Disbudding goat kids question....

[Gatorpupsmom]

Okay, I have searched through and read every post I could find about disbudding here, and I have looked at dozens of instructional pages on the internet. I know it's best to have someone who knows how to do it to teach you, but we don't have that option, as no one around, including our vet, has disbudded goats before.

We have hit the boys twice and the girl once with the iron, and made sure we got "the copper ring"...but how do you know for sure that you've gotten it done correctly? They still appear to have horn in the center, the boys more so than the girl.

Do we need to be burning the inside of the copper ring also, where the horn grows? Some of the websites say to do so, some say that getting the copper ring will cut off the blood supply and the horn will fall out. If we do need to burn the horn growth, should we trim the boys horn growth back first to get to the very base of the horn?

There are so many sets of instructions, and some of them differ from each other. Our goat disease book says to use a calf dehorner, which I keep reading on the internet that using a calf dehorner is a good way to kill one.

I keep appologizing to them that they have to be our first goats we have disbudded. They seem to be very forgiving....but we gotta get this done right. HELP!!!!

Kim

 

[reallemons1]

I was taught (and I'm sure others may do differently) the burn the copper ring all the way around. Then use the iron to remove the bit of horn which will come off easily. Then tilt the iron to the side and use the outside edge (corner) to burn a criss cross pattern on the horn bud that is left, just a few seconds until it is dry. No more burning should be necessary. Good luck.

 

[abluechipstock]

when my babies are disbudded, a friend does it, she puts the iron on and with a slight twisting motion counts thousand 1 thousand 2 etc... very quickly for 5 seconds, at the last second she knocks the bud off then waits and and does 5 seconds more, that does the trick so essentially, if she doesn't get the whole bud off that's ok, this is all i have, i've seen it done a different way, this guy put the iron on count to 10 the same way(quickly) but he did a rolling motion with the iron, then he took his pocket knife and popped the bud off then did it again, it's tough not having someone to show you, i'm acyually looking to buy another buck eventually that is polled so i can get more polled babies! hope this helps, they both sprayed with that furall stuff

 

[helmstead]

We go a step further. We burn to a white ring, then remove the cap, then reburn for 2 seconds. I have pics, email me if you'd like them, of our finished product.