I am hoping there some folks on this morning who can give us advice. This was our first year to disbud ND kids. Kitty, the doeling we retained, was the smallest. We disbudded her brothers at 1 week old. She was around 2 weeks old when we did hers. She will be 11 weeks old on Monday so this is 9-weeks of growth. Are these scurs? Should we reburn? Right now they will still fit inside of our X30 Rhinehart iron. We want to do right by her. As this is our round of babies to disbud we aren't sure what "normal" looks like and don't want to put ourselves or her through the ordeal of reburning it is not needed. Thank you in advance for your help!
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Thanks Deborah, I watched and her poop was still solid a bit ago. My thought about the bottle was that it would comfort me and her BOTH. It worked.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
Don't worry about giving her a bottle of her mother's milk at 11 weeks. I don't even wean bottle babies by then, so you are definitely not going to upset her stomach. We are still giving a bottle a day to a doe born in February.
I will continue to post as she heals to let ya'll (and anyone else who may find this thread) the outcome. Julia, please let us know how yours is doing as he heals.
Julia I am so sorry. I understand. We went ahead and re-burned her today as well. It was as as awful as we expected and not as awful as we thought it was going to be all at the same time. We put cinder blocks on the milk stand to get her high enough for her head to go thru the stanchion. My husband stood at her front and I stood at her middle and helped to hold her still while he did the deed. I just layed my head against my husband's back while he did the work and I held her still. I didn't cry, I would never to that to him. He has such a soft heart for me and my animals. It was killing him to hurt her, again. She was bigger, stronger and louder than she was the first time. I really hope we got it all this time. She nor us will be going thru that again!
She was my only bottle baby and she and I are very attached. I weaned her this past week. I know it may upset her stomach but I gave her about an ounce of her mothers milk in a bottle when we finished. She is fine and acting goat appropriate now, several hours later. Dang that was ROUGH!
Julia @Woody Glen Farm said:
Welcome! :)
Christie McGinnis said:
I just re-burned a buckling today and I will NEVER do it again. There was a lot of bleeding which I tried to cauterize with the iron but after too long of torturing the little guy I finally quit and stopped the bleeding with blood stop. The little guy (who was 4 weeks old) cried every 30 seconds for over an hour. I was sick to my stomach. I vowed today, just like Patty, that I will have to get it right the first time or live with the consequences. Nothing is worth torturing them that way. Btw, after a couple of hours he is okay and no worse for the wear (whew). My doelings came out fine but I think bucklings are just harder to get right.
Patty, thank you so much for the detailed response!
I don't have tons of experience. I've disbudded 16 kids so far, in three kidding seasons. I do unfortunately have a bit of experience with scurs and re-burning.
First of all, if I'm seeing right, there does seem to be some growth happening. On a good disbudding job there is nothing but a flat area. I'm seeing a lump for sure, and on the bud at the top of the picture I think I'm seeing even more growth, is that right?
So, if she's still small enough to hold very still, you could try to do it again. However, it will be harder to do, might bleed a lot and be harder to stop bleeding, and may not even get the job done, because the horn tissue has spread by now, and may cover too large an area of the skull.
After reburning one kid, I have a policy that I either get it right the first time, or me and the goat live with the consequences. I just can't bear to do it a second time, and it didn't work all the way the time I reburned.
So, that's my limited experience for you. Best wishes! :)