When 2 Castrate & give shots?

[Anonymous]

I got a 375 pound bull calf from the sale barn Wed. I know he is stressed so when can I give him his shots and castrate him? Which is better Knife or Clamp castration? Why? THANKS

 

[Anonymous]

He should settle down within a day or so. Tiy can vaccinate him anytime, but do it while it is cool, not later then around 9 or 19 AM. The castration question gets a litle more complicated. I have never liked the clamping, i.e. Bardizzo crushing type of deal, seen to many that haven't been crushed adequately and had problems down stream. At 375 or so you only have two options that I can think of, using one of the callicrate (brand name) type of banders. They are expensive as hell but your local vet may have one and it may be cheaper having him/her/it do it for you. That leaves knife cut, this time of year you have fly problems, if I was going to do it with a knife I would wait till cooler weather and less flies. Waiting till later means more stress and set back and a greater chance of problems. I would go with the callicrate type of deal now, very little stress beyond the catching and restraining.

dunmovin farms

> I got a 375 pound bull calf from
> the sale barn Wed. I know he is
> stressed so when can I give him
> his shots and castrate him? Which
> is better Knife or Clamp
> castration? Why? THANKS

 

[Anonymous]

They are way 2 expensive. I only plan on getting a few calves and the rest will be steers. The vet only has the unbranded bands for little calves. He said I could use the knife or those bands he has. Is there any way 2 keep flies off if I go with the knife? What is 19 AM? THANKS A TON

 

[Anonymous]

It's a typo, should be 10 vice 19. You can spray various things on the cut area but we never had much luck that way, we always used to get a couple fly blown. If you just have the one and can keep a close eye on him it may not be a real big problem. Our vet has a callicrate bander, we only did one once, seemed to work ok, but they ARE way to expensive to buy unless you will be doing it a lot. The little bands most likely won't stretch far enough to be of any use. Looks like knive cut is your only option

dunmovin farms

> They are way 2 expensive. I only
> plan on getting a few calves and
> the rest will be steers. The vet
> only has the unbranded bands for
> little calves. He said I could use
> the knife or those bands he has.
> Is there any way 2 keep flies off
> if I go with the knife? What is 19
> AM? THANKS A TON

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Good advice. I agree that the Bardizzo tool is over-rated. You're supposed to be able to hear/feel the cords give way when the job is complete but I've never been sure. Then you want to re-try a time or two. Not fun for anybody involved. Plus, once they get about the size your talking about the Bardizzo tool can be almost too small, or the one I have anyway. I would like to have one of the Calcitrate tools but don't think it's worth the money since we don't buy that many big bull calves. The ones that we work are almost always out of our cows or come from pairs where the calf is small.