Content
Piglet neutering is a necessary procedure when raising pigs for meat. The operation is considered uncomplicated and is often performed by the sow owner himself. When self-carrying out castration without the necessary skills, it is easy to make mistakes and harm the piglet.
Why castrate pigs and piglets
It would be easier for a private owner to leave the piglets uncrowded and not worry about complications during castration. In fact, you can leave a piglet as a boar only if this piglet is intended for breeding. The rest of the piglets are economically more profitable to castrate.
A neutered pig is calmer, gains weight better, and its meat does not have a specific unpleasant odor. In relation to gilts, no operations are carried out, even if the females are also intended for slaughter. Pig meat does not smell. Depriving a sow of the possibility of reproduction is illogical.
At what age piglets are castrated
Piglets are castrated at the age from 10 days to infinity. The main requirement is no later than 1.5 months before slaughter. Piglets are usually castrated at the age of 10-45 days. But the younger the piglet, the easier it will undergo the operation. Small hogs are easier to keep; with a certain skill, one person can cope with them. Piglets at the age of one month are already difficult for one person to fix, and with 2 months of age, difficulties may arise when attracting an assistant.
Is it possible to castrate an adult boar
If the boar has grown to adulthood, then it is used as a producer. Castration of large boars is carried out after culling and 1.5-2 months before slaughter. Older animals do not tolerate grooming well. In adult boars, it is also difficult to separate the sheath from the skin of the scrotum. But since the boar is destined for slaughter, few people care how well he will handle the operation. If there are complications, the boar will be slaughtered ahead of schedule.
Dates of the
The main problem with castration is flies, which can lay eggs in wounds. At agricultural complexes these insects get rid of flies "on the way". In a private trader, flies next to animals are inevitable. Ideally, piglets should be neutered at home during the cold season. But the pig is suckled 2 times a year. One of the farrowings will definitely fall on warm days. Since it is better to bridle piglets at an early age, then castration will have to be carried out without looking at the season.
Castration methods
Castration of piglets is carried out by open and closed methods and only by the bloody method, that is, with complete removal of the testes. This is due to the anatomy of pigs. Whereas other domestic animals have testicles outside of the abdominal cavity in the scrotum, boars have them inside the body. In young piglets, the testes are not even visible from the outside. In older boars, depending on the breed, the testicles may protrude halfway outward.
But even in an old boar, castration cannot be carried out by any other method, except for the bloody one.
Closed castration is preferable for boars, as they often have an enlarged inguinal canal.When the testes are removed by the open method, the viscera may fall out through castration wounds.
The choice of neutering method depends on the preference of the owner or veterinarian. From the point of view of the observer, there is almost no difference between them. When closed, the testicle is removed along with the common vaginal membrane, that is, the testis is "closed". When open, the vaginal membrane is also cut, that is, the testis is “opened”. In this case, only the testicle is removed. The vaginal membrane remains in the scrotum.
In total, there are only 2 ways of bloodless castration: chemical and pinching of the blood flow in the scrotum. The latter is today called elastration after the development of special rings and 4-point forceps. But earlier, for the same purposes, a ligature was used, which was imposed with a special castration knot on the scrotum between the testes and the abdomen.
Preparing an animal for castration
Piglets are not fed for 24 hours before castration in order to empty the intestines and avoid bloat or suffocation with vomiting. Immediately before castration, the animals are released for a walk to empty the bladder and intestines.
When neutering young piglets, pain relief is usually not given or is done after the operation. In the latter case, this is not anesthesia, but an injection of an analgesic that reduces pain.
When neutering old boars, anesthesia will be necessary. Pigs are very strong and quite aggressive animals. This is especially true for wild boars.
In preparation for the operation, a large boar is fixed by the upper jaw with a rope loop. The rope is fixed to a pole, ring or something else, but at floor level.
Castration is performed in a supine or standing position. To avoid unnecessary aggression, a neuroleptic is injected intramuscularly before local anesthesia. Most often, it is chlorpromazine.
When castration in the supine position, intra-testicular anesthesia of sodium thiopental is used. If castration is carried out on a standing boar, then 10 ml of 3% novocaine is injected into the thickness of each testis.
Preparation of tools and materials
For castration of 10-14 day old piglets, special combination forceps with a built-in blade are required. You can do without them, but the forceps are much more convenient and do not allow you to make an incision more than necessary. In addition to forceps, you will need 2 syringes: with an analgesic and an antibiotic. Castration is carried out in a closed way, but due to the size of the piglet, even a ligature is not applied to the spermatic cord.
