# 3 weeks old to late to disbud?



## farm mom (Feb 25, 2008)

We have 3 week old doelings, is it too late to disbud? Should I just wait until the horns get bigger and band them instead? Thanks!


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## Chaty (Oct 25, 2007)

I thnk its basically what type of iron you have and how big the buds have gotten, and what type of goat. I just got through doing 5 wk old Nigerian quads. They did fine as they are on the smaller size and it was doelings also.


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## Rose (Oct 26, 2007)

Depends if your iron will fit over the horn bud at this stage.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

you can get the iron "screaming hot" as Vicki once told us, cut the little horns off then cautarize with the iron then come back around the base. it may not fit evenly over, but you can get around the base with concentric circles. we have two minis that we will have to do this to. Somehow with taking care of my dad in hospice care these two little ones got missed.


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

have to admit I have done it many times not always the neatest job but works.


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## MayLOC (Oct 26, 2007)

Yes, we just did two 3.5 wk. olds last week who had some pretty pointy little horns sticking above their hair. We also re-did a bought 12 wk. old buckling who had 3 in. scurs sticking up. Just used hoof shears to snip the horns and scurs off and then burn. Our horn iron is actually a homemade calf iron, so no problem w/it fitting over the horns. burned a good ring, brushed off the cap and burned more; same protocol w/calves.


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## Good Goats (Oct 26, 2007)

As long as the iron is got enough and fits over the horn bud, it should be fine. I have disbudded plenty of kids at 2 wks, some more.


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## Becky-DixieDoesAlpines (Oct 26, 2007)

I'd do it. I did 3-4 week old kids for someone last summer and they burned down well.
Becky


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## CarlinsDarlin (Feb 8, 2008)

Do different breeds get horns at different rates? I ask because my Lamancha/Nubian cross babies have serious horn buds at one week old (yesterday), whereas the Nubian babies, only 3 days younger, have very small buds.
Kathy


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## leslieh (Oct 25, 2007)

Hi, Kathy

Yes they do. And each goat is different even between twins. Some bucklings are born with tall horn buds and then their sisters won't have any that can be felt until about a week old. We disbud on an as needed basis which means we may be disbudding twice a week. Yes, we could have done them all together, but dear hubby (he's such a softy) wanted them to have a little more bud!

To me, the saanen boys are the worse. I can manage to not get scurs on the nubians bucklings, but I always seem to have them on the saanens bucks. 

Leslie


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## Good Goats (Oct 26, 2007)

Kathy, yes, different breeds have different horn growth "rates." Also bucklings' horn buds usually grow MUCH faster than doellings' horn buds.


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## CarlinsDarlin (Feb 8, 2008)

Thanks Leslie and Suriyah. I thought that might be the case, but I wasn't sure. Leslie, I can't say a thing about your hubby's soft heart. I won't even be disbudding my own babies this year... maybe next year  I'll be calling Donna to see when she can help with the task. She did the last two babies for me. Maybe she'll help with these five 
Kathy


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## Feral Nature (Oct 26, 2007)

My goat kids were disbudded rather haphazardly this spring with me being under the weather. We would just heat the iron and then grab some kids. Some were 3-4 weeks before they were disbudded. We still have 2 mini s that need disbudding. I would take the hoof clippers on any with big buds and cut them off quite aggressively and then burn. One even had a pretty impressive little arterial squirt (Bill kept his cool like an ol'pro) but the iron cauterized it.


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## Guest (May 20, 2008)

I have someone driving a couple hours on thursday, to get a set of nubian twins redone. They are now a month old. The vet burned them for her :/ (same vet who did her kids last year. Every kid had eyes swollen shut, weeping, wet burns for a week or more. One buckling DIED the day after... guess he decided not to burn quite so deep or push so hard this year.. to the point of (from the sounds of it) he burned just the skin!!!. I'm going to have to use clippers too. Just hope the horn bases aren't to big around. Did a couple way over due alpine kids earlier in the spring, for a lady. I was SURE she'd get horrid scurs or worse & warned her, before hand..She insisted that I try. I burned & worked and burned some more. All of them came thru fine.. now 3 months later, they all have nice clean heads. (I just kept thinking while I was burning them that I was glad they weren't my kids!) Coso taught me how to burn. Now, I always try to talk people into getting their own iron and learning how to do it..
susie, mo ozarks


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