Hello all,
I am new to goats, and we started with 2 does that were bred in March. Only 1 of the 2 got pregnant and she gave us 2 beautiful doe kids. The doe mom is polled and I checked the kids at 1 week and could not see or feel anything.
Now the embarrassing thing...I got caught up with the kids and we have enjoyed them so much. I never checked the heads again until this morning. They are now 4 weeks old exactly today. One of the two doe kids (the white one in the picture below) has obvious horns growing through. The are rounded.
I read through blogs and found the appropriate size of the Iron (1/2"), and read lots of good and some very scary info (burning through the skull, heating the brain, etc). As I read through, it occurred to me that I goofed up and waited too long.
I am better off taking her to a vet at this point, or should I just accept that I goofed up and let her grow horns. Thanks for any help and advice.
Steve
Replies
Glad you found someone there to help you out! I think disbudding is everyone's least favorite part of having goats. It is kind of funny how some seem to quiet down after a few seconds.
Super, Steve, I am so proud of you and glad all is going well. I truly hope you and I both got the job right on our first try (my first ND anyways-did a set of mixed twins a few months back-NDs are supposedly harder though). Thanks so much for the update!
So I ended up finding a goat breeder at the fair who had 10 years of experience. This was very helpful and I was able to be certain that one doe is polled and the other had horns. They barely broke through after I wrote this. The breeder mentioned that she does goats at 1 month and does not hesitate, and in fact felt that they were stronger then. I got the iron recommended on another blog on this site. As much I did not enjoy it, I have to admit that after about 3 seconds, the doweling did not seem as sensitive? I burned the pointy end down, and made sure I had a nice copper ring as I sure did not want to do this again. She has now healed and was not aloof the next week as I was afraid of. Definitely my least favorite goat duty so far, but could have
Been worse and it was over really quickly. Thank you all so much for the help and advise!!
So Steve, can we get an update! I wouldlove to know how things have been going.
We got ours disbudded at 9 days old and one side is growing a horn anyway. I don't know what to do about that. If I had waited until 4 weeks disbudding wouldn't have been an option. I would think that by now you would have horns growing through and would assume that they are both polled.
Horns are pointy like a pencil point. Poll bumps are rounded, and they are bigger in some goats than others. I've had people freak out and call me at three months, assuming their goat was growing horns because the poll bumps were getting so big. (Horns on a three month old would be VERY sharp and at least a couple inches long.) From this angle in your photo, both does look polled because I'm not seeing any swirl or peak in the hair. When you look at the top of her head, do you see swirls of hair around her horn buds? Or does the hair look like the brown one's head?
We don't have any polled goats here so I don't have any experience with them, but there's an older discussion here: http://nigeriandwarfgoats.ning.com/forum/topics/can-you-tell-if-pol...
where Deborah says that polled goats can get raised areas on their heads.
I have disbudded doelings at 4 weeks. It's much later than I want to but sometimes that's just how life plays out and I go with it. As long as I burn properly then it prevents any further horn growth. And by 4 weeks the horns are definitely "poky" not rounded.
Hi Steve! Your babies are so cute:) You might be a little late, but have you thought about calling the breeder you bought their moms from? She/He might be able to help you and if you did catch your one in time maybe your breeder could do the disbudding and you could watch (I'm assuming you have never done it before) and learn? Just a thought. Good luck!
Steve, I suggest you take that pic and post. I would shave it so you can see it good. If you do disbud her, you will want to shave it anyway. If you had a vet that actually knew their stuff it would not be a bad idea to see them. Unfortunately, most vets don't and most of the time people regret taking them to a vet and wish they had done it themselves. If you can do it then go for it. I know a lot of people who wouldn't but I think I would. It can be done for sure. One of our members just had 3 does and a buck done at her vet and that buck and one of the does were 8 months old.
one of the doe kids is definitely polled and she has skin that is rounded (the brown one), but the other seems to have a horn material that is through the skin, but it oddly feels like a round area protruding the size of the end of my pinkie. Seems to be a horn?? Maybe I will take a pic and post.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next