Oesophageal fistulation of west African dwarf sheep and goats for nutritional studies

West African Dwarf sheep and goats were subjected to oesophageal fistulation and monitored over the following few weeks. Response to surgery was generally good. Although there were initial changes in body weight, rectal temperature, packed cell volume and blood haemoglobin contents, these returned to near normal values after a few days. Goats under 10 months of age died within a few hours of surgery. When kept on pastures for sample collection, animals were observed to lose condition if grazing was continued for longer than 4 h at any one time. It is recommended that only adult animals of the two breeds should be fistulated for nutrition studies and sample collection should be of limited duration.