Talk to me about dehorning/disbudding...

[jen74145]

My first little goat is all of three months old, a Nigerian Dwarf doeling. Just love her to bits, been waiting for this little one a couple years. But, she wasn't disbudded. I plan on getting another doeling to keep her company soon, and that one will likely be a bottle baby, and I would have her disbudded. I have a few questions...
What age can you disbud a doeling? As in, if I choose my doeling when she is less than a day old, and pick her up a couple days later, could she already be disbudded, or would I need to have it done a bit later?
The man who sold me this little doe said he can dehorn her with castrating bands... but could this damage her? Can she develop scurs? What should i know about this method?

[mary,tx]

A day old is too young, I think. I have Nubians, which are much larger, and I wait at least 2 or 3 days. On a doe, I usually wait 5-7.
I would think on the three month old your best bet would be surgical removal of the horns. But I expect someone will post the website about banding them. Some evidently have had success with it. My vet friend told me she's seen a lot of them come in with problems because of it.
mary

[firefly81]

we get our done at a week to two weeks of age anything longer than that is alot harder on them. if it was me i would just let her keep her horns, and on you next one get it done earllier. if you do do the surgical way, get it done as soon as posibale and get it done here during the winter to cut down on the bugs.

[jen74145]

Firefly, I am SO tempted to leave her horns, I just don't want to hurt her... but I have this horrible worry that she might tear up another doe's udder.
She is going to be milked, but being so tiny (and with a stanchion) I wonder if it would be alright to leave them on... but if someone got hurt I'd never forgive myself. It's a tough one for me... and I worry if I have her dehorned via elastrator, what will that do to her sinuses? Will she be prone to infections? I know nothing, never even knew you could dehorn a goat this way until Saturday...

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Castrating bands won't work on kids....well it will work, will take off the tip, but as they mature and the horns continue to grow, they will have regular horns with a flat tip The elasatator bands work really well for scurs and dehorning adult animals, but not on kids. Who is going to disbud your new kid for you? Perhaps they can disbud/dehorn your kid. I have done lots at 3 months, it's about the time when most folks realise they made a mistake on keeping the horns. But's it is bloody and means meds. A vet can also lop them off, make sure she is up on her series of 2 tetanus shots before the dehorning, and get some banamine to deal with the pain, even getting it from someone else if the vet will not give you some (1cc per 100 pounds IM). A very good choice to get the horns off now. Vicki

[DocM]

Honestly, and this is just my opinion, YMMV.

If you don't disbud a dairy kid within the first two weeks, you may as well either let it be a horned goat, or let them grow for at least one year and then use elastrator method. I disbud all my goats before they're a week old. As soon as I can feel the bud. The earlier the better, but you probably won't feel buds on a day old doeling. Maybe a buckling.

I can't stomach the vet method, the cutting out of the horns. I'd never subject one of my goats to that. I'm not saying others can't do it, I just can't. It's awful.

I'll never keep horned and dehorned goats together again. The horned goats beat up the others unmercifully. However, in your case, I'd keep them together and just watch them carefully, they're not big full sized dairy goats. You can use the castrating bands when she's about 8-9 months old.

Here's the elastrator method, but it only works on well developed horns.

http://www.greatgoats.com/articles/dehorning_text.html