Bucky had a deluxe castration procedure at OSU today!!

[DonnaBelle]

Hi all,

Since we had to take Annie for her checkup today, we called ahead and OSU teaching vet hospital said yes, they'd castrate Bucky today. He is 3 weeks old today, and yesterday was attempting to mate one of his sisters!!

They sedated him, took him to a very nice operating theater, had an intern, a vet, and about 4th year students and us in watching. How very interesting!! Such a wonderful facility, we are so fortunate to be within driving distance.

So we made a trip today with Annie, our year old Nubian, Bucky our 3 week old Nubian buck, now buckette and let Mercy, our Brittany bird dog go along for the ride.

Bucky rode home in my lap, wrapped in a towel, as he was still groggy from the meds.

We are all glad to be back at the ranch, no place like home.....

DonnaBelle

 

[chandasue]

buckette

That's so cute! I might steal that word. LOL

 

[haviris]

I probably would have waited til closer to 8 weeks, but sounds like it was an interesting experince!

 

[DonnaBelle]

I had read in Storey's Guide to dairy goats that it was possible to do it at three weeks with no anesthesia, so I called up first before we took Annie up for her checkup. The vet said it would be OK to have him done so I went ahead and took him up with us.

Of course, the vets were not going to do it without anesthesia, so they did it with tetnus shots, anesthesia, etc.

He seems to be fine now. I was concerned because he was very romantic towards his sisters. EEEEKKKK. So, I hope we "nipped it in the bud"

DonnaBelle

 

[haviris]

Mounting at this age is completely normal, my doe kids mount each other, my buckling mounts the dog, it's just normal baby behavior. It can be done at any age, I just worry about the increased risks of UC doing it so early.

 

[helmstead]

Mounting at this age is completely normal, my doe kids mount each other, my buckling mounts the dog, it's just normal baby behavior. It can be done at any age, I just worry about the increased risks of UC doing it so early.

I agree...

 

[cmjust0]

It's water under the bridge now, y'all...what's been done has been done.

DonnaBelle...be careful about feeding your little guy very much grain at all. If he gains well on good hay and free-choice mineral, I don't know if I'd feed any grain, period. If you plan on feeding grain, I'd be sure to accompany it with alfalfa hay..

Or, if you just want to supplement him with some sort of bagged feed but not have to run high-$$$ alfalfa hay through all your goats just to accomodate him, you might look into supplementing him with alfalfa pellets.

The overall goal now is to keep his blood calcium levels up so that he doesn't absorb so much phosphorus through the gut. Phosphorus is the big baddie in urinary calculi, and grains are packed FULL of it.

Castrating at three weeks isn't a death sentence...not ideal IMO, but not a death sentence.. You just gotta be extra careful and extra watchful now.

 

[DonnaBelle]

Hi all,

Yes, I've done some reading about feeding bucks and it seems that they don't really need a lot of grain.

The goats are going out into the trees/brush and brousing a lot now, even the babies, so I am cutting back on the feed.

The babies have been nibbling some alfalfa hay, but not eating any kind of grain yet. They look great, and Lenora has enough milk for 3 more kids!!

We will monitor Bucky, we wanted all the animals here to be safe around GiGi, our 3 year old. No horns, mild behavior if you know what I mean.

We are going to take Felicia and Annie and have them bred this fall. I'd love to have a kid out of Annie, another spotted little fawn looking goatie girl.

DonnaBelle

DonnaBelle

 

[Ariel301]

Hahaha we have a Bucky too! We were given an Alpine buckling last spring as a surprise gift, and I was just calling him "little bucky" until we thought of a good name, but Bucky stuck.

I generally castrate mine at 6-8 weeks old, but I know people who do it as young as a few days. (They like to disbud and castrate all at once) I do mine at home though with elastrator bands, I couldn't afford to go to a vet hospital!