# Banding horns



## Dacaree (Jan 31, 2009)

I read a post in 101 about banding horns. Has anyone tried this and did you like the outcome?


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

*Re: Bandind horns*

It will only work on adults, it can't work on kids. I have used it several times now to remove scurs and out and out horns, it worked each time wonderfully. Now that Texas A&M has such resonable rates on surgical dehorning, I would use them instead. Vicki


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

*Re: Bandind horns*

I have tried it but don't do something right as never worked for me.


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## megan (Nov 10, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*

Be prepared for the possibility of a bloody mess.
I have only done it a couple times and once a young doe knocked a horn off before it was really ready to come off. there was blood everywhere, and she was a white goat so it looked even worse than it really was.


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## tinygreenfrog (Feb 19, 2009)

*Re: Bandind horns*

we did it last year on two saanen/boers

they were 4~months old when we did it. Worked fine on one, the other has a scur on one side now- which i will try banding i guessi but yes it mostly worked fine. yes, some small blood after one of them pried off the horn on the fence- but not to bad for us.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

*Re: Bandind horns*

Did NOT work for us and we did everything according to protocol. Now it seemed to work on the half-grown that we did but I suspect that that was not permanent. Butthe full grown buck? The bands did dig in deeper and deeper--to a point, then stopped.

Texas A&M on the other hand does a phenomenal job. It is a surgical dehorning, they are asleep so no trauma, they are stitched closed afterwards, so they have a nice smooth head with no gaping holes to deal with. When I checked in January it was about $75 for the first goat, and $40 for subsequent goats. Not free but in some animals definitely worth the price!


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## Dacaree (Jan 31, 2009)

*Re: Bandind horns*

The vet here in Decatur quoted me $25 for the surgical. I guess that may be the way to go. They also put them under and stitch them up.

Thanks for everyones input.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

*Re: Bandind horns*

just make sure that they have ample experience putting goats under due to how sensitive they are to the anesthetic.


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## Leo (Mar 10, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*

$25 isn't too bad. I've done the banding, prefer to just burn. But it only worked for me on adult does, and usually had to put 2-3 bands on each horn to get it to come off right. Not too much blood. But never got it to work on bucks.
Megan


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

*Re: Bandind horns*

I have done it two times. One was a buck that was about 8 months old. We got the bands on really good and after about a month one horn fell of just perfect. We ended up butchering him though, so the other hadn't fallen off yet. Got our meat back in a bag labeled "One Horn" :/

The other one was my toggenburg doeling from last year. If I remember right she was about 3 months old (didn't get her disbudded, long story)? I got them on good but it was wierd, after about a week the "case" of the horns fell of, so she had like small red cores there. Those hardened and eventually fell of. She grew some scurs, then they fell of, and they kept growing back very slowly smaller and smaller each time and falling off. But they look good now, just a tad of tiny scurs. She is almost a year.

Anyway, it seemed to work both times. I didn't have the buck long enough to see if he had scurs, but the one that came off did so nice and cleanly, and below the horn. If I had a kid to do again, I think I would wait, I think that's why hers came off so strangely.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*

Here are some pics of one of my does I did last spring. I put the bands on well below the horn and put fresh bands on every week or two. It is hard on the goats. All mine lost condition and this doe got an infection.

[attachment deleted by admin]


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*

The other pics

[attachment deleted by admin]


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

*Re: Bandind horns*

Thanks Michelle for the pictures it does show that it can be done. Too bad she got that infection but she is ok now. Need you to come do a couple for me.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*

I'd be glad to help, Sondra!


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## KingsCoGoatGuy (Dec 20, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*

Did it once, worked fine.. but she got an infection and was a bloody mess afterwards. I dusbud everything unless it is a Boer and the buyer agrees to put all the cash down and pick them up at 8 weeks. Not having a horn beast in with my dairy does!