For older piglets, these tongs will no longer work. The older the pig, the thicker the skin. Apart from an incision that is too small, the combination forceps will not be able to pierce the skin.
To mow older piglets you will need:
- scalpel / razor blade;
- surgical needle;
- ligature material;
- surgical forceps, Zanda forceps, or emasculator.
You need to be careful with the latter, as it cuts the spermatic cord. Piglet castration scissors are used only after ligation, otherwise bleeding may begin. The clamp in young animals is often used instead of a ligature. The Sand Forceps are used to castrate adult boars.
All instruments are sterilized. Since there is usually no autoclave at home, they use "boiling" metal instruments for half an hour or "rinsing" in antiseptic solutions. The ligature is taken either sterile, or, before use, it is treated in disinfecting preparations:
- chlorhexidine;
- furacilin solution;
- potassium permanganate;
- hydrogen peroxide.
Almost any strong thread can be used for ligature. It can be silk, catgut, even nylon.
This substance eats away organic matter, and catgut is made from the wall of the small intestine of small ruminants.But the plus of catgut is that it dissolves inside the body, without creating the danger of suppuration.
When mowing fairly large piglets alone, it is convenient to use a neutering pen. It is also disinfected before use. In the absence of a machine, its functions are performed by an assistant.
How to neuter piglets correctly
At home, piglets can be neutered correctly in only two ways: “on the cliff” and “on the ligature”. Piglets are castrated "on the cliff" at the end of the suckling period. In this case, an open method is used more often. Piglets of older age are castrated on a ligature, and here both open and closed methods are possible.
Open and closed methods of piglet castration differ in that at the first only the testis is removed, leaving the common vaginal membrane. When closed, cut off everything that "jumped out of the scrotum."
In this case, the incision will need to be hemmed. If the incisions are too large, there is a risk of an inguinal hernia or entrails falling out through the wound.
With any method, the piglets are fixed on their back or left side, bringing all 4 legs together. It is permissible to keep the pig upside down.
Closed method
The closed method is used for castration "on a ligature". With a scalpel or blade, carefully cut the skin on the scrotum parallel to the "median" suture. Additionally, the fascia and the muscular-elastic membrane are cut without touching the common vaginal membrane. The testis is removed from the wound, closed by the vaginal membrane.
The testicle is pulled out until the thinned part of the spermatic cord appears. The edges of the scrotum are pushed back to the groin ring and a ligature is applied to the spermatic cord. After that, the cord is cut between the ligature and the testicle. The distance from the ligature to the cut is 2 cm.
Open way
Piglets are castrated by the open method "on the ligature" and "on the cliff". "On the ligature" castrated in almost the same way as with the closed method, but only the testicle is removed, cutting also the vaginal membrane and leaving it in the abdominal cavity. After the vaginal membrane of the vagina, the testicle is separated from it and a ligature is tied with a castration knot on the thin part of the spermatic cord. Then it is cut at a distance of 2 cm from the ligature and between the testicle and the node.
Castration "abruptly"
It is used only with the open method of piglet castration. An incision is made on the scrotum parallel to the "seam" and at a distance of 1-1.5 cm from it. The incision is made from the back to the abdomen and the entire length of the testis. The vaginal membrane is opened either simultaneously with the skin incision, or separately. The testis is separated from the shell. If necessary, use a scalpel or scissors.
Hemostatic forceps are placed on the spermatic cord, holding it with the left hand. Tweezers are placed as close to the inguinal canal as possible. The spermatic cord is grasped with the right hand and cut off with a quick jerk near the forceps. The tweezers can then be removed. The wound is filled with an antiseptic.
A very rustic way to castrate piglets "on the cliff" in the video below. The method is not bloodless, as the owner of the video claims. He's a regular bloody. It's just that a person confuses bloodless, that is, without surgery, and bloody methods of castration.
Piglets with this method of castration are at high risk of bleeding, since the blood vessel supplying the testis was not normally pinched. It was simply twisted several times.
Chemical method
Chemical castration of boars is still an exotic method that few people trust. Castration is performed by injecting the drug Improvac. The drug was developed in 1998 in Australia. It also went on sale for the first time. The action of the drug is based on the suppression of testosterone production by the testes. Boars that received Improvac have less testicles than non-castrated boars.
