Impacts of Banamine Injection on Pain Responses of Either Rubber Ring Castrated and Tail Docked or Surgically Castrated and Docked Lambs

Abstract

Our hypothesis was that administering Flunixin Meglumine (FM) to lambs that were both rubber ring castrated and docked or surgically castrated and emasculator docked would decrease behavioral stress, serum cortisol, haptoglobin concentration, and wound and swelling score, but increase average daily gain. Rambouillet ram lambs (n = 181) were allocated with a completely randomized design in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Treatment combinations included rubber ring castration and docking (on ram lambs with administration of saline or FM) or surgical castration and emasculator docking (on ram lambs with administration of saline or FM). Ram lambs were castrated at 12.5 ± 5.5 days of age. Overall, results indicate that the method of castration and docking in lambs affected short lived behavioral and physiological stress. The administration of FM surgical castration following castration decreased cortisol levels after 140 minutes. Economic analysis showed that rubber-ring castration was the cheaper method.