DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6hdr7sr9q
title: Healing progression of tail docking and ear tag wounds in lambs

description: Tail docking and ear tagging are common husbandry practices in lambs, but
 little is known about subsequent wound healing or how it may be affected
 by performing both procedures concurrently. Our objectives were to: 1)
 describe wound healing following tail docking and ear tagging, and 2)
 compare healing of ear wounds in docked and undocked lambs. Within 28
 female Polypay twin pairs, one lamb was docked using a rubber ring between
 1 to 2 days of age and the other lamb’s tail was left intact. Tags were
 attached to both ears of all lambs. We photographed tail and ear wounds
 twice weekly until weaning (mean ± SD; 64 ± 5 days of age). Tail wounds
 took 43 ± 9 days to heal (range: 30-60 days). Pus, a sign of infection,
 was present at least once in 89% of tail wounds and was associated with
 delayed healing. Only 49% of ear wounds had healed by weaning, and tail
 docking did not predict the probability of healing. Pus and sanguineous
 exudate (i.e., bleeding) were present at least once in 21% and 96% of ear
 wounds, respectively. Pus was not associated with the probability of ear
 wound healing, but ears with more frequent bleeding were less likely to
 have healed by weaning. The duration of healing and likelihood of
 infection following both procedures raise welfare concerns and suggest
 refinements or alternatives are warranted.
description: Please see the description in the related article.
description: # Healing progression of tail docking and ear tag wounds in lambs
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6hdr7sr9q](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6hdr7sr9q) ## Description of the data and file structure These materials provide the data files (S1, S3, S5, S6) and R scripts (S2 and S4) referenced in the corresponding article by the same name. ### Excel files and variables #### File: S1.xlsx **Description:** Excel file containing the wound healing data for each tail docked lamb (n=28). ##### Variables * Please refer to the second sheet in the Excel file, which contains descriptions of each column variable. #### File: S3.xlsx **Description:** Excel file containing the wound healing data on ear tag wounds for each lamb (n=56). ##### Variables * Please refer to the second sheet in the Excel file, which contains descriptions of each column variable. #### File: S5.xlsx **Description:** Excel file containing the proportion of observations each tissue or fluid was present in tail docking wounds for each lamb. ##### Variables * Please refer to the second sheet in the Excel file, which contains descriptions of each column variable. #### File: S6.xlsx **Description:** Excel file containing the proportion of observations each tissue or fluid was present in tagging wounds for each ear. ##### Variables * Please refer to the second sheet in the Excel file, which contains descriptions of each column variable. ## R Code #### File: S2.nb.html **Description:** R script that runs the statistical analyses on the data in Excel file S1 and generates Figure 4 in the related article. The nb.html file, which includes annotated code and output, can be opened in any web browser or in RStudio (e.g., using File -&gt; Open File). #### File: S4.nb.html **Description:** R script that runs the statistical analyses on the data in Excel file S3 and generates Figures 6 and 7 in the related article. The nb.html file, which includes annotated code and output, can be opened in any web browser or in RStudio (e.g., using File -&gt; Open File). ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * All 6 files located herein are included in the Supplementary Materials of the related article.