De-Nutted
December 4th 2007 22:52
A couple of boys were castrated yesterday. They belong to a lady who bought three youngsters from us early in the year, two boys and a pregnant girl.
I didn’t think to take photos of the “procedure” for you, but it’s probably something you can imagine well enough from a description, without having to see – particularly if you’ve just eaten. Apologies in advance to any squeamish guys out there too.
In a nutshell (sorry about the pun), a local anaesthetic is injected into the site so the alpaca won't feel much. A small incision is made and the nut extracted and snipped out. Same for the other one. A stitch (optional) is put in to stop any other stuff from bursting forth before it heals up. Then some antiseptic spray to finish the job. (That's just to prevent infection and help keep the flies away).
Un-snipped male alpacas are generally fine running together, as long as there are no females around. Once a girl comes into the picture, the testosterone starts to take control and the boys will fight each other over the girl. Even the best of mates become fierce opponents once there's a mating opportunity to be had. They can inflict some pretty horrible injuries on each other.
These two guys are about 18 months old, so the hormones are just starting to kick in. This is a good time to get them done. The girl is due to unpack this month, so she’s here for some female company as it’s her first cria. She’ll be much happier living with de-nutted boys. If they were kept entire, they’d be at her to mate all the time (when they weren’t busy trying to kill each other, that is).
I didn’t think to take photos of the “procedure” for you, but it’s probably something you can imagine well enough from a description, without having to see – particularly if you’ve just eaten. Apologies in advance to any squeamish guys out there too.
In a nutshell (sorry about the pun), a local anaesthetic is injected into the site so the alpaca won't feel much. A small incision is made and the nut extracted and snipped out. Same for the other one. A stitch (optional) is put in to stop any other stuff from bursting forth before it heals up. Then some antiseptic spray to finish the job. (That's just to prevent infection and help keep the flies away).
Un-snipped male alpacas are generally fine running together, as long as there are no females around. Once a girl comes into the picture, the testosterone starts to take control and the boys will fight each other over the girl. Even the best of mates become fierce opponents once there's a mating opportunity to be had. They can inflict some pretty horrible injuries on each other.
These two guys are about 18 months old, so the hormones are just starting to kick in. This is a good time to get them done. The girl is due to unpack this month, so she’s here for some female company as it’s her first cria. She’ll be much happier living with de-nutted boys. If they were kept entire, they’d be at her to mate all the time (when they weren’t busy trying to kill each other, that is).
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Comment by katyzzz
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Neat little things these alpacas, aren't they?, Rosemary.
Comment by Rosemary
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Comment by Lilla
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This post bought back some sad memories for me.
We had two of our goats desexed once and I thought the procedure barbaric. Luckily for our boys, they had recieved an anasthetic because the idiot vet thought I said that I wanted their horns chopped as well...otherwise he told me, that he wouldn't have bothered!
He snipped the sack and yanked out their everything ...and deep from within their dopey state, they each cried out in pain as he twisted the sacks around his finger and just pulled them out... absolutely horrible... I had no idea, or I would never have agreed to it.
He was a bit of a bad vet the locals told me later... but it has stayed with me for years. I have had cats desexed too and I hope to God, it was better than what I saw that day.
Both goats died later that year from other causes. It was really tragic for my children.
I hope your boys are fine and healed well.
Lilla ...
Comment by Rosemary
Alpaca Notes - Tasmania
Sounds like the vet you had didn't put enough anaesthetic in for your boys.
The vets here use a local and check to make sure they're not feeling it before they start any cutting. They didn't flinch at all and were up and eating happily very shortly afterwards. They are both fine now.
Sorry about your goats' experience. I have heard that some other methods (like ringing) inflict horrible pain on the animal. Plus infections etc. Thank goodness that method is not possible on alpacas.