Docking

[rockdoveranch]

Question.

On the underside of our hair sheep's tails, starting from where they attach to the body, there is strip of hairless skin. Not sure how long it is. When the sheep come back around the house I will take a peek under.

So do wool sheep also have this hairless area under their tails?

Thanks.

Okay . . . I just gave Wimberly her bottle and nabbed that wagging tail to take a look underneath. There is no hair on the underside of her tail with the exception of the very end where there is hair. I think it might be a little different with our Dorper lamb. It will not be so easy, but I am going to take a look.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Question.

On the underside of our hair sheep's tails, starting from where they attach to the body, there is strip of hairless skin. Not sure how long it is. When the sheep come back around the house I will take a peek under.

So do wool sheep also have this hairless area under their tails?

Thanks.

Okay . . . I just gave Wimberly her bottle and nabbed that wagging tail to take a look underneath. There is no hair on the underside of her tail with the exception of the very end where there is hair. I think it might be a little different with our Dorper lamb. It will not be so easy, but I am going to take a look.

Do you mean on the tail itself? There's usually a triangular area that's hairless, similar to a goat tail. There are also "flaps" of skin called caudal tail folds on either side of the tail that attach to both the tail and body, and those are used to direct manure away from the hind end. It's good to dock below them when you dock.


ETA: Rock, if you look on the blog post about docking in the first post in this thread, you can see the picture of my Romney lamb's tail. Is that what you mean?

 

[Bossroo]

If you ever get a sheep with fly strike... pure hell to the sheep as the maggots start to eat into flesh and lots of really messy work for you and/ or a huge vet bill. You will always dock thereafter. I use a 1/2" thick piece of wood as a spacer placed up against the rear end and under the tail when the lamb is held by all 4 legs and placed on its rump on a stump or table. This piece of wood also protects the rectum and /or vulva from the hot iron at the same time. Then use a hot iron to cut the tail off on lambs from a day old and up to 1-2 weeks old. This leaves about a 2"-3" long tail on the lambs to protect the anus and vulva from sunburning, but still gives for a nice rounded meaty appearance to the hind end. Also makes it easier for the ram to hit it's mark when breeding the ewe when no tail is ever in the way. The hot iron immeditely cauterizes the blood vessels so that they do not bleed.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Bossroo, we used a docking iron to dock tails on the farm where I went to college. It was so nice, much nicer than banding. Only having a handful of sheep means it's not really worth it for me to buy one, but if I had a larger flock I definitely would. I think once someone uses an iron to dock they'd never go back to banding! Seems much easier on the lambs too.

 

[rockdoveranch]

Do you mean on the tail itself? There's usually a triangular area that's hairless, similar to a goat tail. There are also "flaps" of skin called caudal tail folds on either side of the tail that attach to both the tail and body, and those are used to direct manure away from the hind end. It's good to dock below them when you dock.


ETA: Rock, if you look on the blog post about docking in the first post in this thread, you can see the picture of my Romney lamb's tail. Is that what you mean?

Okay . . . I just got your Blog open but not all the pictures opened. Don't laugh, feel sorry for me. We are on dial up and usually 3 computers are going at the same time so many times I cannot get pages to open. I cannot watch videos. We have to be about 45 minutes away from our home for our cell phone to work. My DH is not home so I am the only one on a computer and, YEAH, I was able to open your Blog on docking. Nice page. Very informative in interesting. And thanks for sharing here in your last post.

I did get to see the caudal fold and the entire underside of the undocked tail of your little lamb in the picture. Our Barbado are not like that. The caudal fold runs the entire length of the underside of the tail and stops just short of the very end of the tail. I did not get to look under the tail of the Dorper lamb, but she has a big fluff of long hair half way down her tail, so I assume there is hair covering that entire part of her tail.

Am I using the right terminology?

Hair people. Jump in here. Tell the tail.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Hmm...well I did board a couple of Katahdins for a few months and they did not have docked tails. I don't remember their caudal fold going all the way down the length of the tail....but I can't say I looked that closely.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I just found this pic of a hair sheep lamb on the net and it looks the same as mine. Maybe yours are crazy web tailed sheep.

 

[rockdoveranch]

I just found this pic of a hair sheep lamb on the net and it looks the same as mine. Maybe yours are crazy web tailed sheep.

No doubt! It is probably a Texas thing!

When the herd was put up tonight I wanted to check a few more tails, especially the Dorper Ewe lamb's tail, but I have ended up having a bad auto-immune day and am just laying around feeling sorry for myself. Thanks for the link!

Do you think I dare check The Old Man's Tail?

I think not! Even though his back end is his safest end!

 

[secuono]

Old, old thread, but it keeps coming back.

When is too old to dock?
What do you give them before you dock? What do you give them if they start getting sick or something after the docking?

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Old, old thread, but it keeps coming back.

When is too old to dock?
What do you give them before you dock? What do you give them if they start getting sick or something after the docking?

Some people dock at a very early age, and some dock late (I've seen as late as 8 weeks! Yuck!). I wouldn't want to dock much past 2 or maybe 3 weeks. I sometimes give the tetanus antitoxin before I band, but not always. The most I've ever seen happen to a dock is a slight infection (especially if it's fly season) that can be treated with a topical wound spray or ointment.