1Associate Professor cum Senior Scientist (Surgery)
2Professor cum Chief Scientist (Surgery)
3Assistant Professor cum Junior Scientist (Gynaecology), Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry
4Assistant Professor cum Junior Scientist (Statistics), Faculty of Fisheries
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K), Shuhama, Srinagar-190 006 (J&K)
*Corresponding author; E-mail: fazili_mr@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 15 May, 2014.
Forty crossbred (32 Jersey and eight Holstein Frisian) comprising of 23 male and 17 female calves born without assistance from pleuriparous cows as single births suffering from simple (uncomplicated) umbilical hernia during first three months of their life with ring size 2.0 to 5.0 centimeters (cm) were randomly divided into two equal groups. They were managed either with non-surgical belly bandage or standard herniorrhaphy (under sedation along with local infiltration anaesthesia). The long term success rate of 26 calves (13 from each group) was 61.50% and 84.60%, respectively. Although ignificant (P<0.05) difference was not noticed in the outcome of the two groups, yet the belly bandage technique was more economical and field applicable. It did not expose the animals to major surgery, and associated complications. This technique may therefore be recommended as the first line of management for umbilical hernia in neonatal calves with a ring size up to 5.0 cm.
Belly bandage, Calves, Herniorrhaphy, Umbilical Hernia
