Thoughts on goat scurs?

[Jrose]

I had my bucklings disbudded at 10 days. Everything's been fine until the last few weeks- it's become apparent they're both growing scurs!

This is my first time with goats. I thought long about disbudding and decided it was best for the circumstances. I'd still rather not have the horns growing, but is it possible without major surgery at this point? They're 4 1/2 months old and the scrus are between 1/4 and 1/2" long. I'm also nervous about letting them grow and having them be harmfully deformed.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

At this point, in order to remove the scurs, a vet would have to come in, anesthetize the goat, and cut the scurs off. It is not an easy procedure and was very stressful for our goat when we had to have it done.

We ended up letting the scurs grow out and only took them off the one goat after they started to touch his head and would have grown into the head if we didn't act.

I will say that I am in vet school now and thinking back to that surgery still makes me squeamish!

 

[H Diamond]

Are we talking minor scurs, or just short of horns? If all else fails you can keep them trimmed back with hoofor trimmers or OB wire: http://www.jefferspet.com/products/o-b-saw-wire

 

[Jrose]

These are scurs. I have a vet coming out tomorrow to castrate them, she's going to see how they look and if we can't re-burn them while they're sedated.

 

[Stacykins]

Hopefully your vet can do something. I think they can remove the scurs then attempt to burn the remaining horn tissue.

Ten days is far too late to disbud nearly all bucklings. All bucklings born here have to be disbudded within three days of birth, they pop out with buds that are that prominant. If I put it off, they'd have scurs just like your boys. With doelings, you can wait a lot longer than a boy. Testosterone really accelerates horn growth.

 

[Jrose]

Hopefully your vet can do something. I think they can remove the scurs then attempt to burn the remaining horn tissue.

Ten days is far too late to disbud nearly all bucklings. All bucklings born here have to be disbudded within three days of birth, they pop out with buds that are that prominant. If I put it off, they'd have scurs just like your boys. With doelings, you can wait a lot longer than a boy. Testosterone really accelerates horn growth.

Interesting! These are my first goats. The breeder did the disbudding when I purchased them. I'll keep that in mind for the future!

 

[Jrose]

The scurs are tiny little wiggly nubs right now, not full-blown 4" scurs. It may be early enough to do something about them.

 

[Stacykins]

I reburned a scur for a friend once. Had been done at fourteen days old on a little buckling by his breeder (not me). Yuck. Thankfully, it worked.

 

[Karlachix]

I just took my doeling in for surgery today. The original vet did a terrible job. She's my favorite and I'm hoping for a smooth recovery for her.

 

[Jrose]

I found a local goat vet to come out. She sedated the boys for their castration and re-burned in the same swoop. Hopefully that solves it! She seemed pretty confident about it since we caught it early enough.