I bought a Nubian doe with horns. One horn curls up and looks to be obstructive to her vision. Think I can/should trim it back some? I'm not even sure if I can without hurting her, but it seems to me it would be annoying having that always protruding right by your eye? The other side isn't like that all.
I *could* have her dehorned but that seems like it would be unnecessary and traumatizing.
(Yes she's riding on the back seat of my truck, goats are so awesome, they ride better than my dogs do!)
We use a wire saw (Walmart calls them survival saws). Obstetrical wire is another term.
On my bucks, I gave some Banamine, 1-1/2cc IM. Then I fired up my disbudder until it was hot, glowing red. We sawed the horn back pretty far. Then the little blood that started welling up, I cauterized it with the disbudder.
You need a helper. I put mine in a wooden milk stand, put a rope halter on them and pulled the head down and tied he halter then held onto the head while DH did the sawing then I did the cauterizing. The bucks were more upset being tied tightly than the actual procedure.
We use a wire saw (Walmart calls them survival saws). Obstetrical wire is another term.
On my bucks, I gave some Banamine, 1-1/2cc IM. Then I fired up my disbudder until it was hot, glowing red. We sawed the horn back pretty far. Then the little blood that started welling up, I cauterized it with the disbudder.
You need a helper. I put mine in a wooden milk stand, put a rope halter on them and pulled the head down and tied he halter then held onto the head while DH did the sawing then I did the cauterizing. The bucks were more upset being tied tightly than the actual procedure.
We use a wire saw (Walmart calls them survival saws). Obstetrical wire is another term.
On my bucks, I gave some Banamine, 1-1/2cc IM. Then I fired up my disbudder until it was hot, glowing red. We sawed the horn back pretty far. Then the little blood that started welling up, I cauterized it with the disbudder.
You need a helper. I put mine in a wooden milk stand, put a rope halter on them and pulled the head down and tied he halter then held onto the head while DH did the sawing then I did the cauterizing. The bucks were more upset being tied tightly than the actual procedure.
I am new here, but this is just a thought. I recently learned and did this to one of my bucks....You can make a mark (where you want the end of the horn to be) and then put a castration band on it. It kills the end of the horn and will just fall off in a couple of weeks. It's pain free and not traumatizing other than the initial part of holding his head to put the band on.
I've read about using OB wire - how far back would you cut? I was kind of thinking behind her ear maybe but not sure if that's too far and I'm going to hit a gusher or not.
She's a nice looking doe, and very personable, and if her horns were normal I'd leave them alone (not a fan of horns really, especially on dairy goats).
I would start under the ear, then go back gradually. The friction from the wire will stop minor blood. Don't saw super fast or pull super hard, you will snap the wire. Steady pressure and a decent speed works best. You'll be able to figure it out when you start sawing. Do you have anything to cauterize if you hit blood?
I'm waiting on my disbudder, I keep quick clot handy for emergencies, but I'm going to wait until my disbudder gets here, just ordered it - we aren't expecting kids until April so I held off on getting one and even then I probably won't even need it yet because the ones due in April will all have meat goat kids, her included as she's bred to a Kiko buck. My June babies will be all dairy kids.
I wasn't entirely confident on sawing on it at all or how far I think blood vessels would be, I have never cut horns at all before. My Boers keep theirs, and the only other one that had any was my Nubian buck which had a really small scur that he knocked off recently - but it didn't bleed at all.
I agree on banding. Take the tip off first though, it takes about month or more for the horn to fall of after placing the band. You don't want the horn growing long enough to cause damage while waiting for the band to take affect.
I use a cable cutter to tip off sections of horn on those that need it, all my goats have horns dairy and Boer. my LaMancha needed her horns tipped, about 3-4 in taken off due to a deformity that made them super week, I would cut hers under the ear if she was mine.
I've read a lot of bad on banding. I'm not sure how well that would work on only half the horn.
I wonder if they would work if I notched it out with my dremel a little so they have somewhere to sit, around the back of the ears and then band from there.
If I can get away with only banding a portion of the horns, I'd be happy to do it. I'd assume it should work since it's going to cut off the blood supply to the ends of the horn. As of now, that tip isn't touching anything, it's maybe 1 inch from her skull, but that has to be annoying to constantly have that in your line of sight, or maybe I'm just thinking for the goat and she doesn't care, lol.
I wonder if they would work if I notched it out with my dremel a little so they have somewhere to sit, around the back of the ears and then band from there.
That's exactly what I do, though I mostly deal with scurs.
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