Disbudding baby goats, I HATE IT!!

[goatsintheopen]

Some days you just gotta laugh a little...we lost a very dear friend this week, the last few days have been bad ones at my house...today we have been laughing for a change...sorry...didn't mean to take the topic and run with it like that, but I JUST COULD NOT STOP! And the guys at work REALLY do call me "the chupacabra" ...they somehow think it's a joke that a grown welder man like myself comes to work in a hard hat talking about milking dairy goats - apparently that's not a very masculine hobby where they are from....IF ONLY they knew HOW HARD it REALLY IS...they'd change their tune...until then I guess I am the chupacabra...

Sorry to hear about your friend. I agree some days, yep, you DO gotta laugh.. Your posts ARE funny LOL and I LOVE your sig! ROTFL

Back to the original topic:

.. I couldn't dehorn myself....the way our whether screamed when we took his goathood.. WOW! that was bad enough..but to hear a Kid scream or to smell burning fur or skull... no thank you! I can't imagine that is any kind of fun. You're a stronger person than me for sure.

 

[RainySunday]

Some days you just gotta laugh a little...we lost a very dear friend this week, the last few days have been bad ones at my house...today we have been laughing for a change...sorry...didn't mean to take the topic and run with it like that, but I JUST COULD NOT STOP! And the guys at work REALLY do call me "the chupacabra" ...they somehow think it's a joke that a grown welder man like myself comes to work in a hard hat talking about milking dairy goats - apparently that's not a very masculine hobby where they are from....IF ONLY they knew HOW HARD it REALLY IS...they'd change their tune...until then I guess I am the chupacabra...

Sorry to hear about your friend. I agree some days, yep, you DO gotta laugh.. Your posts ARE funny LOL and I LOVE your sig! ROTFL

Back to the original topic:

.. I couldn't dehorn myself....the way our whether screamed when we took his goathood.. WOW! that was bad enough..but to hear a Kid scream or to smell burning fur or skull... no thank you! I can't imagine that is any kind of fun. You're a stronger person than me for sure.

...I wouldn't recommend dehorning yourself...

 

[Roll farms]

Some days you just gotta laugh a little...we lost a very dear friend this week, the last few days have been bad ones at my house...today we have been laughing for a change...sorry...didn't mean to take the topic and run with it like that, but I JUST COULD NOT STOP! And the guys at work REALLY do call me "the chupacabra" ...they somehow think it's a joke that a grown welder man like myself comes to work in a hard hat talking about milking dairy goats - apparently that's not a very masculine hobby where they are from....IF ONLY they knew HOW HARD it REALLY IS...they'd change their tune...until then I guess I am the chupacabra...

Sorry to hear about your friend. I agree some days, yep, you DO gotta laugh.. Your posts ARE funny LOL and I LOVE your sig! ROTFL

Back to the original topic:

.. I couldn't dehorn myself....the way our whether screamed when we took his goathood.. WOW! that was bad enough..but to hear a Kid scream or to smell burning fur or skull... no thank you! I can't imagine that is any kind of fun. You're a stronger person than me for sure.

...I wouldn't recommend dehorning yourself...

Me either! It's a safe bet you're polled.

 

[redtailgal]

...............

 

[RabbleRoost Farm]

I brought a buckling out to a university learning instructor's farm blah blah whatever... Back on topic. Disbudding iron was broken (held together with popsicle sticks and electrical tape, wouldn't even get warm) so she put him in the box to simulate the experience for us and boy did he SCREAM!! Who would have thought just getting your head caught in a hole was such a traumatic experience? All he did was yell as the lid was closed and then she put the cold iron on his head and we got the same amount of screaming. I'm convinced that they scream because they're caught as well as the hurt that's happening to them.

I'm not delusional, I know it's painful getting a nine hundred degree thing shoved on your head, but they aren't yelling solely because of the burn.

I think it's more of a cauterization to the horn growth part than it is an actual burn to the head, unless for some reason you go down to the bone anyway (OUCH!!!).


Even though if a dog or other animal wanted to kill a goat it would have no problem, regardless of horns, I'm more worried over my own goats getting gored by their herdmates on a daily basis than I worry over a dog breaking into my fences. Really there's no surefire way to keep animals out, but if you have as secure an area as possible you have less chance of any problems (regarding predators) appearing than you do with horn wounds. At any rate, I do like that other people feel the same as me, as in "Don't call my practices cruel and I won't call yours unsafe" etc.
I'm just saying - the way one goat uses her horns (her sharp, pointy horns that I HAVE dulled by clipping the very tip off) in a tearing and ripping and goring motion in the other goats' stomach region, I worry over what could happen.

