# dehorning older kids



## Trysta

I need advice. I messed up and missed a group of kids with disbudding. So here I am looking at a small group of 2 month old kids with horntips too large to use the disbudding iron on, of course. It's stupid, I know, and I wouldn't mind just letting it be since personally I don't mind horned goats, but of course one's a buck I wouldn't mind keeping and one's a kid my daughter would like to show. Does anyone have any experience with dehorning? I have called my vet and he'll come, but I'm worried that he won't know what he's looking at with goats. Need some good tips on what to use, or, if there's no good solution than I'll just take my loss and leave the horns on.


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## Dorit

The same thing happed to us, one horn is growing out and the other is a knob. The second doeling has just two hard spots. Anxious to hear results!!


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## swgoats

Well, a guy brought out two six week old kids the other day. They were underweight though and the horns hadn't grown much. (Guy was using replacer, and they weren't eating very well. And I questioned if the breeder had told him wrong on the ages.) I clipped the horn tip off a little at a time and burnt them down.


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## Trysta

I really think these are beyond burning. With calves you can 'scoop' the somewhat larger ones, but I'm not sure if you can do that with goats. kind of thinking it could be done for a doe, but not for a buckling? Hope to find someone here with experience in dehorning.


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## buckrun

You can clip the tip with hoof nippers-and even take the goat tip off the dibudder and use the cattle tip and just burn all the way across the head. I picked up Alpine kids from a breeder that did it that way because she only disbudded reserved kids and I found these doelings on their way to meat market. So she did that for me and they had lovely smooth heads altho it looked gruesome the day it was done.
Lee


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## buckrun

Can you photo?- we can tell you if it is too late by seeing them.
You would be surprised I think at how old you can disbud.
Not the best esp the restraining part but if you can get help holding it can be done.
L


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## Dorit

A friend found out that his disbudding efforts weren't working, they grew back. He decided that the head had worn down and was too thin to conduct the heat, so he had a machinist make a thicker, larger tip. I would never think of that. He has a 8 week old buck with horns that are 1 1/2 - 2" horns he is taking to vet to dehorn. They will use something that looks like a hole digger, cut of just below joint and sharpened. So when you pull arms out it cuts off horn. Of course its much smaller than a digger. The vet said it will bleed A LOT, just keep flies off to protect against infection. Dorit


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## MayLOC

We use homemade irons for branding calves and dehorning calves. You heat them up in a propane burner. We select one of the smallest tips (for calves) to do the goats with and have great results. I know they have a "calf" tip for the electric burner that most folks here use, but I don't know what the diamater of that is. Maybe you can find somebody that uses their own horn irons and borrow some of the bigger ones for your group. Just nip them off as close to the skull with hoof nippers and then burn as normal. 
Last summer we were in a rush while doing a couple of doelings and ended up with a scur. It had started to curl to the back of her head by the time she was about 6-7 months old. We nipped and reburned and have a smooth head now.

The "small post hole digger" dehorners :lol are just another calf product you can get from anywhere. We use them sometimes on older calves with some growth but we just nip them to the skull and burn as normal. I have seen them used going into the head a bit without a burn and boy did they squirt blood and leave a open wound. I much prefer the nip and burn method.


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## Sharpgoat

I just disbudded two 28 day old Nupines does with a buck tip they had horns just out of the fur.
I use it for disbudding Boer buck kids and I do not get scurs.
Fran
http://www.caprinesupply.com/products/kid-raising/disbudding/buck-caprine-tip-for-x50.html


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## fmg

MayLOC said:


> The "small post hole digger" dehorners :lol are just another calf product you can get from anywhere. We use them sometimes on older calves with some growth but we just nip them to the skull and burn as normal. I have seen them used going into the head a bit without a burn and boy did they squirt blood and leave a open wound.


Those are called Barnes dehorners. We used them in tech school, with the blood spraying everywhere like you described. Then, we would take a pair of hemostats and grab the "bleeders" (small arteries) and twist until they broke, which stretches the vessels out and closes them up. Or you can cauterize them. It was a mess.


