My mom came for a week-long visit this past week and it turned into a very interesting experience with the goats. One of the first days she got here we had a conversation about our two male goats. One of them is the goat who is meant to be our breeder, and one is our wether or castrated goat. However, the wether has been losing his mind over the ladies. He is at the fence every day trying to smell everyone and making all the weird goat noises, and ultimately acting more like a buck than our buck. Talking to my mom, I said “I don’t understand why he is acting this way”. So, she walks over takes a look at him, and asks “Are you sure he doesn’t have anything hanging there?” Yes, Mom, I’m sure. He was banded and things fell off and I’m positive he was wethered. So, we walked over, I picked him up, she felt his belly, and sure enough, he had one testicle left up in his belly. Nothing is hanging but he does have something up in the belly. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

So, now we technically have two bucks. I am not really sure whether he can breed or not, but it is a possibility. Some research said that the testicle being up close to the body could make it too warm to have live sperm, but it isn’t totally out of the question. The bigger issue is the fact that he is acting absolutely insane. He has gotten stuck in the fencing at least six times. He puts his head through the fence squares and when he tries to pull out, his little horn scur gets caught.

I got these goats from a breeder who does show goats. Her mom has been in the goat industry for something like 30 years, and they all do shows. Thinking that this would give me a better quality goat and fewer issues over the long run. So far, they are overall good goats, but almost all of them have horn scurs and our wether has a testicle. All of these are somewhat common issues, but still a little frustrating. Horn scurs are where their horn bud is burned so a horn doesn’t grow, but some cells survive and a tiny piece of horn grows. These can be an issue because they aren’t as sturdy as a normal horn and they can rip them off and bleed. Which is exactly what this wether did. He keeps sticking his head in the fence and getting stuck due to his scur. We had to keep going out there and picking him up and trying to get him unstuck, which was quite a challenge. Eventually, somehow the scur fell off. So now, he does still get himself stuck but it’s much easier to pull his head out.

Future plans involve getting some smaller fencing and doubling up so he can’t fit his head through anymore. However, he should at some point be too big to put his head in the square. We also have to make a decision on what to do with him. His entire purpose on this farm was supposed to be keeping the buck company. Goats don’t like to be alone so we purchased him to keep the buck company. He was never supposed to be a breeder, I’m not sure that he can, but I don’t really want to take the chance. It wouldn’t be the end of the world. He did come from two nice parents, both registered, but our buck was chosen over him so I would like to use the buck we actually picked. Our options seem to be, to keep him and do nothing, get him surgery to remove the testicle, sell him, or process him. If we keep him and do nothing we have to keep dealing with him trying to get to the girls and acting insane. Our actual buck doesn’t act nearly as crazy as this one does, plus we don’t want him accidentally breeding anyone. If we get him surgery that is obviously going to be a bit of an expensive option. The cheaper option would be to get rid of him somehow and get a new wether for company. I assume surgery will be at least a couple of hundred dollars, and I can find a wether for under $50. Cost wise this would make sense. My concern with that option is that no one is going to buy a half-wethered buck. Boy goats are difficult to find homes for in general. Which, leaves us with our last option, to go ahead and process him. Before anyone gets too upset, this is a working farm. Every animal that we bring onto the property has a purpose. If they can’t fulfill that purpose they have to go. Sometimes, hard decisions have to be made. With all that said we have not made our decision yet. It will probably need to be made here soon, as winter is coming in and I would like to have it all settled before then.

In conclusion, if you ever have a goat or other animal that you need to band for castration, make sure you double-check that both testicles are in there. I did read that sometimes one can slip back up into place, so double-check. If you buy a wether from someone, double-check. You never know the shenanigans that might await you.