TAIL DOCKING. Can the way we perform it affect sheep health?.

The Old Ram-Australia

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So why do we “dock” sheep’s tails? Sheep evolved with tails, unlike Goats, so there must be a reason and if you look at the least developed breeds (not interfered with by humans) such as the desert types like the Black Headed Persian their tails are shorter but are utilized by the animal as a “energy store” much like a camels hump.
It seems that the folks who control the Breed Society’s decided that the animal “looked better” with a “docked tail” and this thought has been carried to the extreme especially in the USA and to such an extent that Dorpers/Suffolk’s are now docked right back to between the buttocks, so what’s the point of a fat tail breed? While we are on the subject of Dorpers what’s behind “shearing” a hair breed for the show ring? So let’s assume the tail has a purpose and it is to store energy in times of “plenty”.
If you reduce its capacity to store do you not force the animal to store the “fats” higher up the body of the animal(say near the pin bones) around what is the birth canal? As a ewe approaches parturition the muscles around the birth canal naturally “relax”, but the stored “fats” do not react in this way and so an obstruction can occur increasing the stress on both mother and lamb. There have been claims that certain breeds lambs are “slow risers”, perhaps it’s from exhaustion of a difficult birth?
Is it possible that the extreme short docking can result in muscle damage which pre-disposes males to anal prolapse and females to virginal prolapse? There are those who advocate no tail docking but in some breeds this causes a lot more “crutching” to be carried out, my own preference is to dock at the end of the “bare patch” on the lower side of the tail. This system has served me well over the years I have been using it.T.O.R.
 

BrownSheep

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I practice a similar legnth as you do. Although I do tend to error on the side of a bit shorter as I have had issues with longer tails collecting manure. I also like to be able to see at least some of the vulva around lambing time

I know most actual producers don't practiced the "scooped" out tail as much as show lamb producers. Personally, it drives me nuts and makes me want to punch who ever did that to the poor lamb.

In the western US were sheep are out on range for half the year I don't think leaving the tail au natural would ever work. Flystrike and continually getting their tail mangled in sagebrush or greasewood would be far more cruel than just docking it in the first place.

The big debate here is on that of prolapses. Most of the "show" people I know argue it doesn't. It is , to them, genetically caused. Personally, I don't think it will cause a prolapse but it sure won't prevent them. It never seems to be the lambs with actual tails that are prolapsing at the county fair, now, is it?
 

trampledbygeese

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Very interesting thoughts and thread.

My person opinion is that it depends a lot on the kind of sheep. The breeds developed after circa 1730s, are bred for their wool to be easily processed by the new mechanical devices, and a different kind of style of sheep keeping. The focus post 18th Century is on very different health issues than before then. The breeds from before then seem to have very conscious control over their tails.

Myself, I don't dock my sheep's tails. I choose breeds that either have short tails like Icelandic, or ones that have long tails but enough sense to lift them up when they poo like Black Welsh Mountain. The Black Welsh Mountain x Southdown did have quite a few dung tags when I first brought her home, but since she's lived here, she hasn't had any. I suspect this is partly because of my mineral supplements and that I'm more careful about changing their feed slowly, then her previous owner.

As for prolapse, my limited experience has found it's more to do with an imbalance in minerals than anything else. For us, it was a deficit in Selenium. A few ewes prolapsed (tails and docked), we added free access Se in the form of kelp and haven't had a prolapse since.

I have read several places that the docking is purely to prevent fly strike. I think maybe that's the simple, beginner explanation. Looking at Pat Coleby's writings, fly strike seems to be an issue of mineral imbalance as much as anything else.

I've never seen a sheep tangle up their tail in scrub. That's interesting and something I'm interested in learning more about. Are certain breeds more prone to this?
 

Roving Jacobs

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I think whether to dock or not really comes down to breed and management style. I don't dock my jacobs any more and a lot of other jacob breeders don't either. I rarely have any serious dung tags on them when I shear and haven't had any issues with flystrike and I have a small enough herd that I can always snag one and shave it down a bit if it needs it in between shearing.

My finewools on the other hand get super gross even with docked tails and being crutched 6 months before shearing. It's not that they are scouring or anything, all the heavy fleece, lots of lanolin and wrinkly skin just collect dirt and poo like nothing else. I can't imagine leaving a big wrinkly tail on them would do them any favors. That said I leave a fairly long dock and have never had any issues with prolapse.
 

Godsgrl

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This is an interesting topic. I know that tail less cats, such as Manx, are more prone to rectal prolapse than their tailed counterparts. So there may be a connection on the docking tails thing on sheep.
 

