Author Topic: Castration (Read 8685 times)

Welshcob · « **Reply #15 on:** October 25, 2012, 09:22:42 pm »

Quote from: funkyfish on October 25, 2012, 09:00:50 pm

Local takes 20mins to work not 3 seconds!

Yes, but if the farmer has 50 calves to castrate and the milking or other stuff to get on with, the vet can't possibly wait 20min for each animal. It's kind enough that the local is used at all if you ask me. It will still give some pain relief "after". Unless it was a fully grown bull/ram I have never seen local anesthetic used for castration (and yes, I know it should be used because of welfare and law etc, but in that case as I said, see if the farmer is happy to do the calves in batches over several days

)

funkyfish · « **Reply #16 on:** October 25, 2012, 09:30:34 pm »

I agree if you have a load to do its not possible, also if they are tiny babies then the local stings like hell as well so a quick snip is prob less painful!

Welshcob · « **Reply #17 on:** October 25, 2012, 09:33:19 pm »

Agree!!

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #18 on:** October 26, 2012, 03:53:46 am »

Our vets find it much better to not anaesthetise for castration, but to do the job very quickly with a very sharp knife. We had three done this way this year, and there was no evidence any of them felt a thing. If you anaesthetise, they have to be handled twice, and held between the jab and the op while the local works, and that means a whole heap more stress.

However, if the vet hasn't done a lot of these, I'd prefer s/he used local too. It takes a lot of experience to do them as swiftly, correctly and painlessly as our vet does.

Tiva Diva · « **Reply #19 on:** October 30, 2012, 08:26:59 pm »

Surprised - local takes about 30 seconds to work in humans. Don't do many castrations

but with the vasectomies the procedure is: put the local in, get your scalpel etc ready, and off you go!

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #20 on:** October 30, 2012, 08:56:56 pm »

Hmmmm... well, maybe it's different for castration, I was assuming it was the same as dehorning, where the vet says the anaesthetic takes 10 minutes to work.

And hey! when I go to the dentist they send me off to read some more Reader's Digest while the anaesthetic works!

Welshcob · « **Reply #21 on:** October 30, 2012, 09:02:06 pm »

Remember that local anesthetics are not all the same molecules. Some take longer to be active, some less, and duration is also variable depending which one is used. Species is not so relevant, more so the procedure to be done.