# best time to band bucklings?



## blessedby7 (Oct 31, 2008)

What is the best time to band?`````


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## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

soon as their little testicles descend into the scrotal sac. We do it at about 10 days to 2 weeks, depending on the buckling.


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## mamatomany (Aug 7, 2008)

I do mine after 3 weeks. You can do it before two weeks if your does have had their CDT booster prior to kidding. I do it then a few days after I give their first CDT at 21 days.


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

The latest I band them is at 8 wks....and I only waited because the soon to be owner wanted me to wait as long as I could before banding them. 

I think with my Numancha kids and my soon to be nubian bucklings (getting two buck kids w/ their dam soon), they will be done earlier.


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## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

Ditto with Amy. Do make sure they have had their CDT first. I usually band when they graduate to 1 x day milk and are eating hay/grain and drinking water.


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

I wait until I can barely squeeze their little jewelss thru the band one by one  however they aren't left in with their dams or any doelings past 8 wks old.


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## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

I agree on the CDT. We keep our herd up-to-date on all that so can do it earlier.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

The first shot of CD&T doesn't do anything, it's not until they get their second shot at 21 days that they have sealed immunity. I would be banding during maternal immunity. The whole urethra needs to grow has pretty much been debunked, or at least not passed around as much as it was. I don't make weathers but if I did they would be cut at birth or banned when I disbud. Vicki


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## blessedby7 (Oct 31, 2008)

I was waiting to band as long as possible becaue of the urethra thing so this is good to know.
Now on that note I had two MORE bucklings born yesterday (DANG year for bucks GEESH) should I disbud and band them at the same time at 6-7 days old or do it at seperate times because golly it just seems too hard on their systems.
And I don't do cd/t anymore and NEVER have had a problem and have done TONS!!! Is it really that necessary? what are the chances?

I may get tetnus antitoxin but again what are the chances I guess.
I have taken a more natural approach to meds/vaccines I guess. but maybe I am wrong in this. 

Anyhoo thanks for all the varying responses. Its good to get different opinions.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Different management is just that different. Tetaus is also a huge problem in the south, so having a highly vaccinated herd so that I don't have to worry about entero, tetanus, pnemonia, staph is how I prefer to manage my herd. I am the queen of prevention because I don't have the temperment for nursing when a goat becomes ill from something that I could have prevented. And $5 a year in vaccination is alot less than treating tetanus or loosing one kid to entero. I full feed milk to kids and grain feed kids so that they are 100 pounds by 8 and 9 months old to be bred.

Just know there isn't anything natural about domesticated goats, once you close that gate it's the most unnatural enviornment for a goat to live in...figure my goats live in parasite heaven and your goats live in copper defficency foot rot heaven...really think your goats would choose to live with you? So it's why we have to prevent diesase. Vicki


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

The info on banding later for ureter growth is only applicable if you plan to raise them to maturity and feed them lots of grain. We band when we disbud and they are in the freezer in a few short weeks or 6 months at the most so it is totally irrelevant as they get no grain and gain what they can on pasture after weaning. What do you plan to do with the wethers? If you don't feed them grain then you have no worries anyway. 
Lee


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Oh Lee, your going to make me write it all out 

I never thought the above statement made any logical sense, so when my kids were in 4H we kept two brothers, one was banded at birth the other left intact both had exactly the same care and diet. As a group we butchered both kids, did a field necrospy looking for cocci in the intestine, blowing up the lungs  and all sorts of other fun things, we took the plumbing to my vet for her to see if she could see any difference in these then 9 month old buckling/wether. There was zero difference and under a microscope she could not even tell them apart.

If UC is about less urethra diameter than why do full sized intact bucks get it just as much as wethers on show feed without AC in out here, where wether shows bring big dollars? That was always my beef with that "waiting to castrate because the urethra would be bigger in diameter" It's mostly about the P trap S turn the boys plumbing makes and the uterthral process, it's where most stones are formed, and of course diet....not about the size of the plumbing. Testosterone yes maybe it could mature the plumbing that holds and stores and delivered semen, but urine? NO  And it goes right with those who believe that how bucks testicles hang have something to do with how his daughters udder is going to look  Yep one delievers semen the other milk, don't need a microscope to debunk that one  Vicki


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

This is once again a nutrition issue.
The reason UC is seen as often in older intact bucks as it is in wethers is because when the animal is fed an imbalance of calcium to phosphorus and the ph of the urine is wrong then crystals form in the bladder and scar the ureter on the way out until the diameter narrows such that blockage can occur. So once again it is about feeding correctly for life stage and condition. There are studies from Cornell showing that testosterone does mature the urinary system but it is irrelevant if the animal is improperly fed. We see it most often in bucks that people have attempted to rapidly recondition after breeding season. Lee


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## RanschauAcres (Jan 26, 2010)

We wait to band until about 4 weeks of age. We used to band earlier but encountered problems with bladder stones and ended up losing a couple wethers. Since that time be have been banding later, and have increased the availability of water and nutrients. We've have had no problems since.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

This is not the time frame of banding that helped. It is all a matter of balance in nutrients.
Bladder stones are nutritional in origin.
Please read on calcium phosphorus balance. Search Cornell university study on castration.
Lee


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