Hello Everyone, I have a question about my 8 day old buck. I had 5 of my goat kids dehorned yesterday at the Vet's office. He had a gas dehorner and the dehorning went pretty fast. All 5 looked pretty good until this morning. I am concerned about my buck Luke. I am new to this whole goat adventure and will introduce myself later. Luke has a swollen eye and above that eye where he was dehorned it is wheeping a clear fluid. If I get anywhere near it he starts crying. He is drinking ( I bottle feed) but only about 1/2 as much as usual. He whimpers in his sleep. I sprayed som Vetericyn spray on the area. He is not as active as the other goats either. Is there anything I should be doing? Is something wrong with his dehorning? Is any of this something that happens? I would appreciate any help or suggestions anyone can give. I have someone on the way to the Vets office to pick up an Antibiotic as that what was suggested by the Vet. Thank you in advance Sicerely Connie
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I've never weighed kids before disbudding. It's just something we eyeball. You can't really do it based upon age because there is a huge different between a kid that's born at 1.5 pounds and one at 4 pounds. And "too late" is based upon size of the horn buds, not age. The bigger the horn buds get, the more you have to burn. That's why it's usually easier on the kids the earlier you do it -- not because they're younger, just because the horn buds are smaller. If your vet refused to do one because it was too small, it sounds like she knows what she's doing.
How big should the kid be before you disbud. When my vet came to do the boys at 9 days old. She would not do one of them. She said he was too small and it would be too close to the eyes. She recommended I wait about another week before doing it. My vet is due to come again on the 17th to disbud my 3 females and two of them are still pretty small. I'm not sure if she will do all of them. I know females are usually done at 2 weeks and males at one week. At what time would it start being too late? I hope my females are not rejected by the mother like my other mother.
Thanks Deborah I will try that:)
I've never used Polyflex so don't have any personal experience on that. It's been years since I've given a kid an injection, but I always do it over the ribs or belly. If you have someone hold the kid and sort of curve his head and tail towards you, that should help loosen the skin a bit in the middle of his body.
Thanks Rachel and Deborah for your help. Luke is a little better today the Vet used a Gas 1/2" dehorning iron. I bought the Rhinhart X30 1/2" but had never done dehorning before so I wanted to watch someone first. The Vet's sister inlaw raises dairy goats and he has a lot of experience with dehorning and only charged $9.50 ea goat so I figured it was ok. He gave me some Polyflex injections yesterday because he though maybe one horn was slightly infected. I gave Luke a shot yesterday and he had a rough night but is somewhat improved (I think) today. Temp is 102.9. The horn stopped wheeping and looks better too. Drinking slightly more milk today than yesterday. I was wondering what you all think about the Polyflex? And last question is I am having a hard time getting enough skin pulled up to inject under the skin. Do you have a suggestion as to where is the best part to give a shot in? I did it yesterday up by the neck area but could hardly pull enough up? Thanks again, Connie
Sounds like the vet got too close to his eyelid and burned it. This happened to us when we had our first goats disbudded by a vet. He was using a calf dehorner, which was huge! This is why some of our bucks wind up with scurs. We've always been worried about getting too close to the eyelids. Other than protecting him from infection, there isn't much you can do at this point.
You should probably take his temp too. Normal goat temp is 101 (I think) if it's higher or lower, that is information your Vet can use to figure out what's wrong.