# Castrated Lamb Not Able to Stand Up



## TheSheeper (Mar 16, 2021)

I have a castrated lamb. He’s about to be a month old. I just put the bands on him last night. This morning he was doing very well. He was eating from his mom, standing around, playing and everything was well. Now he can’t stand up, starts kicking very suddenly. I gave him some nutridrench but it seems like he spit out most of it. I tried making his mom give him milk but he doesn’t want to drink. He’s just sleeping on the floor. What can I do?


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## Beekissed (Mar 16, 2021)

TheSheeper said:


> I have a castrated lamb. He’s about to be a month old. I just put the bands on him last night. This morning he was doing very well. He was eating from his mom, standing around, playing and everything was well. Now he can’t stand up, starts kicking very suddenly. I gave him some nutridrench but it seems like he spit out most of it. I tried making his mom give him milk but he doesn’t want to drink. He’s just sleeping on the floor. What can I do?


From what I've read, you just have to wait it out.  If you can give him something for pain it might help but many report just the same behavior after banding.   That's one reason I've chosen to get away from banding and use the Burdizzo instead.  Even the California bander is better than the traditional small bands...the sheep doesn't seem to know anything's been done with the California bander, but it takes so long for the balls to fall off with that one.


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## TheSheeper (Mar 16, 2021)

Gotcha. I tried giving him some milk but again he split out most of it. He’s curled up in a little ball and is very tense. I try to move him and he just stays there with his head in droopy on his legs. I gave him some more local anesthesia in each testicle to help with any pain he may have. I’ll definitely be looking into different ways to castrate after this. It’s my first time doing this so I hope he turns out alright.


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## TheSheeper (Mar 16, 2021)

He’s my weakest lamb so I am very worried he won’t make it through the night. He’s got no milk in his stomach and can’t get up.


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## Beekissed (Mar 16, 2021)

Do you have a drenching gun? If so, you could drench some nutrients into him, just to keep him hydrated.  Can't really spit it out when you use a drenching gun.


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## TheSheeper (Mar 16, 2021)

I don’t have a drenching gun. I’ve been using a syringe without the needle to get everything inside him.


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## TheSheeper (Mar 16, 2021)

It seems like he’s getting up now. Phew. He’s drinking milk from his mom and walking around. Thank you for the advice.


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## Beekissed (Mar 16, 2021)

TheSheeper said:


> It seems like he’s getting up now. Phew. He’s drinking milk from his mom and walking around. Thank you for the advice.


So glad he's feeling better!  You may want to get yourself a drench gun as you'll likely need one down the road.  They come in real handy if you want them give them something they don't want.


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## Baymule (Mar 16, 2021)

I normally cut my ram lambs. I like to castrate at 2 weeks, it's no big deal then. But now that I can't get slaughter dates (everything is booked a year or more out) I gave up castration and will take them to auction as rams. 

BUT-we had a bottle lamb that we decided to keep as a wether as a companion to our ram. I borrowed the bander apparatus and banded him yesterday. Today he was his regular greedy self on his bottle, but was very needy after he ate and just wanted to be stroked and petted. 

This is my first time to use a bander, I don't know if I'll do it again. but so far, so good, so we'll see.

I hope your little guy continues to do good.


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## Baymule (Mar 17, 2021)

A dull knife doesn't cut anything.


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## Beekissed (Mar 17, 2021)

Baymule said:


> A dull knife doesn't cut anything.


Except my fingers.....always, it seems they can manage to haggle off a piece of my fingers.  Can't cut anything else, but just my fingers.


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## Beekissed (Mar 17, 2021)

Crealcritter said:


> Well being a guy and all... I'm staying out of this conversation because I already know I'm totally biased 🤣


My son held the ram lambs I used the Burdizzo on and he was waiting to hear the "crunch" like one hears on bulls, but on lambs there was no crunch, so he was pleasantly surprised.  He had been dreading that for days, knowing he would draw up like prunes just hearing the crunch.  

I too was pleasantly surprised at how little they reacted....they were more upset about being held then the actual emasculation.  And no after effects....acted like it had never happened.


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## Baymule (Mar 17, 2021)

@TheSheeper how is your lamb doing?


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## Alaskan (Mar 29, 2021)

Baymule said:


> I normally cut my ram lambs.


I think cutting is much less painful,  and over much faster...

With goats in my case...


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## TheSheeper (Apr 12, 2021)

Baymule said:


> @TheSheeper how is your lamb doing?


He died  it’s okay though. At least we tried. Seems like he was too delicate for us to castrate him but we still did it. It was out fault in the end.


