germanchickTX
Ridin' The Range
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2015
- Messages
- 38
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Hi everyone!
After I got my female bottle babies I read everywhere that you disbud with 4-10 days of age (I'm new to goats).
I called all 3 vets here, where the most common goats are commercial meat goats and 4-H meat goats that will be auctioned off. All vets (all recorded by the local 4-H) told me to wait until they are 3-4 weeks old. So I thought, if they all deal with 4-H goats, which are not allowed to have horns, they know...
I picked the vet that offered the procedure the cheapest. He told me that with his surgical method it would be very unlikely that the kids would develop scurs. I wasn't allowed in back and got my kids back looking just about butchered and miserable! The bandage was so tight around their throats that they sounded like chicken and they had lots of trouble to suck the bottle and breathed all raspy. Asked three times, was told bandage would be ok. Started to gradually cutting it to allow for more room. When I finally took the whole bandage off, it was so badly stuck on, that even with soaking it, it took me an hour to get it off and I still made it bleed, which I got to stop with lots of blood stop. The kids hat huge holes/wounds, but luckily no open sinus cavity. They are 4 1/2 month old now and it appears that the one doeling has a swelling in the throat area since then and guess what! Both kids are getting scurs on both horn bud areas!
My new vet said to wait and see if the scurs would grow significantly or stay as little nubs and points. If growing more, he would take care of it. He also thinks that the swelling at the throat would be inflamed lymph nodes, but since no other symptoms not to worry about it yet...
Now I was thinking it would be better to get the scurs the sooner the better; waiting longer will get the kids just about butchered again...
What are your thoughts about the whole thing?
(I will try to post a video and photos)
Thanks y'all!
After I got my female bottle babies I read everywhere that you disbud with 4-10 days of age (I'm new to goats).
I called all 3 vets here, where the most common goats are commercial meat goats and 4-H meat goats that will be auctioned off. All vets (all recorded by the local 4-H) told me to wait until they are 3-4 weeks old. So I thought, if they all deal with 4-H goats, which are not allowed to have horns, they know...
I picked the vet that offered the procedure the cheapest. He told me that with his surgical method it would be very unlikely that the kids would develop scurs. I wasn't allowed in back and got my kids back looking just about butchered and miserable! The bandage was so tight around their throats that they sounded like chicken and they had lots of trouble to suck the bottle and breathed all raspy. Asked three times, was told bandage would be ok. Started to gradually cutting it to allow for more room. When I finally took the whole bandage off, it was so badly stuck on, that even with soaking it, it took me an hour to get it off and I still made it bleed, which I got to stop with lots of blood stop. The kids hat huge holes/wounds, but luckily no open sinus cavity. They are 4 1/2 month old now and it appears that the one doeling has a swelling in the throat area since then and guess what! Both kids are getting scurs on both horn bud areas!
My new vet said to wait and see if the scurs would grow significantly or stay as little nubs and points. If growing more, he would take care of it. He also thinks that the swelling at the throat would be inflamed lymph nodes, but since no other symptoms not to worry about it yet...
Now I was thinking it would be better to get the scurs the sooner the better; waiting longer will get the kids just about butchered again...
What are your thoughts about the whole thing?
(I will try to post a video and photos)
Thanks y'all!
wow... that looks horrendous and I'm sure was extremely painful 
There should have been no reason to bandage after the disbudding. There should have been 2 nice, neatly burned, copper colored circles around where the horn buds had been. There should have been no bleeding, the heat would have cauterized everything. There are lots of pics here on this site showing what it SHOULD have looked like (as well as some showing what it should NOT look like).
