Ridgetop
Herd Master
Definitely let the breeder know so she can disbud earlier. My experience has always been with standard dairy goats and Boers. I learned to disbud from an old goat breeder who then sold me his disbudding iron. It has got to be one of the earliest ones and burns really hot - much hotter than the new ones. It's at least 60 or so years old. I sent it in to be repaired years ago and they wanted to keep it for their museum and send me a new one! I said no since you can't get anything this good anymore. The new ones don't burn as hot "for safety reasons". To me that is like selling a dull knife since the sharp ones are dangerous!
As I said, I only know and do standard dairy goats, not minis or Nigerian Dwarf. I only did a few pygmies for a friend. They were difficult because the iron didn't fit properly on their tiny horn buds and I had too be extra careful. The standard disbudding irons were all made for either standard dairy goats or larger ones for cattle. I taught DS2 and he has been disbudding since he was 13. We did all the disbudding for all the goat project members too. We also had to disbud the Boers since they were going to be market project animals and couldn't show in market with horns. We never had scurs on anything. However, the trick is to burn enough, long enough, and far enough around enough of the base of the horns to totally kill the horn bud and most people don't. They stop too soon. You have to burn until the caps that peel off show white bone underneath. It is not easy to disbud properly what with the stink and the kids screeching, then the silence when they stop and just gasp and you think you killed them.
Disbudding is awful, but it is better than losing a child's eye, or another pet, or having the goat string itself up on a fence and die from choking or bleeding to death from breaking off a horn. Also the damage to fences, feeders, etc. Disbudding is the only way to avoid that. Dehorning is messy, bloody, and harder on the goat since by the time you dehorn the blood vessels have grown into the horn and need to be cauterized. It is surgery.
You have to disassociate yourself from the smell and sounds (and send the owners out of the room sometimes) to concentrate and it is very hard to do. You have to totally concentrate on the job and close yourself off from everything else. That is why most people have problems with scurs, and or botched disbudding. I have seen lots of scurs in the show ring as well as in back yards. We always hated disbudding, but it had to be done. We never had scurs on a single animal. On the other hand we sold most of our buck kids for the meat market and only disbudded a few of them for practice before doing the does. Ethnic meat buyers like their kids with horns and testicles! LOL
As I said, I only know and do standard dairy goats, not minis or Nigerian Dwarf. I only did a few pygmies for a friend. They were difficult because the iron didn't fit properly on their tiny horn buds and I had too be extra careful. The standard disbudding irons were all made for either standard dairy goats or larger ones for cattle. I taught DS2 and he has been disbudding since he was 13. We did all the disbudding for all the goat project members too. We also had to disbud the Boers since they were going to be market project animals and couldn't show in market with horns. We never had scurs on anything. However, the trick is to burn enough, long enough, and far enough around enough of the base of the horns to totally kill the horn bud and most people don't. They stop too soon. You have to burn until the caps that peel off show white bone underneath. It is not easy to disbud properly what with the stink and the kids screeching, then the silence when they stop and just gasp and you think you killed them.
Disbudding is awful, but it is better than losing a child's eye, or another pet, or having the goat string itself up on a fence and die from choking or bleeding to death from breaking off a horn. Also the damage to fences, feeders, etc. Disbudding is the only way to avoid that. Dehorning is messy, bloody, and harder on the goat since by the time you dehorn the blood vessels have grown into the horn and need to be cauterized. It is surgery.
You have to disassociate yourself from the smell and sounds (and send the owners out of the room sometimes) to concentrate and it is very hard to do. You have to totally concentrate on the job and close yourself off from everything else. That is why most people have problems with scurs, and or botched disbudding. I have seen lots of scurs in the show ring as well as in back yards. We always hated disbudding, but it had to be done. We never had scurs on a single animal. On the other hand we sold most of our buck kids for the meat market and only disbudded a few of them for practice before doing the does. Ethnic meat buyers like their kids with horns and testicles! LOL
If Lucy is growing horns, they're not growing nearly as fast as Alice's.
