Histogram of the time spent by five day old lambs in normal postures in the first 90 minutes after rubber ring castration and tail docking treatments of different severities.
V1 - lying in normal ventral posture with the head down
V2 - lying in a normal ventral posture with the head up
NS - normal standing postures
CTD - Bilateral castration and tail docking
C2 - Bilateral castration
C1 - Unilateral castration
C0 - Short scrotum castration
LA - Short scrotum castration together with local anaesthetic treatment.
H - Handled control lambs
TD - Tail docked only
The different letters above the columns indicate the values for each treatment that are significantly different.
Decreasing the severity of the treatment increased the time spent in normal lying and standing postures. The time spent in a normal lying head down posture (V1) is similar for all groups, therefore most of the head down (sleeping) posture adopted by lambs in the most pain was while lying in abnormal postures.
During the first 90 minutes after treatment, there is no difference in the time spent in normal postures (16 minutes) by the lambs in the two most severe treatment groups (Bilateral castration with and without tail docking). There is significantly more normal postures shown by unilaterally (33 minutes) and short scrotum (40 minutes) castrated lambs. Those treated with local anaesthetic (78 minutes) spent about the same time as control lambs (89 minutes) acting normally. Tail docked lambs (65 minutes) spend significantly less time in normal postures than control lambs but more than short scrotum castrated lambs.
