The Not So Fun Stuff - Disbudding

[Taffy]

Today I went over to a friends and helped her disbud her Boer kids. Then we came back to my place and disbudded my doelings. They all got their first CD&T, too. I like the look of horns but I do not want to deal with them.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

I hear ya. Not fun but a must do.

[Dodgerdoob]

I've been a party to thousands of calf dehornings but it's a little different with a
Kid. Maybe just because they seem more delicate or you get more invested in goats.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

And the horrid screams that split your heart in two! Thats why I make my other half do it

[Nanno]

I feel so lucky that I'm friends with a local woman who is an exotic animal vet, but she also raises goats. She uses drugs to knock the babies out when she's disbudding and I thought that was a great idea. They aren't chewing cud yet, so it's not as much risk as when they're older. She only charged me for the drugs themselves, and since I also teach her and her kids riding lessons, we were able to swap services instead of exchanging money. The goats were out for about five minutes while we disbudded and tattooed, then she gave them the wake-up drug to bring them round. There was some brief head-shaking and minor crying (cured immediately by a drink of milk and comforting from mamas), but not the horrible screaming you get with conscious disbudding. I really liked doing it that way and I feel extremely fortunate that we have that option.