castrating older goats

Re: castating older goats

I just did some older boys this year... I would not use something that is not intended for castration, that seems risky. With that being said, I am not going to continue banding. My older boys were pretty uncomfortable for about a day or so but it did work. We used a bander for cattle and special "large" bands that are rated for cattle. Their testicles were huge and it took alot to occlude blood flow and quite awhile for them to get to the point where I could snip them off. I felt very bad for them and it is not too expensive for a vet to come out and do it surgically or with the thing that Dave is talking about, though I have no experience with that. It is less suffering to to get it done and over with in a day vs a month or so before banding works.

I would be worried using a non-medical type band as it could fail and cause more pain and suffering and cost more in the long run in complications, but like I previously stated, banding our older guys worked but was miserable for them. I guess it comes down to how much money you want to invest and the risk you are willing to take with banding and possible infection/complications. Banding works, if it didn't, people would not do it. Talk to your vet and see what they think. Take care!!

Re: castating older goats

LOL Charlie, that made me laugh so hard... talk about easy to milk >

I have never used the cattle sized banding but I would guess that would work with no issues other then pain. But all the methods result in pain, just in different degrees.

The typical bander and green bands are not made for older goats. After about 3 months old not only are they harder to get over the nuts but they tension the small green bands is often not enough. They are just not strong enough to close enough. This isnt to say they wont work but I can tell you first hand when they dont, its a nasty painful mess. The bands can kill the sacks but leave cords alive and intact. Resulting in a dead sack dangling from the cords. And the infection can be nasty.

The burdizzo method I like the best. Our vet sedates the buck first. Once out, he uses the burdizzo tool. It works by crushing the cords above the nuts through the skin without breaking the skin. There is minimal trama to the skin but the cords are much weaker and by crushing them, it kinda fuses them together. Without blood flow the nuts slowly shrink up like raisins and get absorbed by the body. We had our boys done at 5 months old and 5 months later their nuts are not unlike the size and texture of prunes with in the sack. We were also given Banamine incase they needed a pain killer over the next couple of days. They were a little stiff legged the next 4 or 5 days but after a week, they were back to their old selves. The cool thing is, after those few days, it was totally done. Unlike banding were you have to wait at least a month for the sack to fall off and even then you will have a small wound that main need to be treated or at least watched for infection.

Now, there are possible problems with the burdizzo as well but compared to other methods, I think its still a much better way to go. My prospect Legion was comfortable a little longer then the others and one of the other boys had very large cords. The burdizzo my vet had was a smaller one and it didnt work totally on one side. He has sense ordered a large one and will be out to finish the one side once the larger one arrives. Finally it is more expensive then banding, if the banding goes well and there are no problems that is. It costs us $50 per prospect to have them done with the burdizzo. But that price includes the farm call fee, the sedative and the Banamine and the castration.

Re: castating older goats

Ok i am cheep but i used a tri-band bander.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html ... 21f071795d

I just pushed one testicle up and slid the other one through the bander then i slid the other one through the bander.
it is easy because the bander locks open so you can use both hands.

I also found that these bands work better to remove horns with because they are flat not round and do not roll of the horn.

the vet is always going to tell you to do it the expensive way. that is how they make so much money.