# goat horns



## miron28 (Feb 17, 2010)

how old does a goat have to be before you can dehorn him i have a male goat that is about 1 year old and he is starting to get on my last nerve with them horns..........

 do i have to wait till the horn is done growing or can i band them now? or what would be the best way to get rid of the horns?


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## ()relics (Feb 17, 2010)

the ideal time to dehorn a goat is 10 days old using a dehorning iron to burn the horn buds off and kill the horn tissue before they start to grow...beyond that I have no idea.


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## cmjust0 (Feb 17, 2010)

miron28 said:
			
		

> how old does a goat have to be before you can dehorn him i have a male goat that is about 1 year old and he is starting to get on my last nerve with them horns..........
> 
> do i have to wait till the horn is done growing or can i band them now? or what would be the best way to get rid of the horns?


What's he doing with his horns that's bugging you?

I ask because if he's butting you or using his horns as weapons....well, removing the horns isn't going to do much in the way of changing a goat's personality.  He'll just butt you with his head instead.

Whole head removal is pretty common in goats, too, but they tend to be considerably less active after that.



Seriously, though...what's up?  What's he doing?


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## Lil Chickie Mama (Feb 17, 2010)

cmjust0 said:
			
		

> Whole head removal is pretty common in goats, too, but they tend to be considerably less active after that.


  Freezer camp!


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## helmstead (Feb 17, 2010)

Actually dehorning will help greatly with misbehavior.

You can band the horns any time after 6 mos of age.  This is not a run of the mill task, however, and you should seek a seasoned producer to help you through it, as well as have meds like antibiotics and banamine on hand.


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## mully (Feb 17, 2010)

I did not know goats could misbehave ..... none of mine do


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## cmjust0 (Feb 17, 2010)

helmstead said:
			
		

> Actually dehorning will help greatly with misbehavior.


We still don't know what it is that's got the OP aggravated at the goat's horns, so I'm not sure how we could know that dehorning will help...or even if it's misbehavior that's the problem...or if it's just a basic alpha-goat _personality_ issue that's not likely to be changed by the removal of his horns.....  I was trying to get more information from the OP about the actual nature of the problem, but.....OK.


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## houndit (Feb 17, 2010)

I one time did a mature goat with the elastrator bands.  It worked fairly well.  You have got to get it low enough or they grow back.  We put ours on as low as we could.  Then we put a little duct tape to keep it from moving up any higher.  It took a long time but it worked. He hurt a lot, but it did not bleed much.


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## miron28 (Feb 17, 2010)

The problem with this guy is he like to play and about after 1 hour i am wore out and it seems like he is just getting warmed up! 

he uses them things for just about everything i am just afraid that he will hurt someone or some thing with them they are starting to get pointy. he has now started to ram the front door until i come out there and play with him. so i think it is time for those things to go i thought about putting tennis balls on the end of them so no one will get hurt. but they need to go! just didn't know if i had to wait till the horns were down growing.


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## the simple life (Feb 17, 2010)

I bought a goat that had the elastic band method done, actually she still has one horn with the band on it so I don't know how successful it normally is.
The day I picked her up she had lost one horn earlier in the day the woman told me.
She said she had heard that they didn't always come off around the same time but she was worried that they hadn't banded her correctly the first time and had redone the banding on the other horn that day.
This was a month ago and she still has her horn.
I use to be uncomfortable with the disbudding method and the banding seemed less traumatic but I don't know..
I ended up having the babies she kidded disbudded with the iron when they were a little over a week old.
While quite traumatic its done and over with, meanwhile mama still has that one horn.


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## currycomb (Feb 17, 2010)

i didn't think the horns ever quit growing on goats, kinda like finger nails and hooves. if he is butting the door to the house, sounds as if he needs a pen of his own.


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## aggieterpkatie (Feb 18, 2010)

We had a young goat dehorned once, and I had to help dehorn about 20 almost fully grown holstein heifers.  I would NEVER NEVER NEVER do it again.  The goat came back from the vets with *holes* in her head.  She didn't survive the night. Not sure if it was a botched vet job, or what.  I was young at the time, about 12.  

The heifers were dehorned with those dehorners that have wooden handles.  You place the horn bud in the "mouth" of the dehorner and as you close the handles it "scoops" out the horn and scalp underneath.  Talk about BLOODY.  

I will always disbud any animals I own that grow horns.   I would NEVER put an animal through dehorning again.  But that's my opinion.


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## doublebow (Feb 21, 2010)

Another part of the answer to your question is that a goat's horns don't quit growing. If they are very big they may have to have them surgically removed but other-wise the banding method works quite well in some cases. It can also be very painful and bloody. 
 I always have liked the LOOK of horns but it certainly wasn't practical for my situation so now I have them disbudded at about a week old and my older goats had their horns banded.


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