Healing progression of tail docking and ear tag wounds in lambs

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 9..., Please see the description in the related article., , # 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 w...,