Seriously, every time I go out to the barn and I don't see my underdog goat immediately I freak out until I can double check by sight that she hasn't been gored open. Especially if she's yelling at me for food like she always is anyway because it sounds - to me - that she's moaning in pain. I'd prefer to not have to worry about that ALL THE TIME if you know what I mean. :/


PS: I got queasy when I finally did get Buckshot done (in front of a big class of people no less) because of the vast amount of smoke and the burnt smell... And my own fears of what would happen. My first time was ...scary to say the least. He's a happy go lucky little goat with no lasting problems regarding the disbudding though, so maybe I was worried over nothing, seeing as the instructor had done it many times before. I wish it didn't have to be done. If there was a way to never have to worry about horns but still keep them, I'd be the first to try it. If this is tl;dr, then in short - I love horns, I think they're beautiful and pretty cool looking too, but I don't like the effects from them.

 

[DonnaBelle]

Just an update, we did another one this morning. My favorite so far, a little black doeling with her grandmother's sweet, sweet disposition.

I have fantastic disbudding box DH built me, it works great, holds them very stable.

I think we got a good burn on her, I waited until she was about 8 days old as she was small when born.

I still don't like doing it, but I don't want goats with horns. We have one that does have horns. She's my rescue goat Maggie. She's got them, and she knows what they are for. Since she's somewhat of a loner, (she was raised alone) she tends to stay by herself to the edge of the herd.

But if she gets it in her head to be difficult, she definately starts to lower her head and use those horns. I am very careful around her. She likes my husband so I have him deal with her.

DonnaBelle

 

[RabbleRoost Farm]

Just an update, we did another one this morning. My favorite so far, a little black doeling with her grandmother's sweet, sweet disposition.

I have fantastic disbudding box DH built me, it works great, holds them very stable.

I think we got a good burn on her, I waited until she was about 8 days old as she was small when born.

I still don't like doing it, but I don't want goats with horns. We have one that does have horns. She's my rescue goat Maggie. She's got them, and she knows what they are for. Since she's somewhat of a loner, (she was raised alone) she tends to stay by herself to the edge of the herd.

But if she gets it in her head to be difficult, she definately starts to lower her head and use those horns. I am very careful around her. She likes my husband so I have him deal with her.

DonnaBelle

Same with Tansy. Maybe I worry too much, but she definitely goes straight for another goat's soft belly with her sharp horns when they get on her nerves. Which is like... all the time. She's a brutal herd queen. I think if the herd consisted of more than two adults it would work better, but what do I know? I'll feel a lot more comfortable if her horns ever curl around so they don't have such a point on them, but the way they're going it looks like they may just stick out off the back of her head and flare out slightly at the ends. Did I mention she's a grade?

I was thinking of putting a piece of Pex tubing on the tips with those metal pipe clamp things so they aren't sharp... I read in Mother Earth News (don't judge me, I might be a hippie and don't even know it!) that someone used a flexible pipe like that on their doe's horns but left it in one piece and bent it so it was like an arc so she could no longer get her head caught in the fence. Or tennis balls, but that sounds infinitely dorky to slap on a goat.
Not that a big ol' piece of red or blue flexible plastic piping would look a whole lot better really.

 

[Goatmasta]

I don't mind disbudding at all. It takes longer to shave their little heads and putting them in the box than it does to burn them. Besides we do much worse to our human boys when they are babies. And even though I know it hurt and I must have screamed my head off, for the life of me I do not remember it at all......

 

[lirette]

Hey Donna, you ever need help just holler. I don't mind disbudding at all. I just did 2 of mine. The little guy who can't walk yet and one that was way over due. I also have a new buck that I can tell the previous owner missed, so I will be re-doing soon. I have also cut off full grown horns. Not that I would recommend it, but we did. We used a horn saw then burned. Just got to be careful because of the sinus cavity. Removing horns and burning is not my problem.... Kidding is my problem. It makes me axious. I hate to have to assist in deliveries. I always pray real hard for no problems.

 

[~*MissouriSweetpea*~]

Yeesh! Stronger people than me!

I had a small herd of pygmies a few years back. 2 came with horns (bought as adults) and the babies were already disbudded when I got them, so I never had to deal with it.

Both of my horned goats knew they had horns. The buck for sure liked to use his. He would ram the fence (or aim at us if he got frustrated with us - too slow getting his food, etc). Such a pain. The doe was a firm queen and would push the others away (especially if they tried to eat in HER spot), but didn't use the horns and was super gentle with us.

I see both sides of the de/horned debate. It would be great to let them be in their natural state, but I worry about children and other goats being at risk from them. That said, I guess I need to learn how to do it, but want to watch someone do it several times first.