Getting goats in May and have some feeding questions.

[purplequeenvt]

Can you still band them at 4-6 months?

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I really think castrating age is a crap shoot. We lost our first ever goat to stones, and he was castrated at an early age and got grain. Our next wether was also castrated early, ate grain, and never had any issues. This is before we knew about proper Ca ratios or anything like that. Early castration doesn't mean a death sentence (or a stone sentence).

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Also, I waited until 4 months to band my wether last year, and his testicles were too big to do them with my bander. I had to pay the vet to do it, and he had complications from it since his testicles were so big (infection). I would never wait that long again, but that's my personal opinion.

 

[Goatherd]

Yeah ..I'm wondering if I shouldn't just tell her not to castrate and make arrangements to do it when they are around 4 months old. Does anybody know what the average cost is for a vet to come do it? Just curious. I know prices will be different depending on where you live.

I had my buck castrated surgically when he was about 18 months old. I used him to breed my does and rather than sell him or pass him along, I wanted to keep him, as far as goats are concerned, he was a very sweet and gentle buck. I only have one large pasture and didn't want to separate him by himself or keep another wether for company. I wanted him to run with the does as he always did. That being said...

I took him into the vet's office rather than having her come here to do it. I did this for two reasons...it saved me a few dollars on a farm visit and I felt that if it was done in the office and there were any complications, they would have the supplies, equipment, etc. on hand to assist him. I also live very close to the vet's office. The office visit, surgery, anesthesia and pain meds were roughly $90. He was groggy for a few days an laid around just resting. After about 4 days he rallied and was his old self. No antibiotics were used as he didn't develop any infection.

When my does come into heat he still mounts and "breeds" them as he always did. We just don't have kids from him any more.

I didn't go into detail before, but my feeding him grain is less of a concern for me as he was fully developed and ammonium chloride is a regular part of his diet as well as the does.