Below this cute little story are some graphic pictures of tail docking. By all means skip them if you choose.
By the way thanks for the prayers for my fever issue, I awoke this morning completely refreshed. No fever and most of the lymph back to normal, although I am much better today, as you can see I am actually up taking pictures, I will be taking it easier than normal this next week. I’ll be picking back up with my fast and cleanse with special attention to the lymph and you can check out the progress over on The Sheet Diet.
On with today’s story.
Larry was mortified by the condition of his ears. This was not the proper look for a dignified Suffolk, what with one ear going up high and the other looking like it was broke at the joint, it was positively laughable. He was blue.
“Harry, what are we going to do when it is time to join the herd?”
“Oh, Larry it really isn’t that big of a deal.”
“Okay, you think it is no big deal that it looks like our mom got crazy with the perm solution? This is no way for a Suffolk ram to begin his life.”
“Uh, ya about that whole ram thing, I got news for you Larry, pal…
“We’re scheduled for Dirt’s tail gate surgery party.Well that surgery isn’t for a couple more days but there was some surgery going on today but it was just tail docking, only girls in today’s batch. So hang on the pictures might not go well with your morning coffee and biscuit.
These are Dirt’s tail docking tools, this big huge thing in the bucket is called a burdizo, there is a knife on the other end of the clamp and a rag, all soaking in a betadine solution.
The bottles are an antiseptic sulfur dust, and yes that is dental floss in the upholstry needle that he uses to stitch up the tail.
He soaks the whole tail area that he is going to cut. Tails need to come off. (Check it out, it really is a “tailgate” party.) Breeding is easier without long tails and when you have sheep on natural pasture it is easy for them to get into things that causes them to have nasty poo.
And then, when you have a wooly tail behind you, you soon have a nasty tail behind you and soon you have flies growing on you. Not very nice. Docking tails is much nicer. But like everything else there is controversy.
Dirt sets the burdizo so that the pinchers land between vertebrae. The purpose of the burdizo is to crush the cord and vessels.
And it also gives him an edge to slide the blade on and that is what the action is here. But this lamb was a wiggle worm. Usually it only takes one person to hold them but even Bet had to pitch in to hold this one.
Now for the stitching part. Dirt puts a couple of stitches in the tail but leaves a little drain room other wise sanguenous fluid collects in the tail. Doc Tibbits refused to let Dirt ever use bands although sometimes it does seem easier. But he taught Dirt how to do it and we have never lost a lamb because of tail docking.
But this little missy thinks she is going to die, and if those stiches weren’t bad enough.
Dirt says in a very stern voice, “Roll over, and next time when I say don’t wiggle, I mean don’t wiggle.”
