Disbudding woes

I've been doing it for years and most of the time it looks great but we all had some kids that had scurs, so don't feel bad. How hot was your iron? It should burn a nice black ring in wood if it is hot. How long did you wait between kids? All irons need to come back up to the right temperature
6e I can disbud for you. It just takes practice and gritting your teeth! Oh holding your breath helps too.
When I first started back in 1976 we used disbudding paste. You had to trim the hair around the horn bud. Put a circle of Vasoline pertoleum jelly around the perimeter of the circle, apply the paste and hold the kid still for, I think 20 minutes, then wipe the paste off and apply vinegar to stop the acid from burning any longer. Usually kept the kid alone for a day to make sure it didn't wipe any residual paste in any thing.

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I hate disbudding, but do it anyway. The cries of the kids and the smell are terrible, but once it's done, they never seem to notice. I usually get a good copper ring with my dehorner, but I usually apply it for 10 seconds, do the other then burn both again. I like to make extra sure it's done.

We waited 15 minutes for the initial heat up and then at least 10 minutes between kids because we had to give the one we finished it's bottle and check to see our job then go put it back in the pen, get the next one, shave it's head and give it it's shot and all that fun stuff. So, it took a good 10 minutes between kids and we did make sure that it was burning a black ring on wood almost instantly. I think it's getting the timing down and then knowing what we're looking for and when it's not gone far enough, when it's going too far, etc. Even with the one we got white on on the one side, we never got the copper ring first, it just went from black to white that fast and we didn't leave the iron on any longer than the other, so not sure on him. Maybe a thinner hide on him, not totally sure. It was an experience that's for sure. They all look pretty good today, but time will tell on the scurs thing. I HOPE we did it right. I do know this, I'm not doing it to them again. We screwed up, they can live with scurs, but I won't put them through that the second time. Once is enough.

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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow

I have heard that a lot of people, when they do bucks, will go to the skull on purpose, but eeeks. When I saw it I was like, "Oh no!!! We killed it!!" but he seems fine now. Ugh. The joys of animal ownership. LOL :-)

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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow

I won't redo bucks. But I don't like having scurs on my does. Fortunately they are easier, and don't need it as often.

Two years ago, though, I had a beautiful little doeling that had substantial scurs. I made the mistake of taking her to the vet for redo. He hit her with the calf iron, and sent her home with awful bloody knobs. So I got to fix it myself. First I burned the knobs again and got copper instead of blood, then I had to trim them and burn them again.

It was a bad experience, but she forgave me, and is probably my sweetest goat (and no horns!)

I've seen pictures of the internet of people disbudding and getting blood? We didn't get any blood. How in the world do you get blood with disbudding? There was this picture of a disbudding job and the goat had blood all over the side of its head and I wondered how in the world they managed to do that.

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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow

they didnt get the iron hot enough so it didnt cauterise the wound. I hope to do the video sunday

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I'm a goat person, not a people person,
De @ Udderly Southern Dairy Goats
we will be adding a new breed in the spring

Disbudding isn't something we've conquered yet. We've had it done so far. We watched but we haven't actually done it yet. We will have it done again this spring because we don't have an iron yet, but next spring we will do it ourselves.

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you can practice on something like a watermelon as well, I used a sketti squash because I love it and it served a multi purpose

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I'm a goat person, not a people person,
De @ Udderly Southern Dairy Goats
we will be adding a new breed in the spring

We were actually taught step by step by a lady that has been doing it for years, but let me tell you, watching and doing are two different things. LOL I guess I need to post some pics of these guys heads. I might try to do that later. It was really hard to get the timing down and it really seemed to vary from goat to goat. It wasn't nearly as easy as it looked. LOL But then very few things are. I don't mind the sounds, the smells or anything else, it's the stress of doing it right that kills me.

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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow

The sounds and smells don't bother me either. I just want to be able to do it right too,lol.

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I don't know about the horn cutters your talking about but if your talking about the scoops used on young calves I don't think I would try that on a little baby goat.

RoyalValley goats are not like cows, you cut them and they might bleed to death. If you know of any goat people around you ask them if they can do it for a fee and teach you how. If not look for a goat dairy, sometimes they cna do it for a fee. The one near me does it for $5-6 a head. Same as my disbudder does it. Barring all that you can run an ad on Craig's or put up an add in your feed store. Make sure they are not using a cow disbudder on a goat kid.

The smell, screaming and all of it bothers me. I just cannot do it. To me it is so worth it to pay him and he does a good job. I will tell you I get a knot in my stomach each and every time I driving there for disbudding. I hate it and will never get use to it. I would rather give shots, trim hooves and band balls all day long then disbud

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I helped once at a lady's house who raised Nubians and LaManchas for show. She had GORGEOUS animals but she too was a mess at disbudding time. I took my few kids along with my mentor's many kids and we both went to the woman's house (a friend of my goat mentor's)... She would disbud different babies at different times, depending on their size, and we had like 30 babies to do that day.... Wow. What an experience.

I can only imagine the flack you could get from the bleeding hearts who don't understand the benefits to the animal of disbudding if you post that video with sound. It truly sounds like the world is ending...

I too would rather band, trim, and vaccinate all day... But I suppose that just like tattooing a rabbit, someday I'll have to learn to put in ear plugs and disbud...

Some things you truly can only get done well, and under the best circumstances for your animals, if you do it yourself. I've had kids come home from the vet cross-eyed and bleeding everywhere, I kid you not... It's definitely something left up to someone you know to be kind, quick, and thorough about it, or done by yourself (with help, of course).

Typically a Vet isn't a good choice. . . lol. Usually they do a poor, poor job. lol.

We take ours to an old fellow who has been raising Alpines for many years.
He doesn't charge and is a great old guy to talk to!

He doesn't burn a copper ring or to the skull or get blood. . .but he does a great job and scurs are rare.

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I suspect after all these years of doing it, he's developed a feel for it. I'll get to that point eventually......but we may have a few mishaps along the way. They actually all look better now than they did, but I fully expect bunches of scurs. Good thing a big chunk of those babies are headed to freezer camp anyway.

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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow