Disbudding - tips or rounded areas

OK - when people are talking about horn buds/points - how sharp are we talking? Are we talking like small bumps sticking up above the head? My buckling/wether to be just popped at 10 days and is due for disbudding. I'm sure the vet will be able to tell if he is polled but I just want to refresh again - after reading the other notes - how "sharp" are the points? Rounded but higher than the surrounding area = horns - right?  As compared to an low ant hill = polled?

Judy

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  • Following up on the age of castration: 

    Some vets recommend waiting until 6 months to castrate to avoid damage that can cause urinary calculi. I leave my wethers with their dams, so I'm not comfortable leaving a buckling with the does at 4 and 5 months. I wait until 10-12 weeks if I can to band. 

  • That's a long time to wait... if he doesn't know what he's doing, there's a good chance you'll end up with scurs. Not the end of the world, but the earlier you can disbud, the better the chance you'll avoid those. On the other side, there are people that have to burn more than once, so the ordeal itself won't be anything that *shouldn't* be done at that age. It just means a different kind of burn (more area, and a thorough burn) to make sure that all the horn "roots" are burned off, and won't grow. 

    I personally don't castrate that young. I wait as long as possible to castrate. I've read about, and heard from some vets that there is concern that castrating too soon can cause issues with an increased risk of urinary calculi. 

  • oh this worries me! we are first timers, and our mobile vet is going to do the first disbudding for us, so we can watch once, then feel better about doing it ourselves in the future... however, he said he wanted to disband at 2weeks old, because of the severe cold weather, and the potential for stressing the kids too much. Now I am afraid that 2wks will be too late... but since he is a vet, I didn't really argue with him.
    We also were going to have him do this first castration - again, so we can watch the first time, and feel ready to do it ourselves in the future...
  • This is the picture from Raising Goats Naturally. The arrow points at the hair swirl on the horn bud.
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  • This is a polled doeling at 8 weeks. 2771471156?profile=original

  • 2771471226?profile=original

    This is a picture of polled kid's head. It's a little blurry, which is why I couldn't use it in the book, but you see how his hair all seems to be sticking straight up?

  • I would not count on a vet to know simply because he is a vet. I sold a polled goat to someone whose vet told her that the doe would grown horns when she more than a year old!  Apparently he did not know that polled goats even existed.

    A horned buck is usually born with horn buds, and they are plenty big enough to disbud by a week. By two weeks, they are usually too big to be able to do a decent job of disbudding unless you burn a really large area. If you feel nothing for the first few days after a buck is born, he is probably polled. 

    Does are not as easy to figure out because it is not unusual to be unable to feel horn buds when they are born.

    If you have my book, there is a picture in there of the swirls of hair that you see on the head of a goat with horn buds.

  • It's important to KNOW before you disbud a potentially polled goat because in the future if he is polled but disbudded, he might be bred to a polled doe which would increase the risk of hermaphrodites (with polled to polled breeding). And the bumps can be quite high on the polled goat so you really want to feel "points" and you'll know it when you feel it. 

  • Polled and horned have bumps, but I think your description of  " Rounded but higher than the surrounding area = horns - right?  As compared to an low ant hill = polled?" is a pretty good one. :) 

  • Yes -well - buck is polled and has little bumps where horns would be.

    I'll let you know - I need someone who knows to actually feel him/look at him.

    Judy

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