7i ANIMAL CASTRATION 



Sequelae 



Owing- to the difficulty of securing the testicle in 

 lambs, there is considerably more manipulation of the 

 parts generally necessary at castration, than there is 

 for the same operation in calves and pigs, and this, 

 of course, offers greater possibility of infection. Fur- 

 thermore, the wool about the scrotum being longer, 

 that, also, is a more frequent source of contamination 

 in lambs. 



However, fatalities from infection are relatively low 

 in sheep except in the event of tetanus. Some corrals 

 wherein sheep are kept seem to become seeded with 

 an unusual amount of tetanus infection, and the re- 

 sult is that about 25 per cent of the lambs castrated 

 in herds having access to such corrals, die of tetanus. 

 Even the utmost surgical precaution or purchasable 

 preventives that the average owner will countenance, 

 will not serve to curb this virulent germ once it gains 

 headway in a herd. The recurrent loss, year after 

 year, from this disease, can only be prevented by 

 changing the location of the corral or by using an- 

 other mrthod of castration. 



Where tetanus is prevalent in a herd and they can- 

 not be moved to sanitary quarters, perhaps the best 

 means of castration is the use of rubber bands placed 

 tightly aliout the scrotum. If the bands are dipped 

 in tincture of iodin before being applied they occasion 

 no raw surfaces and tetanus does not follow castration 

 by this method, even in the worst infected localities. 

 However, this method of castration by ligating the 

 whole scrotum is inevitably painful and should not be 

 rcsoi'ted to in any case except where the danger from 

 letanus makes it imperative. 



