Goats with horns

Oh, and Shannon? I didn't have my boys, any of the three of them, circumcised.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

I swear, moms have no shame! lol

I can only imagine the sons that would be mortified if they knew what their moms were discussing in a goat forum...

~giggles~ My children don't even give me the "MmmmmooooooooooooM!" anymore. They don't even blush, they just roll their eyes. LOL

I always considered that making them immune to embarrassment was my solemn duty, as a parent, as a way to insure they didn't do stupid things as an adult in order to avoid embarrassment. (Like, take idiotic dares, bow to peer pressure) Well, that....and just a little bit of sadistic glee.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

I am glad that you are ok, yes our livestock does tend to get the better of us sometimes no matter how safe we are being , but i guess we blessed we get to own the little monsters to start with lol , praying for a quick healing for you.

I admire your consistency. Lucky boys! Lucky wives.

None of my does have horns but my buck does. I haven't decided on what I'll do with my first goat kids when they are born. I have had my buck get hung up by his horns once but I guess he learned after that. I'm still in debate over it.

I don't put animals and people on the same level...I would never cut the genitals of male or female humans without their informed consent unless there was a medical disease making it necessary. I came through nursing school a little over 10 years ago when the subject of female circumcision was hot. It was my professors arguing for medicalization of female cutting and its correlation to male circumcision that turned me off. If you can't defend one you can't defend the other. However, I would be hard pressed to stop someone who thinks that God will kick them out of heaven if they don't do it. Most of the "I knew someone who had to get done later" stems from the grossly incorrect and invasive way people were caring for their intact sons (STILL showing up in parenting magazines and books when my son was born 4 years ago). As well as most Dr.s being unfamiliar/uncomfortable with the natural male anatomy. Of course, my great grandfather(Dr also taught med school) was cut at 12 for something that antibiotics would have easily fixed today and he was still rabidly against routine circumcision. 12 was old enough to know what he lost. My mom was a nurse in a maternity unit and said botched circs were way more common than parents were even aware of and most nurses she worked with said they would not have cut their babies after seeing what they saw.

On a lighter note, my inlaws freaked when they were told we had no plans to cut our son. My FIL told me my son would grow up to be gay if it wasn't done Who knew it was as simple as that?

People do the best they can with what they know at the time and everyone wants the best for their kids so I would never jump down a friend's throat for choosing differently even though I'd look for a way to educate without being offensive. As a nurse If I ever had to work in the nursery I would have to refuse to assist with circumcision on ethical/moral grounds.

I have both horned and disbudded goats. I don't mind the horned goats' horns as far as we're concerned (I always have two or three big, nasty bruises healing from where I've blundered into a horn) but some of our horned goats are so darned wicked to each other and the disbudded goats.

When I got my first Nubian kid from Emily (Uzzi), I asked her not to disbud him and he's grown up to have magnificent horns. He's an absolutely wonderful goat with humans but he's hell on other goats! Now I can't move him out of Martok's buck run because he seriously hooks other goats, hard. And the Bad Thing is that he's so darned fat that I fear for his health (Martok is a slow eater and Uzzi shovels it in) but short of tying both goats to feed them, which isn't terribly feasible since they'd have to be tied outside in all weather (their shelter is a Port-a-Hut).

Since then I've asked Emily to disbud my future wethers and we also take our milkers' kids to her for disbudding. If I had a setup where I could separate every troublemaker, it would be different and I wish it was--but as is, I imagine disbudding has saved many (goat) injuries at our house.

Sue

P.S. I have one polled wether, Morgan the Sable, who lives with the horned goats. He grew up as a bottle baby with Salem and Shiloh and I think he assumes he has horns. He's right near the top of the horned goat hierarchy and he takes no guff from anybody.

Sue,
I don't want to sound bad or anything, but if that boy was in my herd....he wouldn't be in my herd anymore. He'd be in the freezer.

That is one thing about having a mixed herd, I cannot cut corners on temperament, even a wee bit. If a goat is mean tome, or to other goats, it is dinner.

Now, that being said, my herd queen is a Mini-Nubian with NO horns. Yes, amid a bunch of huge Alpines, some with horns, some without, and some TWICE her size, she rules. But the only one I have seen her get rough on is the REALLY big hermaphrodite, whom she doesn't like for some reason. She also has a scur which she keeps ripping off on things (she did it again today) that I am always having to doctor.

Everyone is different, and has their own opinions.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

He's great where he is--he just can't be with anyone but Martok. He and Martok have been together since a week after Martok was born (Uzzi is about a month older). Martok came from Emily's disbudded. Uzzi doesn't bother him a bit; in fact, he readily backs down to Martok and has since they were bottle kids. Go figure.

Alas, no one we know goes in our freezer and only very, very occasionally someone we don't know. But you're absolutely right. It would be a really sorry old world unless we all could openly voice our opinions. :o)

Sue

Well, I have all the pieces of my parts, but this seems to be like comparing apples and oranges.

Sorry to hear about your injury.

SPIKE

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All things should be done with COMMON SENSE!
All things should be done with RESPECT!
All things have a PROPER time and place!
And most things should be done in MODERATION!