Diabudding baby goats

[eicg]

We just got two goats yesterday who are 1 week old. Our other goats don't have horns and for both the safety of the other goats and of the new babies we are going to get them disbudded. The problem is the nearest appointment for disbudding we could get is the 18th. They'll be roughly 3 weeks old at this point. Is that too old to be disbudded? The vet said it would be fine and we have no problem with scurs if they form, just no full size horns. I just want to make sure that it can still be done at 3 weeks old. I'm also wondering if anyone knows how vets typically disbud baby goats. I would like to have them burned off because it seems like the easiest and most painless. I wasn't the one who made the appointment so I couldn't ask how they do it.

 

[cassie]

Your best bet is to see if you can find a goat breeder near you. If I were you, I would contact the American Dairy Goat Association, adga.org and see if they will send you a list of breeders near you. I think if you make some calls you can find someone who is willing to help you.

How much of a problem the delay in the disbudding will cause depends a whole lot on what breed of goats you have and how experienced your vet is in disbudding goats. If they are Nubian doelings, probably not much. If they are Alpines or Toggenburgs, particularly males, it will be. I don't know about pygmies or Nigerians. For the record, in some ways large scurs are almost worse than horns. They are often unsightly and sometimes they grow back into the goat's head. It is also harder to do a good job of disbudding kids than it is to disbud calves.

 

[eicg]

They are brother and sister Nubian, boer, Pygmy crosses.

 

[cassie]

You asked how they disbud the kids. It is most probable that they will use an electric disbudding iron. If the horns have started to emerge, they sometimes clip them off and then apply the iron. In any event, it just takes a few seconds and the kids forget all about it.