The Improvac injection must be done twice with an interval of at least 4 weeks. Injecting Improvac is permissible from 2 months.The last injection is given at least 5 weeks before slaughter. The cost of the drug is about 8 thousand rubles. The bottle is designed for 50 doses. The volume of one dose is 2 ml.
Elastication
Piglets are not castrated with an elastomer at all. They have a different structure of the scrotum, and the testicles are in the abdominal cavity. The elastomer looks like a four-pointed pliers with curved ends. A tight rubber ring is put on the closed forceps and, squeezing the handle, they stretch it. The scrotum with the testicles is threaded inside the elastic band so that the testicles are completely inside the ring. After that, the handles of the tongs are released and the gum is carefully removed from the tips of the tongs. Task: squeeze the blood flow over the testes.
A similar function is performed by a piercing ligature, with which the spermatic cords are pulled along with the skin of the scrotum over the testicles in the same way. Strictly speaking, this type of castration could be performed even with a simple string, but a guarantee is needed that when the testes die and mummify, the string will not budge.
In this respect, the rubber ring has an advantage: its inner diameter is 5-7 mm. When placed over the scrotum, the rubber will first be stretched. Later, when the testes dry out, the ring will shrink. Ultimately, the testicles will fall off along with the scrotum.
But since the testicles are located differently in piglets, this method does not suit them. It is not even suitable for the castration of an adult boar, whose testicles are half protruding from the abdominal cavity. Elastication in general can be carried out only for some species of animals:
- goats;
- rams;
- gobies.
Even foals find it difficult to pull the scrotum so far as not to touch anything except the spermatic cords. And, given the maximum diameter to which the ring of a household elastomer can be stretched, the bulls are also questionable. Perhaps the youngest. Therefore, the bloodless method of the bulls is bred with the help of forceps or a special elastrator for bulls, which works differently than the household one.
Care of piglets after castration
After removing the testicles, antiseptic ointments or powders are placed. Streptomycin and iodoform are often used. Outside, the wounds of the piglets are treated with antibacterial drugs. It is convenient to use veterinary antibiotic sprays.
The piglets are placed on a clean bedding and the progress of healing is observed for several days. If the operation was unsuccessful, the wound began to fester, the pig is injected with an antibiotic and a veterinarian is called to open the cavity with pus. If you don't have a veterinarian within reach, you can try to open it yourself. The piglet doesn't care anymore: if you don't open it, it will definitely die; if opened, it has a chance of survival.
How to castrate a large boar
If it is necessary to castrate an adult boar, it is better to invite a veterinarian for this. If the boar is still young, then the need for castration is usually caused by its excessive aggressiveness. A mature producer boar will also not be delighted with the idea of the owner to deprive him of his ability to reproduce. Large boars are castrated mostly with sedatives. It is sometimes difficult to calculate the dose. In some cases, the drug, on the contrary, causes agitation and aggression.
There is one more difficulty: in adult boars, it is difficult to separate the vaginal membrane from the skin of the scrotum during castration in a closed way. But with older animals, an open one is preferable. Plus castration of an adult boar - it is difficult to make a mistake with the length of the cut.
Operation technique
When the anesthesia is effective, the testis is grasped with the left hand and the skin of the scrotum is cut along with the vaginal membrane. The internal vaginal ligament is easy to tear and is torn with the fingers. The spermatic cord is separated and a ligature of strong silk thread or catgut No. 8-10 is applied to its thin part. Further options are possible:
- at a distance of 2 cm from the ligature, the rope is cut with scissors;
- at the same distance, forceps are applied to the cord and the testis is unscrewed.
Castration wounds are treated with antiseptic drugs. If the testicles of the boar were very large, it is advisable to hem the wounds. Suture the cuts with synthetic thread, making loop seams. One thread for each seam. Most often, 3 stitches are made. All 4 edges of the wound are simultaneously stitched with threads. They are not tied at first. After stitching, the threads are pulled, bringing the edges of the wounds together. A suspension of an antibiotic or sulfonamide is injected into both wound cavities using a long tip at the vial. Next, the stitches are pulled together and the threads are tied.
Conclusion
Piglet neutering is a simple operation, easily tolerated by boars. But it is advisable to do it as early as possible. The later the pig is castrated, the more chances of complications after surgery.