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## Baymule (Apr 12, 2021)

Awww I’m so sorry. It may be that it is not your fault. It could be that there was something not right about him. There are thousands upon thousands of lambs and kids banded every year, calves too. I’ve never heard of one dying from a banded. I’m really sorry about your lamb.


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## TheSheeper (Apr 12, 2021)

It’s okay, it happens. I was a little disappointed at first but at least we tried. In the end it’s the circle of life. Not much can be done. Thank you for everyone’s help 😊.


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## Alaskan (Apr 12, 2021)

TheSheeper said:


> It’s okay, it happens. I was a little disappointed at first but at least we tried. In the end it’s the circle of life. Not much can be done. Thank you for everyone’s help 😊.


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## secuono (Apr 12, 2021)

Did you cut him open to find why he died?
Doesn't make sense that day of banding, he is fine, but next day is the problem. Sounds more like you somehow banded intestines and not just two testicles.


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## TheSheeper (Apr 12, 2021)

secuono said:


> Did you cut him open to find why he died?
> Doesn't make sense that day of banding, he is fine, but next day is the problem. Sounds more like you somehow banded intestines and not just two testicles.


You know I didn’t even think of doing that. My dad and I tried our best to band the two testicles together but it was our first time banding a lamb. I did find it weird that he was okay in the morning but in the afternoon couldn’t even get up. The next morning he was dead. Meanwhile the other ran lamb was even jumping around and drinking milk from his mom. So I do feel like we must’ve banded something that we shouldn’t have.


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## Baymule (Apr 13, 2021)

Crealcritter said:


> *This thread is giving me the heebeegeebees.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Deal with it. You bought property, you want to raise animals. You’ve kicked around the idea of sheep or cattle. Whatever you raise, there will be excess males, males with testicles, males with hormones, males whose brain is fogged by said hormones, males that will grind you to a pile of broken bones, males that will be a danger to your beautiful grandchildren. Even roosters will attack and flog you. These are facts. You either castrate males or you wean and take to auction at a very young age. Man up. Nobody ever said farming is easy.
You know I’m going to whallop you up the side of your head with the 2x4 of reality. LOL LOL


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## Beekissed (Apr 13, 2021)

Baymule said:


> Deal with it. You bought property, you want to raise animals. You’ve kicked around the idea of sheep or cattle. Whatever you raise, there will be excess males, males with testicles, males with hormones, males whose brain is fogged by said hormones, males that will grind you to a pile of broken bones, males that will be a danger to your beautiful grandchildren. Even roosters will attack and flog you. These are facts. You either castrate males or you wean and take to auction at a very young age. Man up. Nobody ever said farming is easy.
> You know I’m going to whallop you up the side of your head with the 2x4 of reality. LOL LOL


What SHE said!


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## TheSheeper (Apr 13, 2021)

Baymule said:


> Deal with it. You bought property, you want to raise animals. You’ve kicked around the idea of sheep or cattle. Whatever you raise, there will be excess males, males with testicles, males with hormones, males whose brain is fogged by said hormones, males that will grind you to a pile of broken bones, males that will be a danger to your beautiful grandchildren. Even roosters will attack and flog you. These are facts. You either castrate males or you wean and take to auction at a very young age. Man up. Nobody ever said farming is easy.
> You know I’m going to whallop you up the side of your head with the 2x4 of reality. LOL LOL


Honest truth! When I first got my first ram I thought he was a pet. Pshhhh yeah right! My “pet” ended up ramming me into the side of the fence one night. I was lucky to have my brother there to help me out. I was so angry I was ready to castrate that animal right there and then 😂. It’s been a year and a half since I got my first flock and the way I think of them has changed a lot. It’s funny bc you start off thinking that castrating is mean or something you could never do. But then as Bay said: Reality wallops you with a 2x4!


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## Baymule (Apr 13, 2021)

I have a banded bottle lamb right now. Good grief! Will his nuts EVER fall off? Those things hang on FOREVER!! I like the knife better, but he was already a couple of months old before we decided we just had to keep him. So I will have a sweet lovey pet that eats and contributes nothing other than a live huggy sheep.


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## Alaskan (Apr 13, 2021)

Baymule said:


> I have a banded bottle lamb right now. Good grief! Will his nuts EVER fall off? Those things hang on FOREVER!! I like the knife better, but he was already a couple of months old before we decided we just had to keep him. So I will have a sweet lovey pet that eats and contributes nothing other than a live huggy sheep.


Can you not do the knife method if they are older?

Never needed to... so never looked it up.

In my experience the knife method is so much better, because the kid goes back to normal much more quickly than with the banding method.


