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Faunsdale, AL | Do not make a habit of castrating large calves with the "cut the cord" method. You apparently have had one bleed badly on you. What you don't realize is the calf bled internally after you closed the scrotum, you just got lucky.
You can castrate small calves, lambs, pigs just about any way you want and get along fine, but as they get older, you need to do it correctly. Most folks get hung up on how they cut the scrotum, but the important thing is how you remove the testicle because that involves the blood supply. For those that don't want to purchase and keep an emasculator, the technique is to pull the testicle with one hand and work the tissue around the cord down with the other, stretching and removing as long a piece of cord as possible, still attached to the testicle (that's the handle). This separates the artery by stretching it so it tends to spasm and constrict as well as making it a lot easier for the blood to clot on the stretched tissue.
The lining of arteries is smooth so blood does not clot under normal conditions. The blood clots when it flows over something that has exposed tissue. That's where an emasculator comes in, it crushes the cord before it cuts off the testicle. The crushed tissue clots off quickly. Compare the blood loss from a shaving cut to a skinned knee. Skinned knee has lots of exposed tissue even though there are probably more blood vessels opened on the surface than the clean cut.
A Newberry knife is pretty safe and is an effective way to open the scrotum when used properly and a White's emasculator (most of the cheap ones are made on that pattern) can be purchased for less than $100 and last a lifetime. You have to factor the cost of using some other method and the cost of the occasional slash to your own hand and the loss of a single calf in the decision to purchase some instruments or hire the veterinarian to castrate your animals. | |
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Fattening cull cows / clamping for castration?
