When do you castrate your wethers?

[cjc]

Hi, I just wanted to know at what age you prefer to castrate your wether pack goat prospects, and what your rationale is for choosing that time frame.
I'd appreciate hearing from anyone interested in weighing in.
Thanks and have a great day!

[Nanno]

Sorry you had to wait for your first post to get approved, CJC. Now that I've allowed your first post, you'll be able to post without prior approval from now on. I had to do something to cut down on spam attacks.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

Realistically, you can castrate at anytime. Some people have done it as early as 2 weeks and have never had a problem. Though you typically lose good bone growth by doing it so young. I can look at a wether and typically tell you if it was done early or later. The reason for later is to allow for better and larger urinary tract development. Around 3 months old, a buck starts to become a buck. Testosterone is being produced in larger quantities. Fueling bone and hair growth. 3 months old is a standard castration age as well because they start to pee on themselves, and you, and doing unflattering things to their... well you get the idea. But if you have the patients its better to wait till they are 5 or 6 months old. They can be stinking pretty good by this point but you get about 10% more growth outta their urinary tract in those 2-3 months.

Now the rationality of it is, wethers are more susceptible to urinary calculi (stones). So the longer you wait the more developed and larger their tract is. Its just another step in helping to prevent blockages from stones. UC is a death sentence for a wether. If you have a wether that gets it, its about $1500 for the surgery to clear the blockage, flush the bladder and remove the tip of the pizzle. But the real problem is still in the bladder. I can only recall one story about someone who actually saved their wether after surgery. And they put what really comes down to, an unreasonable amount of time and effort into their animal. Most wethers get blocked up again within a month and die.

Regardless of when you decide to wether, a balanced diet and supplementing with AC (Ammonium Chloride) is a major key in keeping your wether stone free.

[Sanhestar]

UC is a death sentence for a wether. If you have a wether that gets it, its about $1500 for the surgery to clear the blockage, flush the bladder and remove the tip of the pizzle. But the real problem is still in the bladder. I can only recall one story about someone who actually saved their wether after surgery. And they put what really comes down to, an unreasonable amount of time and effort into their animal. Most wethers get blocked up again within a month and die.

while I can't speak to what is common practise in the US, a stone is hardly a death sentence any more in Germany.

I've had over the years three wethers develop stones.

Nox - stone at age three, removal of processus, 5 days clinic stay. Costs approx. 200 EUR incl. surgery. Lived well without further problems to age 11 when he died of unrelated causes
Lucky - stone at age 4, removal of processus, bladder catheter, 6 or 7 days clinic stay. A bit more expensive but well under 500 EUR. Still lives, no further problems, 10 years old now.
Olliver - he's the only goat that had un-resolveable stone problems, his story can be read about on this forum. He suffered from a congenital abnormality of the urinary tract and underwent several surgeries for stone removal and was included in a study about endoskopic surgery for stone removal. Developed stones at age 6 and was put down after two relapses.

[cjc]

Can an Elastrator tool still be used on a buckling 3-6 months of age, or would the testicles be too large, thus requiring a calf castrating device such as the Callicrate Bander?

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

The normal banding tool used on goats and sheep is good till they are about 3 months of age. After that and actually at that age, its very difficult to get the band open wide enough to fit the nuts in. The calf one is a little better. Though if you use the green bands, its still only going to open so far. Need bigger bands. Which can cause an issue in themselves with no being able to tighten enough to kill all the tubes in the sack. Doesnt happen often but it can. So for older boys, we have done the calf tool with the green bands and have put two of them on.

[northcoast]

I've got two bucklings from a set of quads, one of which will get the pinch from the Ritchey Nipper right away. Cieran, the other brother, I would like to breed with one of my Saannen / Kiko does before he meets up with Ritchey. Has anyone else done this and did you have any issues? What should I look out for other than typical buck behavior?

Side note: I will wait the full cycle to see if she comes into heat again just to make sure January is prego.

[Sanhestar]

If you want them to use a packers you should also wait for Cieran's brother to mature far enough that he starts to smell. You will have in the long run statiscally less trouble with urinary calculi which will cost you more than having to band or surgically castrate.

The last castrated bucks (left two entire for almost three years) tended to be a bit more argumentative than the ones that were castrated younger. The also showed more head-butting/fighting amongst each other when the does were in heat and were higher ranked.

[Nanno]

I used one of my pack wether boys as a breeding buck before he was wethered at nine or ten months. We didn't have any issues. He did continue to spray whenever he got too excited for about six or eight months after he was wethered. We had to be careful not to let him get overly hyper while training and especially when he was meeting strangers out in public. He never blubbed, swatted, or did any other mating behaviors at people, but he would liberally spray anything within a four-foot radius if he was too happy. The one somewhat negative thing that happened was that he got very attached to the girls. When he was a youngster he loved nothing better than to go walking with me and Phil. After breeding, however, he became more emotionally attached to the herd and to this day is rather reluctant to leave his girls behind (although he has improved with time).