Castration: Banding

[JGH]

We raise calves we buy from a local dairyman and have been taking them to the vet for castration, although my husband used to band them. Questions: How soon should we band? When is, "Too late, dude! Now you need to cut!"? Which do you think is best, banding or cutting? (We are only working with one calf at a time--not a herd to castrate. And they are generally 4 days to a week old when we gat them.) And--how important is the tetanus shot? We have never done that.

 

[jcarkie]

You can band at that age easily count to two. I usually implant also at that time.

 

[M-5]

On bottle calves I band as soon as they get here. To big to band is when the nuts won't go thru the cheerio. They make a bander for them kind to. You have to be able to count to 2 to be successful at it. I only do tetnus on calves that are cut.

 

[Ky hills]

There will be lots of opinions about this. I used to raise dairy calves too, I usually waited at least 2 weeks maybe a month before working them, just to make sure they were healthy and strong enough after being through the stress of being moved to a new environment. I have used them on calves up to maybe 3-4 months old depending on the individual. There are other banders that can work for mature bulls. I have one of the old style eze bloodless castrators that uses tubing, I don't like to band much over 400 lbs. Tetanus vaccines are important, admittedly though a lot of times I haven't vaccinated small calves when using the little green bands.

 

[Son of Butch]

I prefer to band at 1-6 weeks of age and give inforce3 nasal vaccine and a ral-grow ear implant at the same time.
Have never given a tetanus shot except when castrating over 400 pounders and have never had a problem either way.

 

[Nesikep]

I band in the first few days (while I can catch the buggers).. it's good practice to spray some iodine on it, and I actually spray some in my bag of cheerios as well.. never had a tetanus problem... If I see a calf that's sluggish or has other health issues, I'll wait for those to clear up before banding.. as KYhills said.. give them one problem at a time to deal with

 

[Lucky_P]

I've seen the occasional case of tetanus in baby calves banded with the little green cheerio, but more cases in big 600-800+ pound bulls banded with Callicrate or California banders.
That said, the first case of tetanus I ever saw was in one of my own steers, which I knife-cut.
After I lost a heifer to tetanus about 3 years ago, I routinely use a Clostridial bacterin/toxoid containing tetanus toxoid on all calves.

 

[cattle60]

Lucky P - I have been banding for a few years and done it when I gave a round of shots. A friend just lost two calves app three weeks after banding, Vet said tetanus. Said should give shots two weeks before banding. Will they not have enough resistance to tetanus if you give shot at banding. Must it be that far in advance?

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Lucky P - I have been banding for a few years and done it when I gave a round of shots. A friend just lost two calves app three weeks after banding, Vet said tetanus. Said should give shots two weeks before banding. Will they not have enough resistance to tetanus if you give shot at banding. Must it be that far in advance?

I know I'm not LuckyP, but, 2 weeks prior is a good idea. The immune system needs time to "react" to the vaccine, as in, build resistance/immunity to the 'organism' /disease for which you are trying to prevent.

 

[cattle60]

OK Thanks, Just was wondering about it after his losses.

 

[Lucky_P]

Yep. I've seen trainwrecks where the tetanus toxoid was given at the time of band application. In those cases, it's potentially a 'race' between toxin production by the bacteria and antibody production by the calf - and the calf usually loses.
Ideally, you'd give a dose of TT at least 2-3 weeks prior to band application and booster at the time of application.

Or, if you can't wait, give a dose of tetanus antitoxin and a Clostridial bacterin with tetanus toxoid, then booster the bacterin/toxoid in 3 weeks or so.

 

[cattle60]

Thanks for the information.

 

[oscarsteve]

Have been trying to get my vaccination program on track as well. The vet I use was adamant that the tetanus vaccine be given twice. So. I give the the first dose of blackleg and tetanus and then wait approximately two weeks to give the booster for each and band at the same time.