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Castration of piglets is a necessary procedure when raising pigs for meat. The operation is considered uncomplicated and is often performed by the sow owner himself. With independent castration without the necessary skills, it is easy to make a mistake and harm the piglet.
Why are pigs and piglets castrated?
It would be easier for a private owner to leave the piglets unblanked and not worry about the complications of castration. In fact, you can leave a piglet as a boar only if this piglet is intended for breeding. The remaining piglets are economically more profitable to castrate.
A castrated pig is calmer, gains weight better, and its meat does not have a specific unpleasant odor. In relation to pigs, no operations are carried out, even if the females are also intended for slaughter. Pig meat does not smell. To deprive the sow of the possibility of reproduction is illogical.
At what age are piglets castrated?
Castration of piglets is carried out at the age of 10 days and up to infinity. The main requirement is no later than 1,5 months before slaughter. Usually piglets are castrated at the age of 10-45 days. But the younger the piglet, the easier it will undergo the operation. Small boars are easier to keep; with a certain skill, one person can handle them. It is already difficult for one person to fix piglets at the age of one month, and with a 2-month-old it may be difficult to attract an assistant.
Is it possible to castrate an adult boar
If the boar has grown to an adult state, then it is used as a producer. Castration of large boars is carried out after culling and 1,5-2 months before slaughter. Old animals do not tolerate idling. In adult boars, it is also difficult to separate the vaginal membrane from the skin of the scrotum. But since the boar is intended for slaughter, few people care how well he will endure the operation. If there are complications, the boar will be slaughtered ahead of schedule.
Dates
The main problem with castration is flies that can lay eggs in wounds. On agro-complexes, flies are disposed of “on the approach” of these insects. In a private trader, flies next to animals are inevitable. Ideally, piglets should be castrated at home during the cold season. But the pig is farrowed 2 times a year. One of the farrows will definitely fall on warm days. Since it is better to single piglets at an early age, 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 the complete removal of the testicles. This is due to the anatomy of pigs. If in other domestic animals the testicles are located outside the abdominal cavity in the scrotum, then in boars they are inside the body. In young piglets, the testicles are not even visible from the outside. In old boars, depending on the breed, the testicles can stick out halfway.
But even in an old boar, castration cannot be done by any other method than bloody.
The closed method of castration is preferable for boars, as they often have dilation of the inguinal canals. When the testicles are removed in an open way, the viscera may fall out through castration wounds.
The choice of castration method depends on the preference of the owner or veterinarian. From the observer’s point of view, 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 methods of bloodless castration: chemical and clamping of blood flow in the scrotum. The latter is today called elastration after the development of special rings and 4-pointed forceps. But earlier, for the same purposes, a ligature was used, which was applied with a special castration knot on the scrotum between the testes and the abdomen.
Preparing an animal for castration
Piglets do not feed for a day before castration in order to free the intestines and avoid volvulus or suffocation with vomiting. Immediately before castration, animals are allowed to go for a walk to empty their bladder and intestines.
When castrating young piglets, anesthesia is usually not carried out or it is done after the operation. In the latter case, this is not anesthesia, but an injection of an analgesic that reduces pain.
When castrating old boars, anesthesia will be necessary. Pigs are very strong and quite aggressive animals. This is especially true for 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 carried out in a supine or standing position. To avoid unnecessary aggression, a neuroleptic is administered intramuscularly before local anesthesia. Most often, it is chlorpromazine.
When castration in the prone position, intratesticular 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 an integrated blade will be required. You can do without them, but forceps are much more convenient and do not allow you to make an incision larger 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 are no longer suitable. The older the piglet, the thicker its skin. In addition to a too small incision, the combined forceps will no longer be able to pierce the skin.
To groom older piglets you will need:
- scalpel / razor blade;
- surgical needle;
- material for the ligature;
- surgical clamp, Zand forceps or emasculator.
With the latter, you need to be careful, as it cuts the spermatic cord. Scissors for castration of piglets are used only after applying a ligature, otherwise bleeding may begin. The clip in young animals is often used instead of a ligature. Zand forceps are used in the castration of adult boars.
All instruments are sterilized. Since there is usually no autoclave at home, metal instruments are “boiled” for half an hour or “rinsed” in antiseptic solutions. The ligature is taken either sterile, or treated with disinfectants before use:
- Chlorhexidine;
- furatsilina solution;
- Manganese;
- hydrogen peroxide.
For a ligature, you can use almost any strong thread. It can be silk, catgut, even capron.
This substance corrodes organic matter, and catgut is made from the wall of the small intestine of small cattle. But the advantage of catgut is that it is absorbed inside the body without creating the danger of suppuration.
When idling alone rather large piglets, it is convenient to use a castration machine. It is also disinfected before use. In the absence of a machine, its functions are performed by an assistant.
How to castrate piglets
At home, it is possible to correctly castrate piglets in only two ways: “on a cliff” and “on a ligature”. “On the cliff” piglets are castrated at the end of the suckling period. In this case, the open method is more often used. “On the ligature” older piglets are castrated, and here both open and closed methods are possible.
Open and closed methods of castration of piglets differ in that in the first one only the testis is removed, leaving a common vaginal membrane. When closed, they cut off everything that “jumped out of the scrotum”.
