! creases. Adult sheep stand it very | badly. It happens sometimes that a i fiockmaster wishes to keep certain of | his rani lambs until he is able to judge J how they are going to turn out. If j they do not come up to his expectaI tions his only course is to make ' wethers of them. Here the often I rough and ready methods of dealing ! with younger animals will not do. If [ any blood is left in the "purse" losses 1 are certain to occur, no mattter how j strictly antiseptic are the methods emj ployed. In certain south-western | counties in England it is the custom i to let the lambs go until they are three ! or four months old before they are i either castrated or docked. Why this I is done is difficult to understand, but | it is, I suppose, apparently a survival i of an old custom, as is that of "drawj ing" the cords with the teeth. The j operation is then done with clams and i hot iron in a similar manner to that in j which colts are dealt with. The cause ! of the deaths in these cases is due, in my opinion primarily to the malignant | oedema bacillus gaining entrance i through the wound in the scrotum. | When old lambs or rams are to be | operated on the following method, j although it cannot strictly be called ; a surgical one has, however, the merit of being safe. This is the application of a wooden clam, generally a round ; piece of dry elder-wood about. Sin long : split lengthways through the middle. ! About Tin from each end a slight grove : is made all round, to hold the string ; for tying. This is put on outside the : skin at the top of tne purse and securely tied, after being first tightened l up with pincers. It is often necessary ! to again tighten it up about the second day. The sheep are turned out in a small paddock, and the clam allowed to drop off by itself. It is rarely that any losses take place when this method is adopted. With regard to docking the tail, I have already stated that most, sheep are better for this being done. It is generally removed with the knife, and the lamb let go, the resultant bleeding, as a rule, not being very great. In the case of well-doing plethoric single lambs this bleeding is really a good thing. It is a common occurrence for a shepherd going his round in the morning to find lying dead, apparently without struggle, one or more of his best lambs. These are nearly always "single" lamba that have not been operated upon. These lambs were apparently all right the night before. On making post mortem examination he will find the kidneys so badly congested as to appear only masses of pulp. This condition, known as acute rental congestion, is due to the lamb making too much blood. The kidneys cannot stand the strain of purifying so much, and their structure breaks down. These are cases in which the lambs can stand losing blcod, and the knife should always be used on them. In other cases, especially on high country, and where the lambs are not doing to well, the less blood lost the better. In this case the docking may with advantage be done with a sharp searing-iron. There are several patent machines; made for this purpose which may be used. A hard and fast rule cannot be laid down. The owner with a small flock would be well advised to operate upon his "singles" first, leaving the twins for a week or so later, and this could also be practised, so far as docking is concerned, on the 'stud" por L ion of the lioek on large stations