Disbudding baby goats, I HATE IT!!

mossyStone

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i hate the thought of disbudding. Can't do it.. But i have a no horn policy here and have found a gal who does the deed for me at a small cost... This works for us....
 

jodief100

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I currently have a 2" cut under my eye and a nice shiner to go with it from a buck's horns. Came within 1/4" of having the sharp end of a kiko goat's horn in my eyeball. Remember this when you have to disbud. It will make the job much more tolerable.

Makes me rethink leaving mine with horns, though meat goats are the opposite of dairy. They need horns to be shown.
 

RockyToggRanch

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I also found someone close by that does them :) They have over 100 healthy goats (no sick ones). I paid the vet last yr and had to leave them there all day with no food...and ended up with bad scurs on all of the bucklings. I paid $10. a kid this yr and they look great. I know it's early yet, but I have hope.

I watched it done and it didn't seem as bad as I thought. The kids were just fine afterwards. Quick ride over there...1/2 hour to do 6...(lots of gabbing in between)...quick ride back. :)
 

sunfisher

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This is gonna sound silly but can you put some sort of little cap on the end of the horn..:lol: that is silly gaots with horn caps..they would probibly knock them off as soon as you put them on :D has anyone tried this? My 8 year old daughter asked me about it the other day then ran away laughing :lol:
 

DonnaBelle

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I have a rescue goat with horns. When the farrier came out to do the horses, he trimmed her hooves. He also said he could cut down the tips of the goat horns to the place where the blood supply starts. He did that and now she doesn't have sharp horns!!

I don't know about a cap, but your daughter had a good idea. I tried tennis balls on the ends but she promptly knocked them off!!

Maggie is my goat that was on a dog food diet til I got her. Yep, her owner down the road from us was feeding her dog food when he fed his lab. That and a few branches was her diet.

I had her fecal run by our vet and she had no worms. No worms in dog food I guess. LOL.

DonnaBelle
 

goatsintheopen

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Livinwright Farm said:
I just have to think that it hurts them to have it done... one of the reasons why my herd keeps their horns. Another is the fact that, at the moment, we do not have a herd guardian... so having a herd with horns allows them at least that defense against the bear, coyote, wolves, mountain lions, chupacabra(spotted occassionally in NH), and loosed domestics.
that is the reason my goats all have their horns... a friend of mine had two goats that were killed by dogs, they didn't have horns.. at least if the goats did have horns they could of had a fighting chance. (Chupacabra..LOL!!:lol:)
 

greenfamilyfarms

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Well... we have 2 dairy "teenagers" that are disbudded. Then, we were able to get preemie twin doelings. By the time I realized they were not disbudded, it was too late. So, those 2 are going to be horned. :/ But, that's ok... I don't plan on showing goats anytime soon anyways. They are just my babies right now.
 

sunfisher

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DonnaBelle..Is it hard to trim the ends of the horns? We are getting 2 pygmy does May 1st and its to late to disbud them. I'm going to breed them next year and use their kids for 4-H..They have to be disbudded.

My daughter is 8 and I worry about goats with horns around children. We have had lots of talks about respecting the horns! I'm lucky cause we have 6 more acres to fence in so I could seperate the goats with horns from the ones without and ask the children to stay away from the horned goats unless an adult is around.
 

helmstead

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Not that I have ANY problem with horned goats...but - leaving their horns in the hope that it will give them 'weapons' with which to defend themselves from predators is a false sense of security. I know several horned goats that have died or been BADLY wounded by dogs...small to medium neighborhood dogs.

The horn caps - take a tennis ball, cut it open, fill it FULL of liquid nails (seriously) and cap the horn. Use duct tape to hold it on long enough for the liquid nails to dry. Holds quite awhile...
 

sunfisher

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helmstead.. Thats a really good idea. I can see it now my daughter will want to buy pink or purple tennis balls or both! People will drive by and be like did you just see those goats horns :lol: We will have the most stylish goats in the county :lol:
 
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