In this case, the incision will need to be sutured. If the incisions are too large, there is a risk of an inguinal hernia or loss of the viscera through the wound.
With any method, piglets are fixed on their back or left side, bringing all 4 legs together. It is permissible to hold the pig upside down.
Closed method
The closed method is used for castration “on the ligature”. With a scalpel or blade, the skin on the scrotum is carefully cut 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, covered with a vaginal membrane.
The testicle is pulled out until the thinned part of the spermatic cord appears. The edges of the scrotum are moved to the inguinal 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
In an open way, piglets are castrated “on the ligature” and “on the break”. “On the ligature” is castrated in almost the same way as with the closed method, but only the testicle is removed, also cutting the vaginal membrane and leaving it in the abdominal cavity. After the vaginal vaginal membrane, the testicle is separated from it and a ligature is tied with a castration knot on the thin part of the spermatic cord. After that, it is cut at a distance of 2 cm from the ligature and between the testicle and the node.
Castration “out of the way”
It is used only with the open method of castration of piglets. An incision is made on the scrotum parallel to the “suture” 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. Separate the testis from the shell. If necessary, use a scalpel or scissors.
Hemostatic forceps are placed on the spermatic cord, holding it with the left hand. The forceps are placed as close as possible to the inguinal canal. The spermatic cord is grasped with the right hand and with a quick jerk it is cut off near the tweezers. After that, the tweezers can be removed. The wound is filled with an antiseptic.
Quite a rustic way of castrating piglets “on a cliff” in the video below. The method is not bloodless, as the owner of the video claims. He’s just bloody. It’s just that a person confuses bloodless, that is, without surgical intervention, and bloody methods of castration.
Piglets with this method of castration are at great risk of bleeding, since the blood vessel supplying the testis has not been properly occluded. It was just twisted a few times.
Chemical method
Chemical castration of boars is still an exotic method that few people trust. Castration is carried out by injection of 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. In boars that received Improvac, the testicles are smaller than in non-castrated boars.
Improvac injection should be done twice with a break of at least 4 weeks. It is permissible to inject Improvac from 2 months. The last injection is done at least 5 weeks before slaughter. The cost of the drug is about 8 thousand rubles. The bottle contains 50 doses. The volume of one dose is 2 ml.
Elastration
With the help of an elastator, piglets are not castrated at all. They have a different structure of the scrotum, and the testicles are in the abdominal cavity. The elastrator looks like four-pointed forceps with curved ends. A tight rubber ring is put on closed tongs and, squeezing the handle, stretch it. The scrotum with testicles is threaded inside the gum so that the testicles are completely inside the ring. After that, the handles of the tongs are released and the elastic is carefully removed from the tips of the tongs. Task: to clamp the blood flow over the testes.
A similar function is performed by a piercing ligature, which in the same way pulls the spermatic cord along with the skin of the scrotum over the testicles. 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 regard, 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 testicles dry out, the ring will shrink. Eventually, the testicles, along with the scrotum, will fall off on their own.
But since the testicles are located differently in piglets, this method does not suit them. It is not suitable even for the castration of an adult boar, in which the testicles are half protruding from the abdominal cavity. In general, elastration can be carried out only for some types of animals:
- goats;
- ram;
- bulls
Even for foals, it is already difficult to pull back the scrotum so as not to hurt anything but the spermatic cords. And, given the maximum diameter that a household elastator ring can be stretched to, the bulls are also in question. Except the youngest. Therefore, using the bloodless method, bulls are baited using tongs or a special elastator for bulls, which works differently than household ones.
Care of piglets after castration
After removing the testicles, antiseptic ointments or powders are applied. Streptomycin and iodoform are often used. Outside, the wounds in piglets are treated with antibacterial drugs. It is convenient to use veterinary antibiotic sprays.
Piglets are placed on a clean litter and observed for several days of healing. If the operation was unsuccessful, the wound began to fester, the piglet is injected with an antibiotic and a veterinarian is called to open the cavity with pus. In the absence of a veterinarian within reach, you can try to open it yourself. The piglet does not care anymore: if you do not open it, he will definitely die; if opened, he will have 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. An age-old boar-producer will also not be delighted with the idea of the owner to deprive him of the ability to reproduce. Castration of large boars is done mostly with sedatives. Sometimes it is difficult to calculate the dose. In some cases, the drug, on the contrary, causes excitement and aggression.
There is another 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 old animals, open is preferable. Plus castration of an adult boar – it is difficult to make a mistake with the length of the incision.
Operation technique
When the anesthesia has taken effect, 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 easily torn 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. The following options are possible:
- at a distance of 2 cm from the ligature, the cord 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 preparations. If the testicles of the boar were very large, it is advisable to hem the wounds. The incisions are sutured with synthetic thread, making loop-shaped sutures. One thread per stitch. Most often, 3 seams are made. Threads simultaneously stitch all 4 edges of the wound. At first they are not tied. After stitching, the threads are pulled, bringing together the edges of the wounds. A suspension of an antibiotic or sulfanilamide 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
Castration of piglets is a simple operation, easily tolerated by boars. But it is desirable to do it as early as possible. The later the piglet is castrated, the greater the chance of a complication after the operation.