How to caponize a rooster Warning Graphic pics

[Sunny Side Up]

I wonder how good the results are when you caponize young bantam cockerels. Will they grow to the size of a unaltered standard roo? Or can their small bodies handle the extra growth & weight? I would like to know since I sometimes have extra unwanted bantam roos and they are barely big enough to take the time & effort to process. I do so anyway, since they're even more of a bother running around the yard.

This is why I rarely set bantam eggs because I don't want to deal with the resulting little roosters. BUT if they could be caponized and made to grow meatier it would be worthwhile to make more bantams. I like having the little pullets because they make great broodies. It would be great to have a better use for the cockerels too.

 

[jim&julie]

Just as with the heave standard breeds they should simply grow to their full bantam size minus the spurs and morning cock-a-doodle. A bit heavier in the chest but not much larger than a hen of the same age. The idea is it will grow more like a hen, not a cornish rock cross.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

That's fine, I know that nothing grows like a Cornish Cross! But if this procedure would help a bantam cockerel add some more meat to his frame it would be worth the effort.

 

[Holly31]

Adding info the post, when raising capons, they should be raised on the ground, with no perches, because they tend to get breast blisters. I'm thinking gentle, quiet, free range lawn mowers.

 

[Tropical Chook]

Hi All

As I intent performing this procedure myself shortly, I've been reading up on it quite a bit, and as usual, BYC has a wealth of information.

With that said, I also came across an article online concerning this process being done at a rural village in Thailand. You can read the article here if you want to:

http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd21/9/masu21147.htm

Anyway, I just thought maybe some of you more experienced "caponizers" would be interested in trying to carry out the procedure as described in the article. The main difference seems to be the villagers only make a single cut. Rather than a cut on each side of the bird, they make a single cut just below the vent.

I would love it if someone on here tries this method and then reports back regarding which method is the easiest. Come on all you seasoned surgeons

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Hooray for the BYC family!

For a long time now I have been wanting to learn how to caponize my surplus mixed-breed cockerels. Although I could have rallied the courage & obtained the tools & information all by myself, I really wanted to find someone else to help me through it. Thanks to BYC I met a young woman who recently moved nearby who said she could & would work with me, and another very generous BYCer who lives across the country from me mailed me a set of tools to try and buy.

Last night I used the donated tools and met with the other member at my house where we worked on 4 young cockerels. Although we did lose the first one we learned a LOT and were successful with the other 3. They were just fine this morning, perched in the hospital pen giving me a collective stink eye. They still won't talk to me, and refer to me only as "THAT woman!" I made them a warm mash to cheer them up.

Even the one we lost wasn't a total waste. I tried to cut the gland away & must have nicked something I shouldn't have, his cavity quickly flooded with blood and his head drooped instantly. But it wasn't a total waste, we turned him over & practiced removing his other gland, and learned just what to do & how to do it.

And we also remembered to PRAY before working on each of the other birds, and were successful with all 3 of them.

We worked indoors so it was cool & brightly lit. I put a plastic sheet on the kitchen table, and set a milk crate on top of that. I set a folded towel on top of the crate, and used zip-ties & bungee cords to secure the birds' feet & wings to the sides of the crate. I think that worked better than slip-knots and bricks.

I would like to learn how to remove both glands from one incision, and to make the incisions shorter. We cut both sides, & used super-glue to close the incisions. I will check them again after dark to see how the glue is holding, & how they're healing.

The important thing we learned is to use the forceps to lift the gland out of the body, & then twist. After that first accident I was hesitant to cut anything, and just would twist the cord & gently pull until it came off by itself. Maybe next time I can get pictures.

Tropical Chook, I looked at that article you linked. It's really interesting, but I wouldn't try that myself. I think it's great if you're experienced in doing it that way, but I think it would be difficult to work blind like that, just poking around with your fingers for the gland. If the bird were fully mature it might be easier to find the big glands, but I don't know how I could detect the small bean-sized gland found in most young cockerel chicks. And it would be riskier cutting down by the vent, if you make a mistake you're cutting into the intestines.

