A novel surgical technique for prevention of self-sucking in cattle and buffaloes: tongue piercing

Abstract

Background Self-sucking is an abnormal behavior lead to important economic losses for dairy farms. The objective of this study was to evaluate tongue piercing as a novel technique to prevent self-sucking in cattle and buffaloes. The study was carried out on 26 cows and 4 buffaloes suffered from self-sucking. Tongue piercing was achieved by the application of an implant in the midline of the tongue and anterior to the frenulum linguae. With a follow up period of 6 months. Results This implant produced mechanical disruption of the affected animals ability to curl their tongues, in a U- shape manner, subsequently it was impossible for these animals to cup their tongues and suck its own teats. Slight swelling around the piercing site of the tongue was observed among all animals on the first 3 days after surgery. No other complications have been reported. Conclusion Tongue piercing is an effective, rapid, easy, minimally invasive technique to prevent self-sucking among cattle and buffaloes, moreover, the technique was more widely acceptable by the owners than other traditional and surgical methods.

Effectiveness of Surgical Interventions for Self-Sucking in Dairy Cattle: A Comparative Study

“…These earlier studies presented various surgical techniques and demonstrated their surgical steps (El-Sherif, 2018;Seddek et al, 2019). However, newly emerged surgical approaches have focused on the presentation of less invasive techniques (El-Sherif, 2018;Seddek et al, 2019 andSalman et al, 2022;). Moreover, a recently conducted study examined the behavioral changes that occur after each surgical technique.…”

“…More recently, less invasive techniques have been developed to prevent tongue cupping, such as the application of multiple inverting sutures to the ventral aspect of the tongue (El-Sherif, 2018), intralingual sutures (Seddek et al, 2019), and the use of a through-tongue device (Salman et al, 2022). These techniques have been evaluated in limited follow-up periods, typically averaging six months.…”