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## Alaskan (Apr 13, 2021)

Crealcritter said:


> Hey there switch blade Susan, how bout a recorded double live gonzo, knife so scary sharp/one swipe and done tutorial extravaganza. I would like that, I THINK, still thing though 🤔


There are lots of you tube videos you can watch.

That is how I trained my kids so that they could castrate with confidence.

So much easier to teach with video since you can watch together, discuss, then rewind, watch again. Etc.

Verses hearing "wait!  What was your other hand doing?" When you are trying to teach them to castrate and you only have ONE that needs to be castrated.

It would be different if you had 20 to run through and teach them on.


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## Baymule (Apr 14, 2021)

Yeah, I’ve cut at 2-3 months, prefer at a couple of weeks. This is my first banding, probably my last. Since we are taking ram lambs to auction now, I’m not bothering with castrations. I have my merry band of ram lambs cavorting in the side pasture and back yard. Going to take 5 to auction plus one ewe lamb I don’t want in the next week or two. For now, I’m keeping 2 outstanding rams that have superior growth and confirmation. They both are calm, just like their daddy, Ringo. They are too good to take to auction, I’ll try to sell them as commercial flock sires. I’m teaching them manners. It’s so funny. They both have pushed me when I quit scratching them and I slapped their cute little faces. They backed off, staring at me, shocked, tried again, got slapped again. Both waited a couple days, tried again, got slapped again, LOL. I could see their little brains turning, thinking about it. Neither has tried me since. Their names are Star and Snip. They both come up to our 4 and 6 year old granddaughters for scratches. These two boys have every thing going for then except being registered.
Sorry @TheSheeper i didn’t mean to hijack your thread, gushing about my 2 boys!


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## TheSheeper (Apr 14, 2021)

Baymule said:


> Yeah, I’ve cut at 2-3 months, prefer at a couple of weeks. This is my first banding, probably my last. Since we are taking ram lambs to auction now, I’m not bothering with castrations. I have my merry band of ram lambs cavorting in the side pasture and back yard. Going to take 5 to auction plus one ewe lamb I don’t want in the next week or two. For now, I’m keeping 2 outstanding rams that have superior growth and confirmation. They both are calm, just like their daddy, Ringo. They are too good to take to auction, I’ll try to sell them as commercial flock sires. I’m teaching them manners. It’s so funny. They both have pushed me when I quit scratching them and I slapped their cute little faces. They backed off, staring at me, shocked, tried again, got slapped again. Both waited a couple days, tried again, got slapped again, LOL. I could see their little brains turning, thinking about it. Neither has tried me since. Their names are Star and Snip. They both come up to our 4 and 6 year old granddaughters for scratches. These two boys have every thing going for then except being registered.
> Sorry @TheSheeper i didn’t mean to hijack your thread, gushing about my 2 boys!


Hey I've got no problem with you taking over! 😂 By all means: continue gushing!


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## Baymule (Apr 14, 2021)

Ringo and Star 






Snip


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## Stephine (Apr 14, 2021)

So sweet! 
Does Ringo have a horn in the center of his head or what is that? 


Baymule said:


> Ringo and Star
> 
> View attachment 84116
> 
> ...


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## Baymule (Apr 14, 2021)

It is believed to be a callus from his youth. He was bred by Virginia Tech University in their parasite resistance program. Rams were in a pasture and they “rammed” each other. He must have got it all out of his system because he is a sweetheart now.

That is the truthful version, the BS version is that he is a Unicorn. LOL LOL


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## secuono (Apr 14, 2021)

Banding is super easy...when they're over 4wks old. The younger, the harder it is to find the testicles, keep hold of them and band.
Some people use a string to help hold them, but I just use the band and bander tool. Adding a string just slowed me down and added stress to the job.
Just slip the sack in the open tool n band and close tool, but don't roll off band. Feel for the testicles, if one is missing, find it and open tool slightly, then press testicle through the band, close tool. Repeat until you're positive both are fully in there. Once both are in, roll band off.
Baby testicles also feel different than older ones. Am I on a watch list now?? 😅
But they do, more narrow and just odd, but should be consistently firm.
On older lambs, 4+ months, I use two bands and try to get them as low as possible.
Problem with banding big lambs is the big hole left behind on the sheep. They need to be checked more often for infection, and once testicles feel hard, cut it off or at least cut the wool so the sack isn't stuck to the body by hair and causing infection.


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## Stephine (Apr 14, 2021)

Baymule said:


> It is believed to be a callus from his youth. He was bred by Virginia Tech University in their parasite resistance program. Rams were in a pasture and they “rammed” each other. He must have got it all out of his system because he is a sweetheart now.
> 
> That is the truthful version, the BS version is that he is a Unicorn. LOL LOL


Aaawww - poor thing! I like the BS version better...


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