10/30/06, 07:45 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Verndale MN
Posts: 1,130
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Here's a link to the earlier thread
Banding Horns
I've banded three does. The end results are good- no stubs, no horn regrowth- but the process is anything but good for the doe. When the band gets about halfway through, the horn becomes extremely painful when touched. Extreme pain as in sudden loss of bladder control, screaming and running blindly around, sometimes running into walls and fences. Not to mention loss in growth since they won't eat out of a common feeder for fear of getting the horn touched. A banded goat also looses its social status since it will run if challenged- same thing, she doesn't want that horn touched. Some people have had other awful after effects like open sinuses and brain infections.
One of my May doelings just finished a horn banding. She weighed the same as her twin sister the day the band was applied- 52 lbs- reweighed a week after the horn had dropped off the banded doeling was 60 lbs and the twin was 70. She went from being 3rd in the baby herd to last.
I don't know your situation, but the best way for all parties to deal with horns disbudding at 3 days with a Reinhart disbudder. The pain to the goat, while severe, lasts only a few seconds and then is gone. Don't do what I've done and use a cheap disbudder, or wait until the doelings are a week old-even if they look too small!
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