[Liz Kershaw]

Today, our vet came out to castrate our twin Ryeland ram lambs, now 4 and a half months old (we were waiting to see if they were good pedigree specimens, but they're too short in the leg and not great - we're keeping them as wethers with our little pet flock). Anyway, he injected the first with local anaesthetic - the lambs were not stressed beforehand, I'd put them in hurdles with their mum -  but at the injection, the lamb reacted, panting, eye rolling, back arching and then collapsed, all 4 legs not working. The effect was transient, and within 5 mins he was up again and looking normal. We discussed it - chemical reaction? Stress? The vet had never seen anything like it before. So, twin 2's turn came, and exactly the same reaction, identical in every way. Again, 5 mins later, fine, and the actual castration caused no problems of stress whatsoever - they are very tame, so stress is unusual in them. They've not reacted to ear tagging, vaccination, anything else. Vet was confused as if it was a reaction to the chemical, something to do with their genetics, it should have gone on longer as the local stays for ages in their system. It's a mystery. Anyone else ever encountered this? 4 hours on, they are eating and behaving normally - I'd like to  know if the might react like this again if they ever need another local for any reason. If they'd been old or ill, it might have been the end of them.

[Sbom]

I've seen a calf have a similar reaction after a ringvac injection, although it was a graduale recovery over a few hours.

[Liz Kershaw]

Interesting ... The vet thought that should have happened with mine if it was a reaction to the chemical, 5 mins recovery was very strange

[Melmarsh]

Could just be the intimate area involved and a man thing !!!??

[kanisha]

once tried giving a local anaesthetic to a frog ( needed a couple of sutures) .... they absorb through thei r skin knocked the poor thing out completely!!

[fsmnutter]

Was it one of the local anaesthetic formulations with adrenaline in it? Could be reacting to the adrenaline rather than the local. I think the main thing is that it was transient. Just goes to show there are risks with castrating older animals.

[Liz Kershaw]

Good question ... it was adrenocaine, so given the name I imagine it does include adrenalin. A reaction to that would make sense as it was such an instant hit that then receded. I don't think it was specifically to do with the male area - we wethered an older ram last year and he was fine, I reckon as they're twins they might have the same tendency to reaction?

We didn't want to ring them when first born as they have brilliant pedigrees and if they'd turned out good specimens , we could have kept them intact, but they're too short in the leg.