Hi everyone!
Our little buckling Cappuccino (Cappy) is going to turn 3 months tomorrow.
He is healthy and happy, and we are planning to wether him with our goat-mentor/whisperer in the next 1-2 days. The method he always uses is to open the bottom of the scrotum with a clean razor/scalpel, and then remove the two testicles with the clean blade. He says he usually has no bleeding and quick recoveries of the buckling, with normal romping around in about 30 minutes
But he usually wethers when they are less than 3-4 weeks, so I am a little nervous about what I need to do, to keep Cappy well.
Our vet is willing to come out to the farm to do it for us, but of course that will be pretty expensive, and we keep getting advice that the more natural and simple, the better - so we would like to do this with our goat-mentor, if Cappy is not too old for that
Our little herd is healthy and happy - and I give a lot of credit to this community;
THANKS in advance for the advice.
PS glad to see that we can make donations to the community, because this is the most important factor in our fur-family's happiness and health!!
Replies
When we got started, I had a vet surgically castrate our first two bucklings, but they were only 2 weeks old. He said if they were any older, he would have wanted to use anesthesia. I don't know exactly when they cross the line for being too old to do surgically by a non-vet, but I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it at 3 months, although I know a lot of old farmers that think nothing of it. I once had an old farmer offer to castrate a year-old ram for me, but I turned him down. I just watched a friend's 8-month-old pig get surgically castrated, and it was a big deal. My friend normally does her own at a month, and she said that this was way more complicated than what happens with a little one. It took about half an hour, mostly because he had quite a bit of fat on his scrotum, which wouldn't be an issue with a kid. The vet anesthetized the pig, which is one problem you'll likely have with a kid that's bigger and older. I don't even like to tattoo kids that are 3 months old because they're so big and strong, but at least that only takes a few seconds. I'm thinking you'll need at least two people to hold a kid that size.
If you know someone who has a Burdizzo, or if you want to buy a Burdizzo, it's a quick, easy way to castrate with zero blood and zero risk of infection or bleeding because it never breaks the skin. It only takes five seconds on each side of the scrotum.