Wethers - banding buck kids

I had an experience banding last weekend (boys 8 weeks). My boys cried for about 2 hours after being banded. We were careful to not clip teats - and both testicles were within the band. They laid on their sides - crying and swinging their heads around. After 2 hours - that stopped. I did give them a little aspirin - after the fact.

I have only done this once here. Is that a common experience? All is well now, but it was upsetting.

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  • On the subject of neutering...does anyone know what to do with a cryptorchid?  I have only had two in my 30 plus years of raising Pygmies and Nigerian Dwarf.  I think the first one was given to someone with a pasture of goats and I told them that he had one undescended testicle and that he would have all of the buck characteristics.  Can we band the one testicle  to render him sterile, since the one that has not descended probably has no living sperm.  The answer probably is that he is a good candidate for the meat market.

     

  • I don't like the banding either.  I hold the bucklings for my husband to band and he holds the kids for me to disbud.  For some reason I am so used to disbudding, that it doesn't bother me so much anymore.  I have a cool washcloth ready to put on their heads.  They seem to get over the trauma pretty fast.  He feels more comfortable with banding.  I run in the house and go back an hour or so later and they seem a lot more comfortable.  After the tightness goes away (blood supply cut off)  and the sack goes loose, they seem fine.  None of it is especially enjoyable; just something that you tell yourself will make them better goats.

  • Yes, I know - about the bucks.... my neighbor ended up with 7 in the end of her kidding season - and that is after all the rest had already gone. And this reply is on the back of crying today when my boys went to their new home. I had fallen in love with one especially. True enough about care - I would guess not everyone cleans pens every day - changes water 2x a day, etc. as pets you really dont know how that may end up. My uncle used to dig a pit - get the wood heat going and sit and turn and baste the goat..... wonderful. I have only eaten rabbit from the store (doesnt count), but Daddy used to go squirrel hunting - and I do know that is also delicious.
    Margaret Langley said:

    Well Melissa, you might want to think real hard about what you plan on doing with all those boys when you find yourself unable to find enough people who want them for pets. We are all very excited about how popular NDs are and glad that we have an excellent market for most of our doelings and if we are fortunate enough to have a few bucklings that are well bred and suitable for breeding we may find homes for them as breeders. But no matter how you look at it, the fact is that about half of the kids born will be bucklings and as more and more people get these precious little goats, it will begin to get harder and harder to find pet homes for all those boys! I would rather use them to provide fresh healthy meat for my family than what I know will happen to them eventually as the pet market becomes flooded. At least that way they are loved when here and respected for what they provide for us. There is no better meat that I can give my family than the meat I can raise for them (other than that taken from the wild) and anyone who wants to have any control over the meat their family consumes must learn to step up to the plate and raise and slaughter that meat themselves. I have never had meat any better than goat properly prepared and grilled over wood!

    We have purchased 3 doe and 1 buck rabbits the beginning of this year and now have 18 kits that will be ready for slaughter in 3 months. We have never even cooked or eaten domestic rabbits, so this will be a first for us. But rabbit is the quickest, easiest and cheapest meat that can be raised and we are looking forward to our ability to provide this meat for our family. If people are meat eaters, then adding homegrown meats is a necessity IF they want to become self-sufficient, which is what we are striving for.

    I am a lifetime animal lover. I truly don't want to seem harsh or uncaring. Just the opposite in, fact. I care very much for them and people. I am especially concerned about the children of today and our food supply and the lack thereof that we are facing. I feel that it is imperative that we begin to provide them with real, nutritional life sustaining food instead of the food we have available to us for purchase, which is slowly killing us.

    OK,I'll stop now guys!

  • ditto.

    Margaret Langley said:

    Great pic Deb. Thanks! I love pics, of any kind!

  • I never even thought of that Deborah. I dont eat beef - pork sometimes - mostly chicken but the breast.... If I only knew what that piece of meat had been through - I doubt I would ever eat it.

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

    Ditto! Thank you, Margaret! I said for about eight years that I could never eat my goats, but ... we grow and change.

    And I wouldn't be surprised if it's the commercial meat that makes your stomach hurt, Melissa. My whole family was vegetarian before we moved to the country, so two of my children ate the first meat of their lives when they were in their teens, and it never bothered them one bit. Being young and immortal, however, they have admitted to eating commercial meat in a restaurant a few times, and about half the time, it makes them sick.

    Patty Meyer said:

    I don't mind if you keep going. ;) Hugs, Margaret!

  • Ditto! Thank you, Margaret! I said for about eight years that I could never eat my goats, but ... we grow and change.

    And I wouldn't be surprised if it's the commercial meat that makes your stomach hurt, Melissa. My whole family was vegetarian before we moved to the country, so two of my children ate the first meat of their lives when they were in their teens, and it never bothered them one bit. Being young and immortal, however, they have admitted to eating commercial meat in a restaurant a few times, and about half the time, it makes them sick.

    Patty Meyer said:

    I don't mind if you keep going. ;) Hugs, Margaret!

  • I love ya'll!

  • I don't mind if you keep going. ;) Hugs, Margaret!

  • Well Melissa, you might want to think real hard about what you plan on doing with all those boys when you find yourself unable to find enough people who want them for pets. We are all very excited about how popular NDs are and glad that we have an excellent market for most of our doelings and if we are fortunate enough to have a few bucklings that are well bred and suitable for breeding we may find homes for them as breeders. But no matter how you look at it, the fact is that about half of the kids born will be bucklings and as more and more people get these precious little goats, it will begin to get harder and harder to find pet homes for all those boys! I would rather use them to provide fresh healthy meat for my family than what I know will happen to them eventually as the pet market becomes flooded. At least that way they are loved when here and respected for what they provide for us. There is no better meat that I can give my family than the meat I can raise for them (other than that taken from the wild) and anyone who wants to have any control over the meat their family consumes must learn to step up to the plate and raise and slaughter that meat themselves. I have never had meat any better than goat properly prepared and grilled over wood!

    We have purchased 3 doe and 1 buck rabbits the beginning of this year and now have 18 kits that will be ready for slaughter in 3 months. We have never even cooked or eaten domestic rabbits, so this will be a first for us. But rabbit is the quickest, easiest and cheapest meat that can be raised and we are looking forward to our ability to provide this meat for our family. If people are meat eaters, then adding homegrown meats is a necessity IF they want to become self-sufficient, which is what we are striving for.

    I am a lifetime animal lover. I truly don't want to seem harsh or uncaring. Just the opposite in, fact. I care very much for them and people. I am especially concerned about the children of today and our food supply and the lack thereof that we are facing. I feel that it is imperative that we begin to provide them with real, nutritional life sustaining food instead of the food we have available to us for purchase, which is slowly killing us.

    OK,I'll stop now guys!

  • That is a good pic!! I think I might get one of those and try it next year maybe!! :-)

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