Re-burn needed after disbudding?

idnatalie11

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Hi,
We had one of our Nigerian Dwarf buck triplets born with horns (the others were naturally polled). We had a goat farmer friend dis-bud him for us but it now looks like his horns are coming back in. We've never dis-budded before but we do have the farmers burn kit he sold us as they are moving.

I've read about having to do the figure 8 burn (which he didn't do). He told us about getting the copper rings (said it took about 10 seconds). Also about needing to clip/flatten this new growth, carterize and then overlap the old rings with a new burn in that figure 8 pattern (?)

It looks like the new horns are growing out from the front (see pic) of the old burn rings so I don't know if they are scurs or just new growth that didn't get burned originally? I cicled in red where I thought we needed to re-burn?

Any advice and is this something we can do ourselves? He was Disbudded at 10 days old and is now 5 weeks old.

Thanks in advance!
Natalie
 

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Alaskan

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Eh....

At 5 weeks he is getting a bit old for it.. but it can still be done.

It looks to me like the main horn was killed, and you are getting some growth from just the front edge.

At this age you have to hold the iron down for quite a bit, but make sure you don't hold it down so long that you fry their brain. And... they sure do holler.

However, probably really important to get it done, because a funky half horn scur is anywhere from dangerous to inconvenient.

So..... personally.... I would call around begging and find someone that does at bare minimum at least 20 a year... and have them do it for me.

If calling and begging didn't work.... I might even shell out the money for a vet.

Sooner is better though.
 

frustratedearthmother

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It looks like a scur - but a really solid scur. You can reburn it but he's going to hate you afterwards, lol. It will take a lot of heat to get through that and I'd be a little worried about brain damage. What I've done in some instances is keep a cool pack handy. I cool their head first and then do a partial burn and then cool their head again - then burn again. I hate to do it like that because then the wet hair creates steam. Ugh. But, scurs are no fun to deal with. Like Alaskan said - you're pretty much at the end of the time window so it needs to be done quickly.

Another option is to let it grow and band it later. I've known people who have done that. I've never been successful at it so you'd have to read up on it. I tried once but the band and the electrical tape I used to cover it got rubbed off.
 

idnatalie11

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Thank you both for the info & suggestions to get help! I contacted the farmer who had initially helped us and they hadn't sold their house/ moved yet so they came back out and re-burned it for us no problem. He's been doing this over 16 years so he knew the drill and the scurs popped/flaked right off - no blood even. Wheww...thanks for encouraging us to get help-i fear if we had tried it ourselves we could have done more damage but after watching this round 2 we feel much better /confident going forward! Really appreciate the quick responses. I love these forums.
God bless!
N
 

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