11/12/2024
When to Band male kids?
In Qld castration of goats over 2months of age is an Act of Veterinary Surgeon and must be done by a vet. The Animal Welfare Code has these as Guidelines under Castration (http://animalwelfarestandards.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Australia-Industry-Standards-and-Guidelines-for-Goats.pdf)
G6.15 Kids should be castrated as young as possible and before they are 12 weeks old.
G6.16 A person should use the most appropriate tools and least painful method to castrate goats that is applicable to the production system.
G6.17 Surgical castration without the use of pain relief should be confined to bucks under 12 weeks of age.
Although the enforceable under state animal cruelty laws Standard is more lenient i.e. S6.2 A person must not castrate goats that are more than six months old without using appropriate pain relief and haemorrhage control for the goat.
My recommendation for banding male kids is based on the goat research below and also based on my experience of buck kids mating their half sisters (2months 3 weeks is the record for a successful pregnancy from a male kid) and is to band between 8 and 10 weeks. Give a meloxicam injection or buccalgesic gel at the sheep dose rate across the gums 10 minutes beforehand. Ideally give a local block at the top of the sc***um just before - e.g. by using Numnuts applicator and their local which is not vet only See https://numnuts.au/about-numocaine/ . However if only a few goats, it may not be cost effective to buy a Numnuts application and bottle of local (although I loan my applicator out in Brisbane). A local goat club could band together to buy an applicator but each farm should buy their own needles and ideally their own bottle of local/Numocaine. Numocaine is Schedule 5 so can be purchased across the counter but is only registered for sheep so will still need a vet's prescription, except in Victoria where it is legal to use sheep medicines on goats if at the same dose rate. Miniature goat owners should be warned however that the toxic dose of lignocaine/Numocaine is only 2mls for a 4kg kid. The Numnuts website states the 100ml bottle of Numocaine has 65 doses so it delivers just over 1.5mls. I did write an article about the danger of ligncaine toxicity and it was on their website for awhile but now I can't see it there. But you have full size dairy goats so won't be a problem for your male kids at 8 weeks.
There is only 1 research paper in goats and one by the same authors in lambs looking at age of castration and urinary width.
The Goat paper summary is below
Thirty-six(n=36) healthy male kids of Black Bengal Goat were divided into six groups having six animals in each, to evaluate the influence of castration on the development of urethra. Proper urethral growth reduces urinary calculi formation and helps to determine the possible suitable age of castration. Group I, II, III, IV and V were castrated at the age of 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 weeks, respectively and group VI was treated as control. After getting maturity, goats were slaughtered and collected all p***ses with maximum precaution and hygienic practices, and morphometric examinations performed extensively. The highest measurements of pe**le length, pe**le weight, pe**le circumference and urethral lumen perimeter were recorded as 23.67±1.29 cm, 16.85± 2.61 gm, 22.94±2.00 cm, and 6.25±0.38 mm in control bucks, respectively. Of the castrated groups, kids at 8 and 10 weeks of age were found to have similar parameters with that of control group. These observations indicate that castration at later age favors for adequate development of urethra and p***s.