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## Qz Sioux

fmg said:


> MayLOC said:
> 
> 
> 
> The "small post hole digger" dehorners :lol are just another calf product you can get from anywhere. We use them sometimes on older calves with some growth but we just nip them to the skull and burn as normal. I have seen them used going into the head a bit without a burn and boy did they squirt blood and leave a open wound.
> 
> 
> 
> Those are called Barnes dehorners. We used them in tech school, with the blood spraying everywhere like you described. Then, we would take a pair of hemostats and grab the "bleeders" (small arteries) and twist until they broke, which stretches the vessels out and closes them up. Or you can cauterize them. It was a mess.
Click to expand...

I remember the same thing when I was in tech school. We did a rancher's herd of calves as a "field trip". I remember having to leave cuz I couldn't stand the jokes, the bloody mess, and all the calves yelling :nooo . They also "steered" all the bull calves at the same time. The student's had a "rocky-mountain oyster" party afterwards :ick


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## nightskyfarm

I recently had to do a reburn on a 5 -6 week old Saanen buckling who appeared to be growing scurs. It was not pleasant and he was hard to hold because of his size and strength, but it was done. My hired man held the goat and I burned. I did give the buckling some banamine after which I do not normaally do, but due to his size, I felt it warranted. He is fine. Been almost 2 weeks. I need the 3/4" tip on my iron. We have only the medium sized tip or the calf tip. The medium tip is fine for most goats except bucks who were not done at 3 days but at 5 or more days.


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## MayLOC

personally I found it as easy to straddle and hold the 6 month old's head as I did the squirmy bodied little yet stout kids. :lol Only thing I didn't like is she held a grudge against me for a little while... at least until feeding time. lol. I didn't use any banamine and I thought it went really well; much better than I had thought it would.


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## lonestrchic23

Vet reburned a HUGE scur on my Alpine buck last year.... Used a calf tip on a homemade iron thats heated with a torch. My X30 wouldn't fit over the scur...

Burned, used trimmers to cut flat (it's soft, easy to cut then) & burned again.

Redid my Lamancha the same way, but his scur wasn't as wide so the X30 fit over it. Have banamine before starting, held an ice pack on, then turned him loose.... He was around 3 months old.


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## goatkid

http://www.westernranchsupply.com/body.php3?cat_id=1&sub_id=6
On this page, you will see dehorners with a loop. My friend has one of those. She cuts off the tip of the horn and then uses one of those irons to dehorn kids who got forgotten until they were older. They also work good on kids with scurs.


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## Golden Delta Alpines

I used to wonder how you could get the big curling scurs off of a goat's head permanently. Or do they keep coming back, even if you burn them off?


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## lonestrchic23

The big curling ones on adults would best be removed surgically.... I know some folks band them with varying results.. I've never banded, so I dunno if after banding if it's done for good. 

I know one gal who banded a 1 year old doe and after the horn came off they had the vet burn with a calf dehorner... She's still horn free & it's been 6 months.... Dunno if she'll stay that way though.


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## Trysta

Well, tackled 3 two month old bucklings' horns in team work with the neighbor who's a vet, wethered 4, and dehorned a 4 month old boer doeling. Didn't use the calf tip, because I've had bad experience with a vet doing that to one of my kids, so we used a combo of cutting wire, scalpel and burning with goat disbudder. It looks good and the victims have already been on the lambar without problem (including that silly, long weaned, 4 month old Boer....). I hope the results will be good. I promise to be a better and earlier disbudder.....


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## MayLOC

Glad you got it all done. HOpe they come out nice.
What was the bad experience with the calf tip? Calf tip for the electric dehorner I assume.
We have never used anything but calf sized irons and never had a problem. But I guess I don't know what it would be like to use a goat one, so maybe it seems a big deal to everybody else?


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## Trysta

Yes, it was electric, but it was an odd one, so you probably have something completely different. The burn was just really huge and took a long time healing because it opened up all the time and it remained a scar, didn't grow much hair over it. If you use the system consistently, I'm sure you do not have that kind of result. Just bad luck I guess, but I chose to go another way. Hope it worked!


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## Estrella

I have a question relating to this, I have two LaMancha doelings that are about 6 weeks old, they were disbudded at about 1 1/2 weeks old (I usually like to do it a little sooner but that just didn't happen this year) and they seem to be getting hard raised areas under the skin where their horns would be. There is nothing poking out of the skin, no horn buds, scurs or anything. I've been thinking I may need to re-disbud, but I don't want to put them through that without it being necessary. I've had some bucklings grow scurs before but they poked through the skin pretty quickly, these are just lumps on top of the doelings' heads. Should I just go ahead and burn the areas again?


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