Disbudding Kids

Our young bucklings are now going on two weeks old. At age four days, we undertook to disbud the young kids.

There are arguments for not disbudding goats. One, the horns are defensive and help to deter predators. Two, and more importantly, the horns aid the goat's circulatory system. A lot of blood flows through a goat's fully developed horns. The system helps a goat body adjust to extremely hot and cold weather. These are good reasons why a person would choose not to disbud her goat.

However, there are some negative aspects of horns. First, horns can be dangerous to other animals and people. Second, horns can be dangerous to goats in that they may cause a goat to become hung in fences or other objects.

We chose to disbud our kids for several reasons. First, our two adult does are disbudded so they would be disadvantaged in a herd of goats some of which have horns and some of which do not. Secod, we live in the temperate climate of the North Carolina piedmont so the circulatory system benefits of horns are less necessary at our homestead than in a more extreme environment. The primary factor for us was safety. We do intend to apply a paddock shift with the goats and they will encounter lots of fences. They also will be on pasture with our horses. The risk of a veternarian bill to treat a potentially disemboweled horse would be a problem for our family.

The procedure is to burn the young kid's head where the horns are just beginning to grow. The burning, if done successfully, destroys the goat's glands that cause the horns to grow. Our bucklings were disbudded at day five. Even at day five, you could feel the developing horns growing in the kids.

We gave our goats Ow-eze before the process. This herb intoxicated the animal. The procedure involved a small, narrow box. The four-day old kid was inserted into the box, which had an opening and lip on one end for his head. The kid's head was held against the lip and the tool, a hot iron made into a small circular ring, applied to and around the horn area. After burning the head, a spray was applied to the injury and the kid was returned to the herd.

Immediately after the procedure, one of the two kids seemed a bit disoriented (perhaps partially from the effects of the Ow-eez), but within an hour, the two bucklings were both running and jumping as if the experience and injury were totally forgotten.