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Ram horn growth and castration


Maja
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So I moved here, since Smalahundur and I were talking about rams in a different topic.  So the thing is this: Smalahundur said that his rams castrated by the burdizzo method still grow horns. Castrated rams I used to have always stopped growing horns instantly upon castration, which was done surgically.  I have Shashlik which I got as a gift sort of, and he had been castrated with the burdizzo clamps, and I always suspected that his castration was somewhat failed and that he ended up with a vasectomy, since his horns are impressive. But now Smalahundur tells me that all his burdizzo castrated rams grow horns. So I am confused.  Anybody has the horn/castration relationship figured out?  

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The burdizzo  is supposed to crush the cords and the blood vessels and thus cause the testicles to atrophy which makes it a castration, since if there are testicles it is not a castration, but sterilization ( I had to read up on this to clarify it in me wee brain).  So, yes I think it is possible that Shashlik's  castration ended up being a 'vasectomy', but that does not explain Smalahundur's wethers' growing horns (@Smalahundur, from what I understood, your burdizzo wethers always grow horns, right?) - they can't all be mistakes. 

(I am not going to have any castrated rams; I'm just asking out of curiosity.)

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No mistakes, all wethers here are horned (unless obviously those from polled stock;)).

Those horns grow like Shashlik's; long and wide, but thinner than in uncastrated rams. Significantly bigger than in ewes. That's why I thought him to be a wether, actually I still do. I think a botched burdizzo in which the sperm ducts are succesfully severed, but bloodsupply to the testicals remains intact sounds rather unlikely ( but who knows...?)

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But it doesn't make sense.  So you have horned  burdizzo castrated rams, and I  have (had) hornless surgically castrated rams. Being hornless after surgical castration is not dependent on a breed.  Obviously in burdizzo castration something different is going on than in surgical castration.   And I would like to know what it is.  

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I still think yor logic does not take differences in breed in account; in a breed where the ewes are polled and the rams have horns, strongly reducing testosterone is likely to stop horn growth alltogether.

But in a breed like the icelandic, where ewes are also horned ( but with smaller, thinner horns than in the males), the reduced testosterone might only have an inhibiting effect, resulting in wethers that have thinner horns than uncastrated rams.

After a burdizzo castration afaik, testicles become completely necrotic,  and therefor stop producing testosterone. In principle no difference to removing them.

For now I stand by my hypothesisB)

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My logic is just fine :).   Skudde  females have no horns.  Surgically  castrated skudde males have no horns.  Intact skudde males  have beautiful horns.  Shashlik the skudde  has horns.  So either Shashlik is not a wether, or there is something odd about burdizzo castration.  

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