Who disbuds their kids?

[redhen]

good point wolf-kim!...thats sort-of what happend to me...i didnt disbudd my first one...figured if i ever got another one i'd just keep thier horns on also...but...when i started looking for another goat..and found one i wanted...the vet i got him from..wouldnt sell them with horns..so...i figured i'd just try to keep them together...(one with horns, one with out horns)..and for me, it did NOT work out...so..i had to de-horn my first goat at 5 months old..BAD..BAD..thing to do..so...it does happen like wolf-kim stated....Wendy

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Wendy, did the vet say why they wouldn't sell a goat with horns? That seems silly to me. If you had wanted it without horns, I wouldn't have seen a problem in that. Unless of course, it was disbudded even before you decided you wanted it. Sorry, just being nosey.

-Kim

 

[kstaven]

I guess we are a little different up here in Canada. Most goats I see are horned or naturally polled.

You can't breed enough dairy goats to keep up with demand around here. I know the situation is different in many areas though. In some states I see dozens available in the rescues and prices are less than half of what we see here.

 

[redhen]

..its okay wolf-kim...you are not being nosy!...i brought it up..

..i saw an ad in a paper....for alpine goats, vet raised, so i called..i said that i really wanted a bottle baby...i was comfortable feeding them..etc.. and she explained that she had a male born a few days earlier..that she will give him his shots(when i bring him back), fix him when he is 8 weeks old..and dis-budd him..(during the first week)...and i could pick him up at the end of the week...so i explained to her i was concerned that my female still had her horns....and she said that she really didnt want to sell him with horns..she dis- budds all her babies for sale((also i noticed ALL her goats and the 4-H goats that she sponsers with the 4-H kids,that were staying in her barn,... were dis-budded...except dad...i never got to see him..by the time i bought the baby..he was dinner somewhere)).. she said its just safer in the long term....so theres no problems later on.....etc....the mom was dis-budded also...so she was pretty set in her ways about selling them as pets de-horned.....and she said that there should NOT be a problem with cricket keeping her horns and him not having any...((which is what everyone here seems to be saying also))...so i figured..it would be okay...and i didnt want to keep pushing her about it..after all she IS a vet..

...lol....but..it didnt work out well for me....i HAD to have her de-horned...she was just being too brutal to him..not just playing..((i can tell the differance))..so i had no choice if i wanted to keep them in the same barn....so..in the end i chose to buy him from her..because i knew he would be coming from a clean,disease free, small farm....i had to weigh the good with the bad(about the horns)...and hope there would be no problems....

....it didnt work out that way for me though.... Thanks, Wendy

 

[MissPrissy]

I chose not to disbud my bucklings this time. Several reasons behind my decision -

One of my does was disbudded. Whomever did it did a crap job. She has spikey nubs that look aweful - almost like a broken fingernail that do irriate her. We have found her bleeding from those places. The vet will be checking her today on our yearly check up for all the stocks.

My biggest doe gets these scabby places where her horn scars are. She loves to take her head and rub against the pockets and seams of your jeans 'scratching' those places on her head. She will rub and create friction until it is too hot to stand there and let her rub. I know the scarred area may itch or bother her. I don't like it that is is in discomfort. She rubs until the skin is nearly raw and small scabs develop. They heal quick and go away but in a month or so you'll find her rubbing again and those two spot n her head hairless and itchy again.

While trying to build a place here to be more self sufficient, self sustaining and trying to live more naturally, and having had many discussions about goats, what seems the norm in other parts of the country/world, (I am convinced it is all about where you live and the people that influence disbudded or not) it just seems more natural to let the babies grow their horns. They are bottle fed and really sweet babies. I don't have any worries about them growing up with horns.

 

[helmstead]

I have a doe who was disbudded and has the tiniest scur, too...and she doesn't like her head rubbed. So sad. All of my other does LIVE for a head/horn rub.

The question was asked about who sells their babies and how do you sell horned babies. Well...I sell all my kids. I maybe have had two phone calls/emails from people looking for hornless goats that would not consider a horned goat...to which I explain the process of disbudding (which most people are clueless to, they think they're just born that way). When they understand HOW disbudding is done, they understand our position. I then tell them they can find polled goats...and off on their new mission they go.

I have had no problem selling pets with horns. I can't produce kids fast enough to keep up with demand. As soon as people meet my herd and see how sweet and naturally beautiful they are...the horns are invisible. They are a non issue with well handled goats, and once people who have heard horror stories about horned goats see them in person doing none of those things...they're changed.

 

[greyfields]

Well dairy breeds must be disbudded or dehorned in order to be shown in a fair. And we sell most our goats to young kids for 4H projects. So by not disbudding you are just passing the buck, and then making them do dehorning from a vet which si far more complicated and risky to the animal.

 

[Nupine]

We don't do it, but our friends do it for us. There is no point in learning how and buying one yourself when you can have someone else do it for very cheap and very well. It is not as bad as it sounds. Ok. We had an american alpine doeling born about 2 months ago, she is an angel and I love her like you couldn't believe. I gave her a medicine I unknowingly wasn't suposed to give her and she got very sick, so we had to give her steroids and we had to delay disbudding till she was 9 days old, but her horns were growing slowly. Well they began to grow back so a week ago we had to have her redone. It was very sad because they had to sit on my baby and she was screaming and breathing really hard, they had to hold the iron on pretty long. It was very sad. But nothing like castrating!! We did our first two bucklings about 6 weeks ago, they rolled on the ground and screamed. We used a bander, but they are happy little boys now. Good luck!!!

 

[Southern28Chick]

I'm not going to band bucklings, I'm going to do this:

The emasculatome , Burdizzo or Ritchey Nipper, method involves a clamp-like tool which crushes the spermatic cord and blood vessels leading to the testicles. The effect is to prevent blood reaching the testicles so that they gradually wither away and die.

http://fiascofarm.com/goats/buck-wether-info.htm#burdizzo

I think it's more humane than banding.


Disclaimer: This is from fiascofarm.com and it doesn't not give me a false since of experience or knowledge. I'm always open to a friendly debate.......​

 

[MissPrissy]

This method is not one stop shopping -so to speak. The animal has to be restrained, each testical - one a time, has to be slipped through the device and the blood vessels and spermatic cords crushed in such a manner as to rupture them internally. First one testical then the other. Banding is just far simpler and less stressful to the bucklings. There was a video on you tube - not pretty at all.