Infection after castration

[cah]

Hi we have a three mt old calf that the vet castrated a week and half ago.. he started swelling so called the vet back out on Friday he said there was some clotted blood in there he cleaned it and gave him an antiobotic, I know it has only been two days but it is still swelled and draining, we called him back last night and he said that is normal... the calf is eating but still trys to lick at it and you can tell he is irritated by the swelling .... any thoughts? Should it be draining this much? The vet did say he felt like a "string" or Cord in there and he may have to come back out and cut that out if he didn't get any better...but that would required knocking him out... should I be worried... We have NEVER had this happen before! Thanks

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Now just think about what happened here this feller cut the bottom off this calf bag and jerked his nuts out. I think that would cause some swelling. Likely be alright in a week.

 

[dieselbeef]

if ya dont trust yer vet have him come out and look at it or find another..thats a job you should be doin yerself anyways...band em if ya dont wanna make him bleed

 

[larryshoat]

When I cut bulls I do 4 things that will help. 1-make sure there is no cord or anything else hanging out, it will just be a wick for infection. 2-spray with iodine. 3-give a shot of penicillin. 4-keep knife in alcohol between calves. I've cut thousands of bulls and if I do those 4 things I never have any trouble, if I relax on any of those we will pay fot it.

Your calf is infected and I would keep him on penicillin until he clears up. I'm amazed at the number of vets that have trouble cutting bulls.

Larry

 

[cah]

Larry I could not agree with you more... our vet did give him some penicillin and said he would ck on him in 10 days. I didn't watch him do the castration so I don't know what he used for sure.... I am thinking maybe next year we will just band and get it over with.

 

[jt]

i think the "string" and blood clots are 2 different issues and am a little confused as to why your vet said that, but he is a vet, and saw your animal; i am just commenting on my understanding and i could be wrong. blood clots that cause them to swell in excess and for an excessive length of time are the result of continual hemorraging (sp) and the string is something left in there that will cause infection.

all of them are going to bleed some, but on occasion one will continue to bleed and once the sac seals off it will swell and sometimes a lot. i have only seen one in my life and he swelled so bad that he limped from it and his side was swollen. the vet said that most likely it was an infection from the string. and that is very logical. in this case however it was not. it was clotted blood. 2 or 3 cups of jellied looking blood were mashed out when he was opened up. he had to be opened a few more times and each time less and less came out. this went on for about 2 weeks i think. once you open them up they will seal fast, so if you can spook them and make them bolt off it will cause the sac to open on its own and drain, but you have to do this about every hour after they are opened because it wont take long for the sac to seal off. this was done to that calf 2 or 3 times after he was opened each time to drain more off. he finally got over it.

if it is an infection from the string i think after a week and a half the vet would not have had to suspect it. i figure that pus would have definitely been visable. and if it is the string, you will have to have it all dug out so to speak.


good luck

jt

 

[dieselbeef]

all the more reaon to band them

 

[jt]

all the more reaon to band them

most folks wont give the tetnanus shots needed and while i have never seen it, i have heard that watching one that gets infected because the tetnanas shots were not give is really tough. i band my larger animals, but cut the smaller ones. cutting is too easy. i did see a goat one time that got really bad infected and died because the band broke. i guess it is a matter of perference and i think both have pluses and minuses.

jt

 

[Angus Cowman]

Now just think about what happened here this feller cut the bottom off this calf bag and jerked his nuts out. I think that would cause some swelling. Likely be alright in a week.

That is the way I have always done it cut about a 1/3 of the bag off
had a buddy that bought around 50 hd of steers and had the vet cut them well I was over there a few weeks later and we was looking at his calves and I noticed they were really swollen and we got to checking them
all were infected
The vet had sliced the bag vertically and pulled the nuts out and it had grown back together
I have seen guys cut them this way but they always sliced the bag all the way thru on the bottom this vet didn't he just put a 2" slit in the middle so the bag closed up and couldn't drain
I cut the bottom off of alll of these for this guy and flushed them out good and he had no more problem but man was it a nasty job, kinda like draining injection site abscesses from the blackleg vaccines makes ya not want to eat cottage chesse :mrgreen:

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I have cut them and i have banded them, never had any trouble either way. If i cut i like to do before i wean, seem to do better if you can kick them back to pasture with momma till they heal. Like you i ain't worried about them having any sack left.

 

[jt]

how is your calf doing now?

jt

 

[dcara]

My vet has been using a "twist of method" for about 6 months now. He cuts off the bottom 1/3rd of the sac and then grabs the tube just above the nut with forceps that are connected to an electric drill. Drill is set to about 1 turn/sec (60rpm). 10 seconds later its off. So about 1 minute total per calf all told He swears by this method but I see about a 10% complication rate that seems high to me. And the draining and flushing is a mess to deal with. I think the complication rate is actually higher because it seems that half the time I go in there for something he is treating castration complications.

I also saw about a 10% problem rate with bands. Problems were either a nut missed, or band comes/gets broken off, or infection.

So I think cutting is still the best way to go. Its quick, low complication rate when done right, and the calves recover way faster than banding.

 

[kenny thomas]

A 10% complication rate is very unacceptable. I band or cut about 200 per year and if I have 1 with a problem I feel I have done something wrong.

 

[larryshoat]

I agree with Doug and Kenny, 10% complication rate is way too high. Like Kenny said about 1/2% and trying to eliminate that.

Larry