banded horns last month..

[shadowpaints]

we have 2 adult Nigerian does that came to us with horns and they were too big to be disbudded by burning off, same goes for the 2 nubian doelings we bought. well, we decided to band the horns with little green cheerios that we normally use for castrating the bucklings. you put the band on the castrater (used to stretch the rubber band) and put it as low as you can at the base of the horns ( we also shaved the head at the base of the horns) tape em on (remove tape after a few days the tape keeps the bands from rolling) in about 6weeks, the horns will fall off. minimal blood , minimal discomfort and BAM! horns gone! ill admit its weird to see these does with out horns!

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I've never banded horns, but it does sound a lot less painful than the typical way people do it! We had our goats dehorned when they were young and it was terrible. I can still smell that burning stench of the horn bud being cauterized!

 

[shadowpaints]

Quote:
i know, me too, i hate burning them! i hate it so much that i hire someone to come out to do it.

i am thinking of seriously doing this to the kids i keep, the babies i sell tho, will have to be burned as even at 12 weeks the horns are still too small to be banded

 

[EweSheep]

My Nubians were disbudded with hot iron but my goat had nubs. So I would trim them off with a pair of nippers. Once in a great while I would try to cut, and she would twist her head that the buds would pop off, got all bloody and you can see the gaping holes in it. She recovered pretty quickly and I was so fearful of seeing infections but blue kote and red powered stuff kept it at bay. She was not able to bump her head with her buddies for a week tho!

I never thought of banding horns like that but anything that can be blood free must be a good thing!

 

[lilcritters]

I burn all of mine as babies. Quick easy and over with in a few minutes. I have thought about banding an older goat I have though. She is an adult. What is the success with adults?

April

 

[shadowpaints]

so far 100% success! our buck has really big horns so it may take longer for his to fall off. our other doe, pie her horns should be falling off SOON. pie is 3 years old and cookie is abour 5 years old. cookies fell off right at the base of the skull, just like she had been disbudded as a kid!

so far so good, just make sure the rubber band is below the base of the horn ( on skin) then tape the bands so they stay. i had to have a second person to hold the band once i placed it, so i could also tape it.

so far so good on the older ones. and usually we do disbud them at 4 weeks old, but like i said the 2 doelings horns were 6 inches long and the older does hoorns were 10-18 inches long.. my bucks horns are quite long also... so we will see with him.