Castration - banding vs. cutting & age ?

[mamahen]

We have 3 holestein calves that are 4-5 months old. When we bought them, both their testicles were not decended yet. Two had one, one had none.

Fast forward to now - they need castrated! Question, at this age would you cut or band? I can only find 2 vets that will even make farm calls, and we have no trailer to haul. Both vets want to cut. The calves are in the barn 24/7 right now. I would rather have them able to be out & about after getting cut - but that's not possible right now.

There are no farmers in the area that castrate at this age. They all either band newborns or don't castrate at all. They are not huge, giant calves. But at this point they are only getting bigger.....

Anyone close to me that could help?

[bruce2288]

I have done both. I now band most the day they are born. I have banded calves upto 700 pounds. Possibly your vets don't have the larger banders. Pros banding no chance of bleeding, no open wound, has little affect on calf. Cons tetanus possible. Give a tetanus shot if you band. Castration no special equipment, cons blood loss, knocks calf back more chance of infections. See if a neighbor has a bander and get some help and do it your self. The small cheerio bands may not be large enough. Next time do them as calves. Many times when handling scotum calve will retract testicles. Simply work them back into scrotum and band. It is very seldom that I can't get a day calf banded. good luck

[randiliana]

Are all their testicles descended now? It's been my experience that if they aren't descended at or shortly after birth, that they won't be by 3-4 months or even by weaning. Don't have proof, but I suspect that they won't ever descend.

If you got lucky and they have descended, I would prefer to band. As said before, less chance of infection or blood loss. But, as long as they are done cleanly and kept in a clean area for a few days after castration, they should be just fine if you do cut them. There are literally thousands of calves that are knife cut at 2-5 months of age at branding time and infection is not a common problem if they have a clean place to live.

If they aren't descended, your only operation will be castration by knife, and possibly surgery depending on how badly they are retained. If this is the case, I would really reccomend that you have the vet do this.

[mamahen]

They are all decended now...hubby finds it hilarious to see me check.....

One had an infected umbilical - I've successfull treated him and he's finally catching back up. That's sorta why I still want to band, verses cutting. He doesn't need another set back.

[copperhead46]

If you can get the band on them, it won't be a problem. My vet uses a thing that looks like a zip tie on my bigger calves, might check on that for an option.
P.J.

[francismilker]

I know some don't do it, but whether you band or cut, I'd suggest giving a tetanus shot as well.

I prefer banding young bottle calves and cutting the larger ones.

[tyusclan]

I prefer to cut.

It takes about a minute per calf, and then I KNOW that I've removed them both.

[Callieslamb]

Can you even get a band around a calf that size?

[ksfarmer]

My vote is to cut. At this age , if cut properly, they will heal as quickly as banding. I would have the vet do it and observe for a few minutes to make sure there is no excessive bleeding. Banding can be a slow process on a bull that age.

[saanengirl]

My dad is a veterinarian, and I had him castrate my steer when he was about 8 months old. He chose to use a burdizzo bloodless castrator, even at that age. The burdizzo works by crushing the spermatic cords. He crushes each cord in two places. He holds the instrument in place for about 30 seconds. There is no bleeding, it is a totally sterile operation because the skin is never broken, and the testes atrophy over the course of about a month.

[agmantoo]

I band. Banding occurs at 3 to 5 days of age. This is a one man operation and I do the banding in the pasture with the entire herd present. I have no problem locating the testicles. I give no shots. My cows calve year around. In fly season I do not want an open wound. I have no problem counting to two so nothing is missed. I have essentially no problems or complications. I also ear tag. I will occasionally have a problem from the open wound of the ear tag.

[ksfarmer]

Originally Posted by saanengirl

My dad is a veterinarian, and I had him castrate my steer when he was about 8 months old. He chose to use a burdizzo bloodless castrator, even at that age. The burdizzo works by crushing the spermatic cords. He crushes each cord in two places. He holds the instrument in place for about 30 seconds. There is no bleeding, it is a totally sterile operation because the skin is never broken, and the testes atrophy over the course of about a month.

A burdizzo is another option. I've used one and had good results. I did have a neighbor lose a 400 lb calf after clamping it. The vet said it is possible to have internal bleeding, not common but possible.
At a few days of age I do think Agmantoo is right , banding is a good option.

[rancher1913]

for us it depends on quanity done. if we have a crew and a lot of calfs we cut. if we only have a few or they are older we band. we use the calcrate bander and don't hesitate to use it on any age animal, oldest was a ten year old bull. we have even used it to dehorn. easy one man operation and no risk of flys in the wound. you do need to give a tetnis shot with banding.

[Gregg Alexander]

I use a knife , give a pen shot but blue lotion on it and turn out into as clean a pasture I have

[JulieLou42]

Banding before 4 weeks!!! Just be sure you have both testes in hand.

[Cat]

The bander we used for heavy calves going in the feedyard was the Callicrate, or No-Bull bander and it works extremely well. You just need to make sure that it's tight enough. At one point the home processing crew did a pen of cattle but didn't get them tight enough so a few days later we had to re-run them & those were some swollen, painful gonads! Not sure if your calves would be old enough (large) to use it, though.

http://www.nobull.net/

If you have a feedyard nearby you can call and see if they have one or find out who their processing crew is if it's not done in house, they might come out and help, even. I've never seen the burdizzo used on actual nuts but a friend used them when he was docking lamb's tails. He always cut the tail after crushing it, though, which kinda defeated the purpose. I have seen the Newberry knife used on heavy ram lambs and that doesn't look fun, a'tall.

[mamahen]

They seem to be in between sizes - the No-bull bander looks way too big. But the regular little green banders looks way to little

I've called a few people to see if I can get some help. At this point, no one wants to help hold while I band, but if I do get help, tell me about exact placement of the band. how far up-down on the sac verses belly placement.

And if I can get no more hands, there is a vet 30 miles away that will make a farm call ($65!!!) and cut for $10 a calf.

My closet feedyard-auction house is 45 miles.

[Texas Papaw]

mamahen

Here is a link for the California bander:

http://inosol.com/home.html

I use it for animals up to 1000# Has worked great. With a little practice, it is easy to use. Their website has a video on how to use it. Not nearly as pricey as the Calicrate.

As the instruction tell you, be sure to give a tetanus [U]toxoid[U]shot when you band. Don't use tetanus antitoxin.

Good luck & happy trails.