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## megan (Nov 10, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*



Qvrfullmidwife said:


> just make sure that they have ample experience putting goats under due to how sensitive they are to the anesthetic.


good point. :yeahthat

I once had to take a buckling in to my vet. He was the first I ever disbudded and I failed miserably. :blush

The new vet at the clinic said he had surgically dehorned goats before and could sew the skin over the holes so he would heal better and faster and keep flies out.

the vet gave him drugs and gas to knock him out. can't remember what drug it was right now.

then after he had the horns cut off he couldn't get skin pulled to cover the holes so he just handed him back over to me still knocked out with 2 big holes in his head. He told me he would be back awake "in no time".
it took that poor goat hours to even start coming back to life. poor goat. I was so mad at that vet. :mad

the goat is recovered and much better now. he is slowly getting some horn growth back around the edges but I am going to leave him alone now.


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## Feral Nature (Oct 26, 2007)

*Re: Bandind horns*

Oh Megan, what a horrible story. So sorry for the little guy :down


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## cariboujaguar (Feb 9, 2009)

*Re: Bandind horns*

I have some goats who need this done... the surgery is $75 here and they're just landclearing goats. They get fed and cared for the same as my show herd but they are just mutts we rescued, tested, quarantined and finally encorperated into the herd. They're sweet and cute, but I HATE horns and want them gone... I'm on the fence about doing this... I think I'll research a little more... lol


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*

When I first got goats I thought What is the big deal about horns? And all the first four goats I bought had them but when I bought my first reg LMs I started selling or dehorning the mutts I had first to protect the more valuable goats. The bands have worked pretty well but when they have the bands on I have watched constantly for bleeding and infection and it is nerve-wracking.


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## chewie (Jul 26, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*

glad to hear i'm not the only one who's disbudding just didn't get done. i have some youngsters that i need to dehorn somehow. a couple still have smaller buds, can i still use the iron on them?? file the tips to be sure it fits in the iron? how long to leave it 'on' to be sure a good burn?? this is one chore i am NOT leaving til hubby can help with next year--getting a box built so i can just do it myself when its less trouble for all involved. so can i band these now??

would caustic work at all for this type?? these are around 2 months, some less. i plan to keep a couple, the girls, but the boys i left as they will only be sold for meat anyhow. i would love to hear some advice. thanks.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

*Re: Bandind horns*

We had great success with a doe group that was never disbudded. 8 of them at 6 months. Only one knocked something off early because of hay racks made out of cattle panels and bossy does. Took the disbudding iron to the bleeding and she was fine.
They got a few scurs but those were sure better than heads stuck in the fence and newly elevated bullies bossing the hornless around. After nipping the scurs with hoof trimmers they come in weaker and weaker and sometimes quit.

Never tried a buck and I can see how that could fail readily with their horn bed ranging all the way across the head by the time there is any horn to speak of. The article on how to says it will not work before 4 inches of horn and on a buck that means there is no way to encompass the whole part of the head that grows horn with a band at the base of what is showing above the hairline.

We had one older doe that we tried to do but she had horns like rock and after going thru 3 sets of bands with only a small dent in her horns we went to more drastic means and cut a notch with one of those files that has 3 sides. The band slipped in there and we put a wire over the top of that and by crackie that gal finally gave em up.

Not nearly so nice as disbudding but great in a have to situation.
L~


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## Pam V (Jan 3, 2009)

