Is Banding really inhumane?

Don't worry Doug, I can do it for you. You can stay inside and not watch. A lot of guys have trouble with it

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A ship in the harbor may be safe, but that's not what ships are built for

The worst part of banding - for me - is finding a shriveled up pair of hairy testicles somewhere in the barnyard later on. Always makes me jump and screech a bit!

I may just take you up on that. Lol. I used to cut pigs but goats have personalities.

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This year marked the first for us for both banding goats and castrating hogs. The banding process was simple and easy. Next time I'd like to give some sort of pain killer (I researched baby asprin this last time around, but I should have given it BEFORE we banded as he was very uncomfortable after and did not want to eat the little sweet treat with the asprin in it.) for banding. The discomfort seemed to go away within a few hours and other than walking a little funny for a day or 2, he was fine. Eating and drinking, playing, etc.

Now the hog castrating was a whole different ball game. I got clammy and felt a little woozy watching that. But it was clean, nearly no blood at all and those hogs never missed a step. None of them seemed to notice at all, other than they didn't like being held. I can't see myself ever doing that on my own. The banding though, no big deal.

I'd like to see young lambs or goat kids cut, maybe try a few. I haven't found anywhere to learn this locally though. I have seen the aftermath of cutting on an older buckling (I want to say he was 4-5 months old - definetely NOT in rut but fairly large) and a buckling that was done around 8 weeks old-ish?

The one done older was in pain for at least a week. When I saw him it was about 3 days after he was done, and he looked horrible. He looked haunched and like your typical 'sick' goat. Wasn't eating well. I know and respect the owner and I *know* he wasn't so bad looking before he was castrated.

The younger one I saw at least a week after he was done. He had about 1-2" of spermatic cord hanging out the bottom of his scrotum - it was huge, graunulated. Owner had to sit on him to clean it and remove puss and the scabs. Poor thing screamed whenever you touched his belly or his rear legs, and absolutely flipped a lid.

But I still hear people who do it and swear by it. I'd have to see it to believe it.

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Dona Barski

"Breed the best, eat the rest"

Caprice Acres

French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.

Brilliant! I will band your goats forever if you'll cut my pigs when I have them! The squealing drills right through my brain.

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A ship in the harbor may be safe, but that's not what ships are built for

Mygoats, you're looking at the difference between doing it right, with a properly restrained animal and a nice, new, surgical-sharp disposable scalpel and cutting in the right place and then breaking the cord properly
~ and sitting on the critter while you pull out your pocket knife and cut away. I have even seen vets do the second method and it makes me ill.

When you cut yourself with a scalpel - it doesn't hurt. Not until the edges of the cut start rubbing together. So when it's done right, with a surgically sharp blade and cut so the wound doesn't rub itself, it's not that terribly painful.
The trick being to do it right and fork out 79 cents for a new scalpel every time.

Even so, I still prefer banding. A whole lot less can go wrong, you don't need for a few animals to suffer while you learn the proper way to do it and nothing for flies to get in. And flies are terrible around here! One of the dogs got a little scrape the other day and I've been fighting flies off it. It's just a bitty thing, not serious enough for him to want to lick so I have to clean fly eggs off it <shudder> I'd rather not have to check goat testicles 2x a day for flies, my day is full enough.

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A ship in the harbor may be safe, but that's not what ships are built for

All I can say what I got from this thread is:
1) whatever you do, do it right- and YOUNG
and
2) How bad is a Buck anyway (I will start a thread- we are looking at a registered, tested pregnant pygmy doe)

Awe. They are better than a pair of fuzzy dice for your Buick!

Regardless of age, if you can get the whole set through the band, you can band them. If you have to forcefully get them through the band. Well. Take it from a guy. Ouch. Don't go there.

As for the technique...This is all in text. A picture essay would be better. But here goes.

Imagine that your hand and fingers are the band stretching tool. Take all five fingers/thumb and press them together at the tips. Your banding tool only has four digits, but your fingers should paint the mental picture. Now imagine stretching the band around the outside of your fingers and then stretching out the band using your finger tips. If you could do so, then you could just let the testacles slide into the band and rest in the palm of your hand. Then you could just let the band roll of your fingers and collapse around the base of the scrotum. This is basically what the banding tool does. It takes that ridiculously small rubber band and makes it so you can stretch it and place it over the scrotum. You may get the bander on upside down on occasion (the same as sliding the testacles through the back side of your hand and into your palm--an impossible move). This won't work, but you have a 50-50 shot of getting it right. With little kid goats, this is no big deal. Just slide the banding apparatus off and flip it over. With 250lb calves, who are kicking YOU in the manhood, and whose momma desires to plant you firmly into the truck fender, getting it wrong is not fun. Just imagine those prongs are your fingers, and you won't go wrong again. As for the proper way to handle the goat...They are just wee little kid goats. Just manhandle them anyway that gets you the angle you need and go at it. I prefer to keep plop them on their sides and hold them down so I can see and make sure I get both testacles. Keeping them on their feet is fine too, but you probably find that you are bending your back to look at the world upside down.

I've never had an issue, or even a moment of wondering if it bothered them. Not once. And I have a dashboard full of them.

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Honesty and integrity are homesteading virtues.

I band mine but may try cutting next year for any bucklings I need done.

Mygoat remind me in the spring but I have a friend about 20 miles from me that always cuts her bucklings that need wethering. She had me come up to watch this summer & it was a piece of cake(I just watched).
Hardly any blood, he barely cried & was nursing with in 15 minutes again.
She said she'd rather cut thatn the disbudding.
If I have any cut she's going to come & do mine/slash help/show me & your welcome to come up & watch. We use the same vet & the vet showed her how & she(vet( thinks it's the best way.

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I band my bucks at 3 months. They are quiet afterward and layed around a couple days then business as usual. I've banded yearling bucks also. One guy's testicles were HUGE and I had trouble getting him to fit. I trimmed off his hair, then one testicle at a time through the stretched band..barely. After he was done, he acted like it was nothing (older ones of mine usually do). He got right up and went back to grazing. He was a black and white nubian. The dog found the petrified nut sack and I threatened family that I was going to make them coin purses out of the sack for xmas. lol

about 31/2 months old. Deed will be done tomorrow. I'll keep you all posted Thanks for the help that video pretty much sealed it for me. Definatly will take longer to catch 2 of them them do it. Funny 2 come right up and want to be petted and 2 are skittish.

walt

What I really like about Burdizzo, is if I mess up, nobody has to suffer through the lengthy pain of an infection. And I don't have to call up a vet(I'm still not confident to handle some situations without an expert).

I just have to do it over.

I do them young, first/second week(I don't feed wethers grain and I've never had a single problem with UC). If it didn't take, I know it long before they're old enough to breed.

I'm just speaking from the experience of having done eight over the past two years. Only missed one side on the second buck I did. Once you get the hang of it its quick and you can usually feel that the cord is severed or nearly so if you check it quickly before the swelling starts.

Definatly a two person job. DH holds the goat. Cruel, yes, to make him do that job, I know. But I don't ask him to feed, water, milk, trim feet, deworm, do fencing or birth. And lets face it, if we ladies can handle birthing, knowing PERSONALLY how that feels... you gents should be able to handle assisting a castration merely imagining how it feels.