Our goats arrived on Wednesday a 7month old weather and an 8 week old doe.
The weather had to be dis-budded twice by the vet as they had not done it correctly the first time We have just checked on the goats this evening and the horn has know lifted off of his head and has exposed a hole in the skull. There is no fluid and around the hole is pink to me it reminds me of a scab someone has picked. Not sure what the base case of action to take is. To leave it alone, to bandage it back onto the head or something else? He is happy in himself and is eating drinking and doing all normal goat things.
Any advice this evening would be amazing thanking you all in advance.
Sally
Replies
Just and update on Soren, the hole did feel up with liquid and has now formed a scab, which looks healthy and clean. He is scratching the area around it and it is a little pink so I have a balm we use for our other animals and we also use it on wounds etc..which is called Fiskes, an all natural product and we have put that on the pink areas and he stops rubbing as soon as it goes on.
Thank you for all your advice.
Thanks Deborah. That makes more sense to me now.
Sally, sorry I misunderstood.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
If the liquid is clear and not stinky, it's probably okay, but it does make me worry more about flies.
Marin, this was more like a dehorning than a disbudding. Whoever did his original disbudding didn't get it. I'm wondering if they got anything at all, considering that it sounds like horns were growing.
Wow, I honestly don't have any knowledgeable advice for you. If it had burned through to his brain I would think that he wouldn't be, well... alive. I hope someone else here has something useful to tell you.
However, for unknowledgeable advice, if it really has gone right through his skull, I'd take him back to the vet who disbudded him (if the vet is close enough) to show him what happened. I would hope you wouldn't be charged anything for the vet to look at him seeing as it was the vet who caused this. I don't know what would happen from there, but I'd want the vet to know if there was an issue.
Is the hole actually burned right through his skull? Or is it just the burn mark that you're referring to?
My understanding is that NDGs don't have a sinus cavity under their horns like full-size goats do.
I've never heard of a goat that had to be disbudded AND castrated twice. Oh, my! Talk about bad luck!
If you have some blu-kote, you can use it, if you want. If nothing is oozing out though, it's probably not necessary. Sounds like it's mostly healed.
Flies could be a worry, but if nothing is oozing out, hopefully they'll leave it alone. There is Catron spray, which is for fly strike, but after having a terrible experience with baby turkeys dieing after eating maggots that were sprayed with it, I won't use it again. We did a little experiment to see if some natural methods would work, and both diatomaceous earth and a spray made with Shaklee's Basic H kept flies from laying eggs on raw chicken that we left outside. Both also killed maggots that infested chicken that had not been sprayed or sprinkled with anything when we started our little experiment. I haven't actually had an injured animal since we did that experiment, but I'd probably go with the Basic H spray in the future. Having dealt with fly strike in a lamb and a turkey now, I'd say that a pound of prevention is worth 50 pounds of cure when it comes to maggots!
Thank you Deborah from both Michael and I, is it worth putting any blu-kote over the opening? We have a few days of rain here so its a little cooler with less flies but I am worried when it gets warmer with the opening.
We have just come back in from checking on him and he has rub the whole thing of, but is happy to be touched near the head and does not shy away.
Feel so sorry for the little thing he has had a rough time of it! The vet pinched his testicles and it did not work so they where removed a few weeks ago, he also had pneumonia but still has a really horrible raspy cough and runny eyes, but saying all this he is such a cuddle goat and loves attention.