 

[Holly31]

Can somebody please tell me EXACTLY where you make the incision? I have heard several different places and not two of them have matched, nor been successful. I have 3 cocks to caponize this week at 8 weeks old, and I couldn't find the glands on my, now, 2 roosters that I tried on a month ago (didn't kill em, didn't caponzie, either). Is the incision 1 inch long? Closer to the spine or sternum? Right between the two? Behind the last rib, second to last, or third to last? Courage to open them and remove is not a problem, but finding WHERE EXATLY to make an incision has been confusing. Please someone tell me before I"m overrun with roos. I have tools, surgical experience, suture material, and a helper. Just can't get a straight answer on exact point of incision. On an anatomy for pigeons the testes are deep to the kidney and ventral to the adrenal gland - sound right for the Galiformes? Also, I know that the left testicle is larger, and making the incision of the bird's right side will make finding testes easier through one incision. During breeding season, gonads can enlarge up to 300X, so that could be playing a factor in our smaller cockerals smaller gonads.
BTW, the tube that bled the first one to death was probably the renal artery - not much else would make it go that fast. Best to pull and twist gently, I've heard.

 

[TanithT]

Quote:
Tech here also. A bottle of isoflurane isn't that expensive, and the open drop box technique should theoretically work, though it might not give an inexperienced person enough time to complete the operation. You need .25cc of iso per liter of air volume in the drop box to get up to a 5% concentration to knock them down. Any sealed container of known volume can be a drop box, including a Ziploc bag, and iso can be dispersed on a standard cotton ball.

If there was a way to enclose the head alone in a drop box and keep the concentration of iso at 5% with fresh air incoming also, say from an aquarium pump, you might have a fairly effective device for keeping a bird out cold long enough for this procedure to be done. Trick is getting the vet to hand over a bottle of iso. It's cheap enough, but it *is* a controlled substance, and backyard surgery on live animals by amateurs is not really something that most vets are going to condone or be comfortable with. I'm not all that comfortable with it myself, but I'm a hell of a lot less comfortable with it in circumstances where anesthesia is not used at all. So were it up to me, I'd give you the iso. But it's not, so chat with your local vet on the subject and see what he or she says.

When I need to drop zoo animals (venomous snakes, specifically) for a quick exam or noninvasive procedure, they can be tubed and hit with isoflurane gas right in the tube using makeshift seal-offs like plastic wrap and bags. I pipe the vaporized gas in from an anesthesia machine, but a soaked cotton ball works fine as long as you calculate volume and concentration correctly. It's not that hard. Chickens don't kill their keepers if they're handled wrong, so getting them enclosed in a setup with 0.25cc's iso per liter of air volume is likely to be even easier on the logistics.

Intubating and resuscitating if the animal stops breathing under iso is a whole other ballpark however. I've never drop boxed a bird so I have no idea how differently they may respond to being under isoflurane without intubation and ventilation. Reptiles do fine if the procedure is not prolonged, but avian metabolisms are considerably higher. Worth researching anyhow.

 

[nvmycj]

Can someone tell me if they crow after being caponized? THanks!

 

[Holly31]

Thanks, Tanith, for the reminder about iso. I was kind of thinking the same thing, to use a cone on the head, but getting the iso was the problem - as you said, the vets are not wanting to do that kind of thing. Plus I was concerned about not using the vaporizor - wonder if you can rent a precision vaporizor anesthetic machine? Hate to cough up $3K to do $20 worth of birds, then not be able to get the iso on top of that.

Yes, I think if they were under anesthesia then I wouldn't mind spending 5 minutes to make sure I was getting the testicle and not the adrenal and not inicking the renal or portal veins, or freaking the bird out while someone holds him down. I may need to find a farm-vet to work with me on this. Thanks for the info on the volume and dosage rates; I may see what I can do about that, and talk to my vet again (I live dangerously) about this procedure using iso.

And they are not supposed to crow after being caponized. They should be eunuchs!