I'm a BAD goat mum :(

we band our boys and they do hobble around for a day or two, but after that are usually bounding around like.....kids!

Really I am not sure when we will butcher - the last one went in the freezer at about 9 months old unbanded. He tastes OK, but I have a feeling we were lucky This one will go before that probably, but I am more concerned about keeping him away from my girls until he goes, I had a nightmare time this Autumn, and I don't really have the facility to have the male and female kids seperated out AND be able to graze them all. One or the other, but not both, So banding seems like the best option.

Thank you everyone for the advice. It sounds as though I may have escaped lightly - he didn't really cry or scream, just seemed REALLY uncomfortable. He has been very quiet today, but not quite so bad as yesterday

Thanks again

hoggie

Just like circumcision in human babies, the earlier the better. They're gonna heal faster when they're younger. And you're not a bad Mum. It's just one of the unpleasant tasks all keepers of livestock have to face.

Madfarmer

I quit banding...but then, I eat them at 2 months old.

If you cannot bring yourself to butcher them at a young age, then band or cut. I found cutting to involve very little blood loss or trauma if done *early*, like within the first 10-12 days.

For us, when the umbilical cord falls off, the band goes on.

The most discomfort we've ever witnessed was an occasional shake of a back leg, but other than that, they seem to play just like the other goats.

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http://hoppeshomestead.blogspot.com/

Chewable baby aspirin is very cheap and does the job just fine. Our very first kid we took to a local raiser to be disbudded and banded... she said that if we didn't already have any baby aspirin, to pick it up on the way home and give him one, another in the evening. It's proven very handy to have for the goats as well as the dogs when they do something stupid and hurt themselves.

I don't recall the exact price, but I picked up a new bottle a month or so ago... Western Family (generic), 81mg orange flavored chewables, 36 tablets. Less than $2.