OdontoMed2011 ELASTRATOR Heavy Duty Tool Bander Pliers for Goats Lambs Calves Veterinary

This tool is great for performing non surgical, banded castrations on livestock- can accomodate some older animals depending on age and rate of growth. We were safely able to successfully band all but one of our young goat bucks with this bander- his equipment was a bit too large for this tool.

Why all elasticators don't have a hold open latch beats me. With this, you put the band on the tool, open the tool, latch the handle, and then you don't have to be struggling against the band while trying to do your business. Once you have everything in place, it is easy to pop the latch, and slide the tool of the band. Way better than the original, and built to last. I did lubricate all the joints, which reduces the friction.

It's functional but super tough to operate and almost impossible to get the band off the pegs once it's in place where it needs to be. Banding goats, it took way too long to release the band on them. Was a struggle and a half. Abandoned this elastrator and grabbed the cheaper blue plastic handled ones which worked much better. They function as designed, but they are so heavy duty that they are difficult to work with.

To start, the prongs on this banding tool don't close down enough to get a band on easily. It takes several minutes of fighting with it to get them on there. Second, one of the prongs was bent inward to where it couldn't hold the band. The band would snap off every time the handles were squeezed far enough for the tool to do its job. We tried bending it straight, but then the band wouldn't come off when it was supposed to, so it's going back for a refund and we'll get one at the farm store.

This all-steel bander will last a long time. Feels very sturdy in the hand and has a feature to hold it open for you until you're ready so your hand doesn't get too tired. It opens the bands very wide--I was able to give my bucklings' urinary tracts more time to mature and they still fit in the band just fine. I definitely recommend this bander.

great for calf banding

When I got them they were good quality and easy to use I like that they are good quality metal and sturdy.

Very hard to get bands on the posts and broke the 3rd time using it.