*Re: Bandind horns*

We removed horns using the banding method. We talked to a gal that is going to vet school and has helped us with our first goat kidding gone train wreck. She was great. She brought over a Calicrate bander and none slipped. But then it is a cattle horn bander so waht would a person expect. We only paid for the bands which are sergical tubing. That is an amazing tool! Here is a site to see what it is about, but I'd check to see if there was someone that had one that you could pay a bit to to get it done.
http://www.nobull.net/bander/SBtestimonials.html
How did it work?
IMHO it did the job, though it was't pretty for some. Some came off nicely, some got knocked off and were a bloody mess covering the goats face, Some got infected because they didn't come off as quick and the infection was under the horn. Only one grew back and it was one that had been a scur/horn that grew straight out from the head and was reallly dense so was difficut to get the band low enough. Still it killed the top half so we cut the top half off and rebanded with the little green bands and then it was gone. Nearly all goats lost some condition, some more than others, and there was obvious discomfort, enought that I gave banamine to a couple for a few days. It is an experience that I don't want to ever do again but will if I have horns again...which looks like I will one more time. And I would definately try to get that gadget to do it. It took off some that were 10 inches and no scurs...we still have that old gal.

I think that this is the way all banding goes...not that I have done any other way but read a bit before I tried it.
Pam


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

it will remove horns in kids that will grow back. for us it did NOT removehorns in our adult buck. all it did was dig in to a certain point and then stop. surgical removal at Texas A&M ($70) on the other hand, worked wonders.


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## Pam V (Jan 3, 2009)

I Wouldn't try it on any goat kids. I can't imagine that it would work. Maybe someone else had better experience there.

I did feel bad for the goats. There is discomfort. BUt if I have to I will do it again to avoid horns and big skurs that continue to get broke and bleed like H311. 
We forgot to disbud the buckling soon enough that we have now and he broke off a scur when butting heads just last week. We had to nip it down and burn it with the saldering (sp) iron. He was hard to hold, even with the milk stantion. It is just a mess. Depending on how long we keep him, he is a definate candidate.

On the funny side, Our first time at disbudding and bandingand having goat for meat:
We had two wethers They had all kind of weird stuff coming from thier heand and we called them the 'One-Nut-Wonders' cause we wondered how we missed one on each of them. No big deal cause they were in the freezer eventually and we learned what not to do.
Those were the days! :rofl
Pam


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

It sounds like they are way too small for a band to work and I sure wouldn't use caustic at this point. Maybe nip the horns off, then burn. (Guessing) Or wait to do the bands til the horns are taller.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

cut the horns off with hoof trimmers then burn...


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

The thing I did not like about it was that it made them head shy for awhile.
Sad. But better than heads stuck in the fence.
L~


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## Pam V (Jan 3, 2009)

Buckrun- Your right. I forgot about that. It takes a very long time for them to get over it. I really don't look forward to it again but will if need be. I'd try a vet removal but there isn't a vet that has goat experience here.
We banded some hornes two years ago and the doe that liked to rub her head on my leg just started to do it again last fall. It was weird cause she rubbed ghost horns on me for some time. She also attempted to hit other goats with horns that weren't there. It was interesting but sad, somehow. But horns are not right for us, here.

Pam


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## MamaGoat (Mar 18, 2009)

$25-$75 per goat for a dehorning?!?! Geez is that all?!?! I had read that de-horning was expensive and dang near impossible! I'm going to check UC Davis and see if they will do it and get our Oberhasli wethers done if so. One of them is getting way too big for his britches and he's figured out how to hook my arm in between his horns and toss it when I'm trying to pet the other goats. On the other hand, if he has no horns I won't be able to grab him by them and drag him around to show him what's what...


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

"But better than heads stuck in the fence."

Better headshy than dead...we had a buck whose scurs (disbudded by someone else) were sufficient to trap him in the fence where he was killed by dogs.


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## favablue (Apr 11, 2009)

We have used the bands and liked the results. 

The three does where a few months under a year. 

We cut small notches under the horn base in about three places and non of them slipped. It makes it a lot cleaner to cut the hair around the horns also. 

About every 3 to 4 weeks we put some antibiotic right around the horns because they often have trouble with infection while banding.

They all knocked the horns off before they were supposed to and had bloody heads. I heard you can burn the blood vessels with a dehorner, but we did not feel like we needed to because they stopped bleeding completely in about 45 min. We later would clean them off with hydrogen peroxide. 

They were head shy for a while, but eventually got over it.


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