Why do we disbud?
1. Injury both to animals and people. Horns are a defensive mechanism in the wild and they get used as such even on the farm. I have seen goats gutted, ripped open, peoples knees ripped open, and my husband almost lost his eye to a bad scur.
2. Death from getting caught in fencing or hay feeders etc. In the wild there aren't fences or hay feeders to contend with. I have heard about several breeders that came home to animals hung in a feeder or they have died from dehydration because they were caught in something.
3. Showing. We personally do not show our goats but dairy breeds must be disbudded in order to show them.
4. Sellability. Goats that have horns are harder to sell in our area and also are worth less.
What NOT to do:
1. Do not use the paste. It can cause blindness. It can burn other areas and other goats. It is incredibly painful for them. If you want to see just how bad it is then do a YouTube search and compare videos of disbudding with an iron vs. the paste. You will watch the kids scream for 20 min while the paste is slowly burning a hole in their head. It is pretty heart breaking. With that it is not accurate and creates scurs
2. Do not use clove oil. I am for all natural treatments for my animals, IF they work! Clove oil is just not an effective way to disbud and just causes pain and burns the goat. There is even a Facebook page specifically on the subject.
3. Do not wait and band horns (or surgically dehorn) instead. As the horn develops there will actually become an opening between the goat horn's and the sinus's of the goat. This will then leave a big open wound into the goat's sinuses for bacteria, flies, etc to enter. It is much more humane to disbud when the kid is young then to try and dehorn as the goat is older.
SO HOW TO DO I DISBUD MY NIGERIAN DWARF GOAT?
What do you use to disbud a Nigerian Dwarf Goat?
We use a Rhinhert RX30 with the 3/8" tip. You can find it at Jeffer's here.
What age do you disbud a goat?
You want to disbud boys as soon as you can feel any bud. This can be as early as 24-48 hours. We frequently disbud bucklings by the time they are 3 days old. Doelings can be anywhere from 2-14 days. Same concept though, as soon as you can feel the buds.
What do I need to disbud a goat?
Wood board
Highlighter
2 bath towels
1 dish towel
Leather gloves
Respirator
Sweatshirt with a hoodie
Bute-Less
Disbudder
How do you disbud your goat?
A lot of people use disbudding boxes. We personally found it is easier to use the towel method. This is where you carefully put the goat between your legs as you are on your knees. You place a small rolled handtowel over their neck/low head to hold their head in place to help control them so they do not move during disbudding. You place each end of the towel under each knee.
Step 1
We give an herbal anti-inflammatory about 20-30 min before we disbud. It is called Bute-Less. It is for horses. We only use a small amount but we have noticed a quicker recovery rate in our kids that have had this before. We also use it before wethering and tattooing.
Step 2
Shave around the buds on the head where you will be disbudding. The kid will not like this not because it hurts but because they do not like the sound of the shaver and they will likely cry during trimming.
Shaving & After disbudding area's hair is shaved off
Step 3
Verify the iron is hot enough by checking on a chunk of wood. If you get an even burnt ring right away the iron is hot enough with a puff of smoke. Otherwise let it sit to warm up longer. If your iron is not hot enough then this can create issues while disbudding and can also increase the amount of time it takes to properly disbud which is a higher risk of the animal also. You want to repeat this step inbetween each kid. ​ Step 4: You want to be very careful with the pressure during the next step. You do not want to press hard because you can actually burn through the kids skull. While applying gentle pressure you want to press the iron centered over the bud in a circular motion for 5 seconds. This will seem like forever but just count it out in your head: 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi, etc for the full count and then let up. You should see a nice copper ring around the bud. You should repeat the process on the other side.
Burning one bud at a time while securely holding head & What the copper ring should look like after step 4
Step 5
You want to give it a few seconds in between to give their head time to cool off. Then you want to take the disbudder and use it kind of like a spoon and quickly remove the cap of the bud in the center. ​
Step 6 (ONLY DOELINGS):
Touch the tip of the iron to the bud in the center where you removed the cap. ​
You can see the cap is removed and where her bud was where it was just tapped with the iron.
Step 6 (ONLY BUCKLINGS):
After you remove the cap then you want to wait a few seconds to give their head time to cool off. Then, copying the same process as Step 4, you want to burn another circle. This one will make a figure 8 on the bucklings head. You want the second burn to be forward more and toward the center like the picture below. If you do not complete this step then you will be getting scurs on the bucks.
Figure 8 on a buckling. Notice the second burn also has a copper ring.
Step 7
We do not recommend anything after burning. Some people recommending blue coat or other coatings. The wound is now cauterized and should heal fine. IF it does not and you have applied coating over it you may not be able to tell there is an issue until it is too late. Keeping the area dry will also make it less likely to get an infection where as wetting it now opens the cauterized area up to bacteria.
***Disclaimer: We are simple farmers and not veterinarians. This is for informational purpose only. What we do on our farm may not be what is best for your farm so please do your own research. This is not intended to replace professional veterinary and/or medical advice. We disclaim all liability in connection with the use of these products and/or information.