The Old Folks Home

[ozexpat]

I'm not a fan of de-crowing either. Although personally, I find that an operation done by a professional under anesthesia is preferable to caponizing - something I personally do not accept at all, at least not the way I've seen the procedure described. "Holding some ice against the area" is not an acceptable form of pain relief.

I'm not a fan of the way pigs are sterilized either, but I can understand why it's done. But doing it with pain relieving medication (something that at least here is becoming more common) is a great improvement to the traditional way of ripping them off and leaving the animal with it's pain.

Castrating is something I grew up with - be it by knife or ring - on sheep and cattle. Normally we would do 50-100 steer calves or 200+ wether lambs in a day. Observing them, the knife style return to normal behavior more rapidly. Fast forward 30 years, and as many years of surgical and pain management experience and I had to castrate pigs. The procedure takes a novice like me about 15 seconds a side, and the piglet returns to normal activity in under a minute.

Do they feel pain? no doubt. Does it hurt more than being pushed through a birth canal? not sure.

If it was delayed castration I would use local anesthesia and analgesic

 

[vehve]

Oz, I'll ask the better half if she still has a study I read about the subject. They compared no pain relief versus numbing before, and then I think pain killers for 3 days and even 5 days. If I remember correctly, 3 days of pain killers in combination with the numbing done prior to the castration was the most effective in keeping down measurable stress levels (they were measured with blood tests I think). And I seem to recall it having a positive effect on their weight gain, but I'm not completely certain about that, it was a couple of years ago since I read it. But I do understand that the numbing takes extra time. Feeding the pain killers is less of an effort though.

 

[ronott1]

I like decrowing. The downside would be if a high percentage died from the surgery.

I wonder if those of you that are not fans of decrowing would think better of it if you lived in a place where you could not have roosters.

It is hard to help with increasing the numbers of rare and endangered breeds because so may cannot breed them.

 

[casportpony]

We castrate or spay all dogs, cats and most geld most horses, period, no exceptions.

-Kathy

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I think the pig objects more to the immobilization than the actual procedure.... First and only time I ever fainted was when they were castrating a pig at the boarding stable... The Farrier did it because he knew how.... They hadn't even started when I went down right into a mud puddle....

I know with horses they dont didnt do anesthesia back then.... just a twitch and a couple of people to hold em still. its a pretty simple process on horses .... I wont describe it but no stitches because the blood vessels are crushed as part of the process and lots of cold water to help with the swelling. My job was to do the longing afterwards... Two to three times per day a cold water rinse and about fifteen minutes walking and light trotting on a longe line. They are back to doing normal horse stuff in a bout a week.

With draft horses they castrate them when they are still nursing on ma.... because they are so much smaller there is less tissue trauma. At that age they exercise themselves and momma walking about gets them moving. I am told that lack of extra hormones allow the draft horses to get bigger taller.... but I think that may be an old wives tale.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

We castrate or spay all dogs, cats and most geld most horses, period, no exceptions.

-Kathy

Yep... yep yep... To keep a stallion requires excellent bloodlines a need for them to be perpetuated and a lifetime of good management. You and I both know how potentially dangerous they are.

My gelding Marc was a sweet young stud colt... well behaved good conformation everything youd want in an Arab. Yet he was Half Arab.... no babies for him. He came through the process with flying colors... I think they just gave him Rompum.... a horse tranquilizer and kind of a muscle relaxant.... and the Vet had it done in about a minute.

deb

 

[ozexpat]

I like decrowing. The downside would be if a high percentage died from the surgery.

I wonder if those of you that are not fans of decrowing would think better of it if you lived in a place where you could not have roosters.

It is hard to .

For me its crazy to own a dog in an apartment or one that is confined to a house except to go out to pee, yet millions of people do and have wonderful relationships with their pets and I am happy for them.

Most city ordinances dont say crowing rooster - they ban roosters. Many ban them or severely limit them because of cock-fighting.

So those who cant have roos but try to circumvent the law are at threat of losing them to animal control.

Helping with increasing the numbers of rare and endangered breeds is a noble cause but often thats the secondary gain - i would hazard a guess that most with urban roos would have them even if they had nutts.

 

[casportpony]

The county I'm in has a limit of four roosters, but it's not enforced.

-Kathy

 

[topdycke]

For me its crazy to own a dog in an apartment or one that is confined to a house except to go out to pee, yet millions of people do and have wonderful relationships with their pets and I am happy for them.

Most city ordinances dont say crowing rooster - they ban roosters. Many ban them or severely limit them because of cock-fighting.

So those who cant have roos but try to circumvent the law are at threat of losing them to animal control.

Helping with increasing the numbers of rare and endangered breeds is a noble cause but often thats the secondary gain - i would hazard a guess that most with urban roos would have them even if they had nutts.

Roosters are not allowed here. I believe the ordinance was in mind for cock fighting. I don't think the roosters are any more annoying than some neighbors dog barking all night at being shut outside.

 

[ronott1]

For me its crazy to own a dog in an apartment or one that is confined to a house except to go out to pee, yet millions of people do and have wonderful relationships with their pets and I am happy for them.

Most city ordinances dont say crowing rooster - they ban roosters. Many ban them or severely limit them because of cock-fighting.

So those who cant have roos but try to circumvent the law are at threat of losing them to animal control.

Helping with increasing the numbers of rare and endangered breeds is a noble cause but often thats the secondary gain - i would hazard a guess that most with urban roos would have them even if they had nutts.

Decrowing is not the same as caponizing though. They still have their organs.

There are places that allow Roosters but the crowing is against the noise ordinance so surgically modifying the vocal cords under anesthesia(decrowing) makes roosters legal there. Others want to keep the noise down to keep the neighbors happy.