Little horns ?

farmerjane · #1 01/20/09, 12:37 PM

I went and got two little does, they are about 6 months old and are half Nubian, they both have little horns. I can't find anything dehorned around here. I have the vet coming friday to disbud the baby that was born the other day and I am going to have these two dehorned as well. How do they do it, so I am prepared.

Chaty · #2 01/20/09, 01:40 PM

I personally would band them. I have had luck with the banding and the green looks kinda cute and in a few weeks they fall off and its not as hard on them as dehorning them. I give a little banamine and then apply 2 of the elasticator bands on each horn.

pookshollow · #3 01/20/09, 02:50 PM

How do they do it? The vet will sedate (I hope!) the goats, then he will take something similar to a blacksmith's hoofnippers and cut the horns off as close to the skull as he can - then he'll probably cauterize the bleeding stumps. There will be holes into their skulls - you'll see their breath coming out the top of their heads. It's nasty.

Oh, and there's a good chance the horns will grow back anyway - speaking from experience.

I second the banding.

Madfarmer · #4 01/20/09, 03:04 PM

At that age, banding may be a less traumatic option than dehorning. It doesnt ALWAYS work, either, but you won't have to be constantly medicating while they heal up. The biggest caution is to make sure they don't try to fight/head-butt while the bands are on.

Madfarmer

farmerjane · #5 01/20/09, 03:16 PM

I really don't feel confident banding them, so I am going to go with the vet. Their Horns are tiny, like an inch and half if that makes any difference.

farmmom · #6 01/20/09, 03:44 PM

Definately banding. It's not difficult at all.

xoxoGOATSxoxo · #7 01/20/09, 04:14 PM

Please, please band them? Its so easy, I think the only way to screw up the process is to have a rubber band slip off.

cathleenc · #8 01/20/09, 05:15 PM

I had the vet come and re-burn/disbud a kid. Turned out perfectly. Vet used a surface number and gave banamine - and then reburned. Goat kid never flinched, horns never regrew.

If your vet is going to burn the horns then I would spend some time before the vet got there trimming as much hair away from the horn area as possible - makes it easier to see the horns and easier to get the disbudding iron down flat. Not to mention it stinks less!

Good luck. Have a strong stomach. It's hard to watch.

edited to add: the kid we had redone was a doe with horns maybe 3/4- 1"

jBlaze · #9 01/20/09, 05:19 PM

I had a bad experience with banded horn. Goat was depressed for weeks, lost weight and status, and then bled all over when it broke off. Took her about a year to get over it. (she was banded when we got her.) I would think the vet will do just fine. I have had a vet dis-bud kids with about 1" of horn and she "super-glued" something over the hole. Worked GREAT and the kid had no problems at ll. She was a about 4 or 6 weeks (I don't remember) but was saanen, so huge horn base.
The kid in the OP is nubian which has small horn base that grows slowly.
I just hope the vet is not charging you a fortune, here the cost has doubled since last year.

hoofinitnorth · #10 01/21/09, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pookshollow

There will be holes into their skulls - you'll see their breath coming out the top of their heads.

What? I disbud my own goats and if I saw this I would have probably killed my goat. I am thinking you are just pulling our leg. I hope!

You shouldn't even have to go down to the skull to get a good clean burn. You want to destroy the growth of the horn bud where it attaches the skin to the skull (in not-so-technical terms).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madfarmer

At that age, banding may be a less traumatic option than dehorning. It doesnt ALWAYS work, either, but you won't have to be constantly medicating while they heal up.

If the wound is properly cauterized, there is no need to continually medicate a goat while it heals from disbudding.

Wildwood · #11 01/21/09, 09:59 PM

Heather I'm pretty sure they are talking about an entirely different procedure than disbudding. Unfortunately I have first hand experience with that procedure.

I'll be learning to do my own disbudding when our next babies come along even though I'm a wimp when it comes to that sort of thing. I'll have to suck it up for the sake of my goats. I'll not put another one through it. BTW my baby's horns grew back anyway.

#12 01/22/09, 02:42 AM

Or... you could just leave the horns alone. You weren't planning on showing them, were you? If they're going to be shown... I guess there's no way around it. If you're not, Why?? They're 6 months old... not babies. If you can't stand to see them in their natural state, go ahead and band them, but don't put them though a de-horning for purely cosmetic reasons.

hoofinitnorth · #13 01/22/09, 11:24 AM

De-horning is absolutely not purely cosmetic for us. It is a safety issue. Many of my friends are long-time goat breeders and all have had at least one horned goat over the years and all say they will never do it again. The dummies get caught in fences, buckets, feeders, pretty much anything you can imagine. Some are smarter and don't panic, they just wait to be rescued, while others thrash until they are injured or dead. Many become aggressive and start butting other goats and people because they quickly learn it is effective to get what they want (or stop what they don't want). One torn udder or herniated abdomen and you'll think twice about leaving horns.

farmerjane · #14 01/22/09, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frogdog

Or... you could just leave the horns alone. You weren't planning on showing them, were you? If they're going to be shown... I guess there's no way around it. If you're not, Why?? They're 6 months old... not babies. If you can't stand to see them in their natural state, go ahead and band them, but don't put them though a de-horning for purely cosmetic reasons.

I have small children so I for that reason alone I will not keep anything horned, not to mention the many other reasons for dehorning. They are not exactly living in there natural state so I think they will be fine without them, it is certainly not cosmetic, there are alot of safety issues with horns.

I have been reading up on both having a vet do it and banding them. I just have few more questions to answer.

GoatGoddess · #15 01/22/09, 08:35 PM

on the positive side horns make good handles.

manygoatsnmore · #16 01/22/09, 09:13 PM

Horns only make good handles if you can catch them - use them as handles a few times and you can end up with a head shy goat. Not to mention, you can break their horn. I don't want to have this thread end up being one of the horned vs not horned debates, but I will say that one of the saddest days here was the day I found my new jr herd sire prospect caught by his horns in a stock panel and dead from heat stroke (black goat on 90+ degree day - he was gone in less than an hour). I never want to go through that again.

After seeing that the horns are only 1 1/2 inch long, you should be able to have the vet burn off the horns when he dis-buds the little kids. See my post on your other thread on banding and scurs for more info.

pookshollow · #17 01/23/09, 06:45 AM

Quote:

What? I disbud my own goats and if I saw this I would have probably killed my goat. I am thinking you are just pulling our leg. I hope!

I wasn't talking about disbudding. I was talking about removing horns that have already grown. The inner core of a goat's horn is bone that grows out of the skull. When you cut that off, it leaves a hole into their sinuses. I've had it done once, and I will never, ever do it again.