Baby Goat Disbudding after 3 months?

[mcconaughey01]

I bought a Nigerian Dwarf Buckling from a breeder who didn't disbud him early and so he already has about 2 inch horns and is 3 months old. Can I disbud him like you would a young one or? Is there a different process for that? This is my first goat so I'm just wanting to make sure I don't do something wrong.

 

[H Diamond]

No you can't disbud him like you would a younger kid. Your options now are to just keep the horns cut back as they grow, or go to the vet and have them cut them out. I've only ever had the 2nd option done once... I didn't know the full extent of what the vet had planned on. It went ok and the kid had a nice smooth head, but I wouldn't do it again. You could just tell she was not feeling very good for a couple days. It opens the sinus cavity, they literally scoop the entire horn and base. You have to keep it packed for awhile and covered. Trying to keep a guaze covering on the kid's head for any length of time is almost impossible.

A couple less than ideal options are banding and paste.
Please DO NOT USE the caustic paste. You can't keep it in the right spot, it can get in the eyes and cause blindness, it rubs on off on other areas and causes burns.
Banding... it's hard to keep the bands in place. You're not guaranteed a clean break, when they get thin, they just bust off and cause bleeding, etc.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I would really suggest NOT dehorning at this age. The probability of scurs (regrowth of the horn tissue) skyrockets as the animal gets older and dealing with scurs growing into the head of an adult goat is not fun at all. The first dehorning is bad enough (I would only suggest having it done by a vet at this point) but cutting scurs is even worse. At this point, the tissue that grows into the horn has already differentiated enough that it is very difficult to get all the tissue without doing a lot of damage to the head.

We did it to our first goats when they were older because the vet recommended it to us and we didn't know any better. My goat had to have his scurs cut off twice as he got older and that was just a crazy mess.