The Road Home

The Road Home
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Monday, March 24, 2014

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


18 comments:

  1. I always hated that part of owning goats.......

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    1. Has anyone heard of injecting clove oil instead? I just came across this article and it seems very promising. I have dehorned and own a iron, but I too hate it. I would love to know if you all have heard anything about this. I have baby goats due in May...
      http://vrf.iranjournals.ir/article_11355_2017.html

      Thank you,
      Tressa

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    2. I haven't heard of using clove oil, Tressa. I would have to do a lot of research before I could voice an opinion. Thank you for sharing.

      Fern

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  2. This is something we don't do, but respect the decision of those that do...We have raised goats for 14 years and never had issues...we use fencing with 2x4 openings rather than 4x4 when we can and we also have a way of keeping goats from sticking their heads through the bigger fencing by strapping a stick across their horns....we have yet to be hurt or have a goat hurt from having horns, but again, I have heard horror stories...We have one doe that is naturally polled and I wish I could figure out a way to add horns to her...LOL...I don't have it in me to disbud...I watched it one time and got physically ill and cried for days...I admire those that have the gumption to do it, but here at Rocky Oak, just not our thing...We raise 'em the way God made 'em...It is a very individual decision and each has to decided what is best for their situation.

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    1. Thank you for your input, Homestead Lady. I agree, each to their own, and it is a VERY difficult thing to do or watch. I actually think it was a tiny bit easier to do ourselves than watch someone else. Maybe because I was busy doing something, I don't know. Thank you again for sharing.

      Fern

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  3. It's important to note the "copper ring" color of a disbudding burn that is indicative of a success is not on burned skin but on burned skull. Yes, you will have something similar if you just burn the hair and skin, but you actually need to go right to the skull to burn the horn cell tissue, and not just the blood vessels in the scalp that supply the horn tissue growing off the SKULL. Burn it thoroughly, but not all the same time, of you risk injuring the kid. I watch my vet do ours with a calf burner, which is quite large, but she just uses the tip and burns in a small circle starting dime size and progress to a quarter size. Don't do it all at once. Shave the hair in advance and do them young after three or four days. If you wait longer, it's harder on them as you have to burn off the horn base that starts to nub up through the skin. First burn off the skin with several one to two second applications. That will burn the blood vessels supplying the horn base and expose the s kull bone. Then proceed with one to several of the same courses to ensure the skull bone is burned to a copper to black color, eliminating any horn base or nub until it is flush with the skill bone. The conventional wisdom of pressing a hot iron and counting to six or ten or whatever may have its proponents, but successive momentary burns and looking to gauge effectiveness not only ensures a success, but allows a moment between applications to let the burn cool a bit and is more humane. It does take a little more stomach to do it this way, but it allows a person a better experience base than the press and count method. Our vet has several goat farms as clients do does them all the same way, only having one claimed fatality over several thousand successes. The kids bounce back quick and will for a day or two shake their heads in response to the irritation. They may have puffy eyes for a few days and occasionally one will exhibit disorientation for a day or two. Being thorough now w ill prevent scurs from being a problem in the future, and if you see any scur grow, burn it quick while they are young. It's a pain to have to patch up a goat head for ripping off a scur through the fence, no matter how small they seem. That experience was with a buckling we bought from someone who did disbudding themselves, but it's obvious they didn't do it well enough.

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    1. When we burn the horns, we make sure to burn down to the skull, then wait a few seconds, let it cool and move to the other horn. Then we pop the cap of the horn bud and cauterize the area again to make sure it is a good burn and stop any bleeding that has occurred. When we are finished, we make sure we have a good copper ring all the way around.

      We usually wait until the babies are a week to ten days old, which means the horn buds are little larger, but it usually works okay. There have been a few times we waited longer and the goats have grown some scurs, but they haven't been a problem.

      It's kind of like milking, we all have our own technique. Thank you for sharing this thorough information.

      Fern

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  4. The fire heated iron is similar to what Ranchers where I used to ranch used on their calves at Branding time. I developed a system using dehorning paste when the calves were no more than two days old. The problem with it is good quality paste is very hard to find. Clipping any long curls of hair before proceeding is a good thing too. If we are going to have animals we have to be prepared to do the things that are hard! Farm life is not for the faint of heart! Thanks for the great post!

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    1. When we got the burning iron it reminded us of a branding iron. It is interesting to find things that will work without modern conveniences. Thanks, Fiona.

      Fern

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  5. I'm with you - I hate listening to the screaming while you hold them down and burn.
    We don't have goats at present, but when we did, we burned to a count of exactly 20 seconds timed and counted by a watch with a second hand.
    My goodness how time drags on when a baby is being burned.
    And you are right.
    Somethings just have to be done no matter how unpleasant. 20 seconds of screaming and burning isn't much and it is a pretty fair trade off for an entire lifetime of no broken horns or death by accidental strangulation.

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    1. You're right, it is one of those very difficult chores, but it does make life safer for goats and humans.

      Fern

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  6. Have you done a blog on butchering goats? We've been bottle feeding ours. They're pets but we will get some for breeding and butchering.

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    1. No, Sunnie, we have not posted about butchering goats...yet. We will when the time comes. Thanks for asking.

      Fern

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  7. Time really slows down while you're burning hornbuds, that's for sure. I usually hold the kids for whoever is doing the burning. As soon as it's done, they scamper off and seem to be just fine. I hope you and Frank are feeling better very soon.

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    1. That's a good way to describe it, Kathi, time does slow down. Thanks for the good wishes.

      Fern

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  8. Hi Fern, glad you enjoyed the disbudding post, nice blog you have here,

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    1. Thanks, Debby. I always like finding folks that are already doing something we have thought about. I was glad to find your post on using the burning iron.

      Fern

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