# 6 Months old Alpine castration??



## BBGoaty (Jul 17, 2013)

Hello, I want to say thank you to everyone for your advice when I asked if I can keep my alpine buck as a pet in my previous post, your comments helped me to take a decission, I have decided to keep my alpine buck as a pet and I want to castrated him can somebody recomend me a good method? not painful? with medicine to help him?

My vet in the area want to charge me $250 for the job and I cannot afford it.

Note: 6 months old - Weight 40 lbs.

Thank you very much in advance.


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## thegoatgirl (Nov 27, 2011)

I would band him-it's cheap, fast, and easy; and there's not much chance of complications. You can buy the bands and bander yourself.


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## peggy (Aug 11, 2010)

I would band as well. I have banded one s almost 4 months old and bigger than 40 lbs. I will not sugar coat it though... there will be pain but for a very short while. He will probably cry for 1/2 and hour and be a little off, but by the next day he should be back to his normal self. At least this has been my experience.


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## lottsagoats (Dec 10, 2012)

With a buck that old, banding is fine but you will probably have to get a larger band than the little green ones. See if you can find a cattle farmer who might band his bull calves or someone who uses oxen. He/she would have the right size bands. If not bands, they would have an emasculator to pinch off the cords/veins and render them sterile and mostly testosterone free

There is no painless way to castrate an animal, no matter the method it is going to hurt.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

For sure band. We have tried the other way but its not like you can see and make sure it was done right, I like to either cut (with cattle) or band, but Im leaning more to banding now. Im also thinking the little green bands that are common to use might be a little small but I think its like $6 for the bander and $2 for the bands so you could give that way a shot and your not out a ton of money if it doesnt work out and might be able to sell it. If it does not work, yes ask around for a larger bander, they are soooooo expensive, it was $300 for ours and $1 a band, a feed store is a good place to ask around, and ours, we found out later, you can rent the bander from them.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

If you band you will need to get a calf bander and bands. On full sized goats (though at only 40 lbs, he is relativity small) the normal green bands start to become less and less effective. Often times there is just to much material for the bands to squeeze. Resulting in the sack dying but the cords still alive. This can get pretty nasty if not caught.

As for the price, you should try to find a livestock vet who is willing to use a burdizzo. It only costs me $50 per boy when using this method. Any vet who does it this way and is charging over $100 is trying to extort money form you. A good livestock vet will also have a calf bander and should be around $20.00 per boy.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

TDG-Farms said:


> If you band you will need to get a calf bander and bands. On full sized goats (though at only 40 lbs, he is relativity small) the normal green bands start to become less and less effective. Often times there is just to much material for the bands to squeeze. Resulting in the sack dying but the cords still alive. This can get pretty nasty if not caught.
> 
> As for the price, you should try to find a livestock vet who is willing to use a burdizzo. It only costs me $50 per boy when using this method. Any vet who does it this way and is charging over $100 is trying to extort money form you. A good livestock vet will also have a calf bander and should be around $20.00 per boy.


Have you ever had to take them back in when they use the burdizzos???? We noticed with the calfs that most would take but a few would still have one left, even though we heard the snap and everything. Thats why I was saying the band or cut that way you can see that those suckers coming off or that you know they will one day lol. Yeah, I would for sure not pay more then the $50, I dont think I paid much more then that for the small one i have. I still like the banding though.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

Yep, had to have a pack wether I was boarding redone with the burdizzo. One side didnt take. The burdizzo he had was a smaller one and the vet has said he might need to come back. There were signs but it was about a year later that I finally checked. Had 4 boys done at the same time. Where the other 3 only took two keeps for them to stop peeing on themselves and acting bucky, the boy that only had one side take, it took him an extra two weeks for his testosterone levels to decrease. It wasnt until I really got to looking at his horn and beard growth that I suspected anything. They were done right before the breeding season and non of them ever showed any interest in the girls. Which they were penned right next to. Because of this my vet and I are going to start half castrating the boys to test how other boys act. If its a high enough %, then we will do it from here on out. This would add a good deal more substance of bone. Effectively making a more solid pack goat. Horn growth would also be increased a good deal. Granted so is hair growth. But most important, it would allow for a much more developed urinary track.


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