Ridgetop

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Docking is not just a breed society decision. Ultra short docking frowned on by the breed societies but carried out by show people because an ultra short dock can cause the rear end to look more level. An ultra short dock definitely can lead to prolapse since docking too far up the spoine can damage the muscles surrounding the anus. In ewes it can cause vaginal prolapse. New state rules in California have outlawed the ultra short dock. The judge must be able to lift the tail stub by a pencil. Personally, I feel a pencil width is still too short and the majority of commercial breeders dock longer. The reason for docking originated a long time ago when sheep were predominantly a wool & meat production item. Too much wet manure on the tail in a warm climate can allow fly strike and maggots to infest the tail wool. In extreme cases the maggots can go to town on the flesh of the tail. It was predominantly a health issue in the beginning. Now it can be a personal decision if you want to breech your ewes at least twice a year. I used to breech or crutch our 4-H herd before breeding and before lambing. All our sheep and boers were halter trained, including the rams and bucks. Now I don't do it at all since I am a lot older with some physical issues and the sheep are not trained to a halter at all. My kids are grown and I hire a shearer once a year. I have Dorsets and they run with the ram. Dorsets have very long tails. Dorsets lamb out of season and I don't hand breed anymore either. Since the ewes run with the ram from the time their lambs reach 2 months old, I get 3 lamb crops in 2 years - about 7 or 8 months apart. I don't know when the lambs are due so can't shut them in a jug like I used to. For me, docking is a health issue since we have bad flies in southern California most of the year. I dock tails by banding and give tetanus and CDT at the same time, then the 2nd vaccination of CDT 1 month later. If I have ram lambs, the 2nd vaccination is also when we band the ram lambs. We usually ear tag with the 2nd vaccination too. I put my scrapie tag in one ear and my personal herd tag in the other if it is a eweling, otherwise the rams/wethers just get the scrapie tag. I make it a rule not to buy any ewe or ram with a dock shorter than 2". I don't worry as much about wethers since they are terminal, but don't dock them short either since I don't want any health problems. Sheep breeds with shorter tails and hair sheep probably don't need to be docked, so why bother with an extra chore that isn't necessary for health.
 

BrownSheep

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Just remembered this little bit of wisdom I was told.
Inch doesn't seem like much but in a hundred lambs that little bit of extra weight might add up.
That was an old timer's explination when I was helping him band
 

Sheepshape

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I don't dock any that I am going to keep myself and only dock my mule ewes and not my Beulah Speckled Face (local hill sheep).

Last year my Beulah Speckled Face ewe lambs did very well at market in spite of no docking (and in spite of the notion that the fashion being for docking this breed would mean mine wouldn't be looked at favourably).

I have had fly strike a number of times in past years....coincidentally all had been docked. Seems to me that the only ones which get fly strike are those who have diarrhoea, and better to treat the diarrhoea and hear the tail than to lop it off.

The few that I do dock have a 'hot knife' docker which seems to be about as painless as it can be.
 

Ridgetop

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I think it all depends on where you live, what breed of sheep you have, and what you are comfortable with. When I was younger and could catch and shear by myself, I used to crutch 2-3 times a year so a tail wouldn't have been a problem. Now I am older and have had some injuries as well as recurring tears in my ankle ligaments so I hire a shearer. I can't shear and crutch several times a year anymore. We all have to enjoy what we are doing and it would make me too uncomfortable to see my wool sheep with tails. They don't have diarrhoea but their urine soaks the rear wool and it gets muddy when they lay down. They won't get fly strike in the muddy wool, but I just prefer a docked tail.
I know that breeders of club lambs say a short dock is not the reason for prolapse - that it is genetic BUT I still think when you dock clear into the spine between the hips it is ridiculous to say that it doesn't damage the muscle. I have had only 1 vaginal prolapse and after we repaired it, and she weaned her lambs, we sent her off to auction. I Luckily the lambs were rams and we wethered them so I didn't keep anything from her.
We did have a threatened rectal prolapse which had a very odd story. The ewe was enormous - ready to lamb. Obviously twins. She was a big, placid, Suffolk and had lambed several times before with twins. Her udder was the size of a basketball - not exagerating here! It was larger than any of my Nubian milkers that were milking 6 quarts a day (12 lbs). Anyway, she went into labor one evening and lambed a ginormous ewe lamb. I couldn't believe she didn't have more lambs inside so I soaped up and checked inside. She was empty, her vaginal opening was closing and the afterbirth was already out. I gave her a shot of antibiotic (standard for me after pulling or checking inside an animal) and we left her to take care of the baby. In the am my sons came running up from the milking saying she was lambing again! She had 2 more nice size lambs! After reading up on my livestock books I decided that she was pregnant in both uterine horns. She gave birth on one side first and 12 to 14 hours later on the other. No problems and raised all 3 lambs just fine. The first lamb was twice the size of the twins! We witnessed both births, and I had checked inside her the night before - she was closing and empty! I would have thought the owner was mistaken and the ewe was still in labor with triplets if it hadn't been me! LOL I love raising livestock - so much crazy stuff happens that no one except livestock people would understand!
I had the same thing happen with rabbits too. A doe kindled with a small litter and since there were only 2 kits, I fostered them to another doe, removed the nest box and rebred the doe. 2 days later she kindled again! No nest box and I lost 6 kits. Rabbits also have a double uterus with twin horns. It has happened a couple other times too but only 1 or 2 additional kits and the doe had then in the nest box with the rest of the litter. Only the fact that I remove the box and remove and count all the kits when my does kindle showed it to me. Wild!
Enjoy lambing season!
 
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