As is my nature I am obsessing and worrying again about the debudding of my first 2 babies...I have been trying in vain to get hold of my vet since Thursday...I did speak to her business partner Friday because she was out of town doing training...but could not get hold of her again today to try and get the babies done.
Today the babies are 22 days old...Is it just to late now to debud them?
I am so confused by all of this and am tempted to just let them grow horns and buy me a bag of wine corks so they can't hurt each other.
It has been such a long few days already with having to get rid of the dog for nipping my youngen one to many times...Ready to pack up my bedroll and run away to the city. :(
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I hear you Deborah, I can not even imagine what it would cost me! I haven't had a farm call in about 18 years, since my older boys were little and had ponies. Even back then we had an old country vet from Ms., who had lots of patients over hear and would do a number in one and did not charge much. The ones here have always been high and we have tons in this big town but only one who sees farm animals and they don't really work on farm prices. They charge more like they do for pets which is ridiculous! I hope to never need to go back to them! I don't really trust them the way I would like to and they are also the vets for someone else... lets just say... sometimes you aren't comfortable sharing doctors with family members who dosn't believe in you, especially if they have a long relationship already.
I can't get a vet out to my place for less than $75 and that doesn't even include a single animal exam! That's just the cost for them to drive out here.
Margaret Langley said:
I've procrastinated with disbudding and done it entirely too old, right up to the point of there being horns almost long enough to touch the interior of the disbudding ring. I'm not proud of my procrastination, but I'll admit to it. Boys have generally ended up with scurs, but I've been able to completely disbud girls. I guess now yours would be 28 days. Although there are a lot of people who wouldn't, if it was me, I would still attempt at least disbudding any girls at this point. But like I said, many people wouldn't.
And today I have 8 kids to disbud who are 14-17 days old. I'm quite comfortable with doing it in this age range.
Thanks, I wasn't trying to be nosey, I am just always curious about what things cost in different places. It would cost me a lot more!
The farm visits are $45...So I try to make sure they are not coming out for just one thing...Though I was not charged this last visit since there was nothing for him to do.
The debudding I believe is $15 per goat, but I could be wrong about that.
Depending on if they are in the area and what you need to be done, they will meet us at the small animal hospital office in town and waiver the farm visit fee...I can also drop of fecal samples at same office and they will leave meds there for us too...much more cost effective than buying full bottles at the feed store for just a couple of goats.
Margaret Langley said:
It was at 8 days she said they were too small...but yes I made him aware of that and also that I had spent over a week trying to get her back out here to do it, he was a little surprised to find that out...I am going to ask around but do not know of any other large animal vets in the area.
We did talk about disbudding the new ones when they arrive in a more timely manner...I think we all learnt a lesson from this...To be honest today I am ready to sell the lot and tell hubby to find a new hobby I don't have to take care of.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
Exactly! What do they charge in your area to disbud? I bet farm visits aren't cheap!
Are there any other livestock vets in the area? I'm afraid I don't have much faith in the ones you have, based upon this situation. I've never heard of a vet refusing to disbud kids at two weeks because they were too small or refusing at three weeks because the horn buds were too big. Was the second vet aware that the first vet said she couldn't disbud them at two weeks because they were too small? Did you talk to him about disbudding them earlier? With another doe due to kid, you need a plan.
After Deenie has hers we are done with babies for at least a yr...Next yr I will re-evaluate the situation and if I have anyone reliable to be a holder for me...I love my husband to death, but he could not even hold the babies still for me to put their collars on this week.
I hate things didn't work out like you wanted! I hope you will just decide to get your own iron and do it yourself. Everybody always does eventually. The sooner you do the sooner you will save money! Then you won't have to go through this again!
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