Caponizing

[ellend]

Jeez, isn't that a painful ordeal for the bird? do you use some kind of anesthetic? Is it even worth it?

I did it to reduce crowing so I might be able to keep my roo in the city (I had arranged ahead before getting chicks for a country PET home for any roos.) Also for less aggression. My chickens are pets. A caponized roo crows less, won't bloody your hens' backs by breeding, and won't fight with (or get torn up by) other roos. Especially if they're ALL done~ In short, it was to keep and protect my males.

 

[ellend]

"The pick thing on the end of the spoon" is most likely and angle to -gently- tear open the top of the membrane which encloses the testicle.

 

[ellend]

Withholding food for 12 hours won't kill them, but water should be given to within a very few hours of surgery. The reason to withhold water from animals (including human ones) for a few hours is to prevent aspiration of vomitus into the lungs. In adult humans we often say 12 hours, because we adults don't dehydrate quickly, and hospitals try to error on the "safe" side, since most patients "cheat." For babies and toddlers, 5 hours of no fluids is good. Your chickens won't vomit and aspirate. (Neither will rats.) Dehydration is VERY bad for surgical patients of ALL species, and you will have much better results with a well hydrated bird. Stress on top of dehydration is just asking for trouble.

If you are trying to dehydrate a bird enough to decrease the chance of bleeding, you are REALLY compromising his chances of survival. Vascular collapse, heart rhythm irregularities, etc.. Listen to the vet.

 

[LindaB220]

Withholding food for 12 hours won't kill them, but water should be given to within a very few hours of surgery. The reason to withhold water from animals (including human ones) for a few hours is to prevent aspiration of vomitus into the lungs. In adult humans we often say 12 hours, because we adults don't dehydrate quickly, and hospitals try to error on the "safe" side, since most patients "cheat." For babies and toddlers, 5 hours of no fluids is good. Your chickens won't vomit and aspirate. (Neither will rats.) Dehydration is VERY bad for surgical patients of ALL species, and you will have much better results with a well hydrated bird. Stress on top of dehydration is just asking for trouble.

If you are trying to dehydrate a bird enough to decrease the chance of bleeding, you are REALLY compromising his chances of survival. Vascular collapse, heart rhythm irregularities, etc.. Listen to the vet.

This is interesting. Poco Pollo on the other Caponizing thread in the meat bird section said that she has tried it both ways and by keeping the water away for 8 or more hours allows a better easier way of moving the bowels out of the way when doing the procedure. A world of difference. During one of her workshops she keeps them separate herself to ensure that they don't eat or drink.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/675898/graphic-pics-of-my-day-learning-to-caponize

 

[LindaB220]

E-bay tool possibilities:

Baby Weitlander retractor.
Preemie chest retactor
Heiss retractor
Mastoid retractor
Stone forceps (gallbladder)
Phipps forceps

I haven't looked, but check under "Surgical tools"

Make sure the "blades" of the retractor aren't too deep / long. You want shallow "hook" parts, or the retractor will stick out from the bird's body too much, and be in the way of your tools. That incision is small and VERY shallow. I think weitlanders and mastoids are too deep, myself.

And those LONG "handled" cotton swabs came in handy for snagging the already separated testes when the slippery little buggers fell back into the abdominal cavity, and kept slipping out of my forceps! (Bantam silkie.)

I bought the complete double set of chinese tools. One for chickens and the larger for turkeys etc. I paid about $45 shipping encluded. Poco Pollo ordered them for me. I understand that they are the best tools ever. Easy to use and doesn't cost a fortune.

My problem is I ordered the wrong kind of chicks for caponizing last year. I had 11 7wk old roosters ready but they were a blue egg layer hybrid with leghorn in them and you just can't caponize any that are that skittish. They'll have a heart attack. So I gave them away and am starting over this year.

 

[Minniechickmama]

To AVOID air bubbles: Put traction (pull) on the skin, moving it to one side or another, while you make your cut. Now the skin incision and the muscle incision are in two different places when you release the skin. Air you let into the cavity while working will be pushed out and absorbed, and since the skin incision is no longer on top of the muscle incision, no more will get IN.

I am not sure how many birds you have caponized, but it doesn't matter if you do the method you are describing or not. I did the whole, slide the skin back approach, they still can get air puffs. This is not uncommon even with folks who do a lot of capons. It happens. Unlike humans and other mammals, when chickens breathe, the air from their respiration gets into the body cavity, it is called subcutaneous emphysema. It is something that can happen when the skin is detached from the connective membranes that hold it in place. I have had this twice on birds that were never cut open at all, but developed after fighting (not it was not intentional fighting).

 

[Kassaundra]

I agree I have seen no rhyme or reason as to who gets a wind puff and who doesn't. Pulling skin so it doesn't line up w/ the main cut is a good habit, but the chickens heal up very quickly even when not done.

 

[LemonMeringue]

I bought the complete double set of chinese tools. One for chickens and the larger for turkeys etc. I paid about $45 shipping encluded. Poco Pollo ordered them for me. I understand that they are the best tools ever. Easy to use and doesn't cost a fortune.

My problem is I ordered the wrong kind of chicks for caponizing last year. I had 11 7wk old roosters ready but they were a blue egg layer hybrid with leghorn in them and you just can't caponize any that are that skittish. They'll have a heart attack. So I gave them away and am starting over this year.

I am going to need to get some of these tools sometime in the next few months as well. I am nervous, yet excited to try it.

 

[ellend]

Agreed, but the "Z-track" incision does help act as a one-way valve, allowing air to be forced out with respiration, and not get sucked back in. If you are closing he skin incision (the old-timers didn't, and some people still don't) this is a useful technique.

 

[ellend]

Then she should go with what she has good luck with. I like to keep animals well hydrated so that the recovery is better, but 12 hours of withholding isn't an eternity; I'd just do them in the morning after they'd already gone without water at night.