Disbudding the Baby Goats

We usually disbud the baby goats ourselves, but this year we have both been ill with a weeks long cold/flu/virus something that has happened right in the middle of our busy spring season. When we are well again, we hope to have produced massive amounts of antibodies that will last us for a very long time. There are many people in our neck of the woods that have been sick with this illness that seems to drag on forever.

Anyway, back to the baby goats' horns. This year we had the vet come out and burn the horn buds on all six of our babies. Velvet's boys were three weeks old and their horn buds were getting pretty big, but the vet's burning iron had a deeper depression in the tip than ours does, so he said it should take care of the three week old buds. We are very grateful we still have the services of the vet to call upon.

You know, burning baby goats horns is one of the most disgusting things we ever do. It's one thing to kill an animal and butcher it. We make sure they have a quick, clean, merciful death. But to take these cute little baby goats and burn their heads, listen to them holler and smell the burning hair is awful. I won't pretend

Our electric iron

otherwise. So, why do we do this? We tried letting some of our goats that were born here keep their horns. They were tame and wouldn't try to use them on us, but they did use them on each other, especially the ones without horns. Then one day Frank realized that even if it was unintentional, it would be easy for a goat to lift up their head, or shift positions when we were bent over pouring feed into the trough and put out one of our eyes, or otherwise poke or gore us with a horn. We also had goats start getting stuck in our fence, which is field fence. Sometimes they had been there a long time and we had to cut some of the fence to get them out. Next thing we know, they had moved down about four feet and got stuck again. It's just the nature of the beast. These two things changed our perspective about leaving our goats in their natural state with horns. You will find many people that are adamantly opposed to removing a goat's horns. You will find just as many people adamantly opposed to leaving the goats with horns. If you have, or are going to get goats, this is something you will have to decide for yourself. Choose what works best for you and yours. There is no right or wrong choice. The choice you make is the one that is best for you.

We took the first baby goats we had after we moved here to a vet to have them disbudded. When we got home, the mother refused to take them back. She wouldn't let them nurse unless I clipped her collar up to the fence. The babies would cry and she would answer them, but even if they were standing right beside her, it's like they didn't exist anymore. So this time, we had the vet come to us. We don't have electricity in the barn, so we loaded the babies up in a large pet carrier and drove them down to the garage where the vet had plugged in his burning iron to heat. His assistant held the babies on the ground and held the ears back out of the way, while the vet held the goat's nose to prevent as much wiggling and struggling as possible. Our youngest babies were ten days old, so the vet held the burning iron on for ten seconds on each horn. It always seems much longer to me.

We also have a burning iron that we will be able to use when there is no electricity. You heat it up in a fire until it glows, then it's ready. I was looking around at some blogs the other day and ran across a post at The Riddle Family Farm titled Dehorning Goat Kids, Old West Style using this type of iron. It was the first time I had seen someone use it and describe how it is done. It's very informative and interesting, so go take a look.

As soon as the vet was finished, I took the babies back to the barn, put salve on their horns and turned them loose. They usually nurse and get some reassurance from mom, then take a nap. After that, it's like nothing happened. They are up running and jumping, just like they do everyday. After a few weeks, the scabs will come off, the hair will grow back, and you will never be able to tell they had their horns removed......except for the fact that they don't have any.

There are many things that have to be done in life that are distasteful and unpleasant. That is when you have to dig down and pull up a big handful of gumption and get with it anyway. If you don't, who will? It's your job, so get with it. Go do whatever it is you have on your plate that needs doin' that you haven't done yet. Time's a wastin'.


Until next time - Fern