Is it humane to use the band on a young adult sheep or goat for castration? I was pleasantly surprised to see how un-bothered our sheep seemed to be when we did their tails. Now I have two pygmy goat bucks who need wethering, and a few more sheep who need their tails done. All adults. I am not reluctant to pay a vet to do it surgically, but if it is a simple & relatively painless procedure to do it with the bands, it'd be less hassle to just go that route. If you have banded adults for castration, I'd like your opinion.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), April 28, 2001

Answers

If they are adults you will most likely not be able to get the testicles through the band. If you can, it would work, but they will probably be too big.

-- Wendy (weiskids@yahoo.com), April 28, 2001.

I think that a knife, in the hands of an experienced person, who knows how to scrape the blood vessels to keep the buck from bleeding to death, would be far more humane. I have never banded an adult animal, and would not try it. It is hard enough on the young ones, which I now do with the knife if it's really necessary. They recover faster and there is not the danger of gangrene as there is with the bands. There is a much greater blood supply and more tissue on an adult buck in comparison to a kid. Also not sure if it would be easy/possible to stretch the elastrator band over the large testicles of a mature buck. I would at least call a vet and get his advice on the matter before attempting it.

-- Chamoisee (chamoisee@yahoo.com), April 28, 2001.

Hi Shannon, whatever you choose to do, do it now before fly season is in full swing. I would bet that with pygmy's you could squeeze the testicles through one at a time. If your vet could provide you with perhaps 1/2 cc of banamine for them each day for 6 days, you don't want to use it past that. And of course an updated Tetanus! I would also spray the area with an antiseptic weekly, to keep it dry, until the testicles fall off, about 4 weeks.

Another option of course is surgical castration. Apply a clamp to the top of the scrotum, the clamp my vet used looked alot like my husbands sheetmetal tool. She then sliced open the scrotum and pulled each testicle out, scraping the cords to severe them. After the clamp was on for several minutes she then cut the sack completely off, flush with the clamp. As she let the clamp go she started sparying it with furox. It did spray, then pump, then drip blood for a minute or so (and I will be honest, I was standing behind her horrified, I had sold this intact buck as a wether for a show in 3 weeks)!! The blood began to clot, when the dripping ceased, she told me to keep him clean, I kept him in the infant pen, then empty of infant kids, with fresh shavings. I walked her back to the truck and heard a commotion going on out in the barn. We both ran back to the barn to find the buck now wether, at the fence blubbering to the yearlings in the next pen! He was fine! Took about 2 weeks for him to stop his buck behavior. He never missed a meal. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 29, 2001.

My brother in law castrated calves with a crusher. I would guess the calves were two to three months old and required two people to hold them down. No dead flesh to become gangrenous and no open wounds to bleed. Not sure if it would work on a buck.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), April 29, 2001.

Our neighbor had a pet goat that needed banding. He was at least 7 months old. We could not for nothing fit THEM into our rubber bands. Our other neighbor has cows, and he went and got his calf rubber bander and did it. After the normal couple hours of "I've fallen and I can't get up!", he was fine.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), April 29, 2001.