# Curious if horns naturally "shed?"



## AACmama (Jul 29, 2010)

Two of our wethers were badly, er, "disbudded" by their breeder far too late in their little lives. As a result, we have dealt with scurs for the past three years. The scurs grow, break off, and regrow. Each regrowth comes back thicker and stronger until the new horns have become actual horns, if considerably misshaped. 

Today, poor Gordy broke off both his scur-horns during a rather rowdy game of King-of-the-Compost-Heap. As before, the stubs look healthy and promise to grow back horn material. 

One of the scur-horns was wiggly and we knew it was destined to knock off, but the other one surprised us because it was so much like a "real" horn. We got to wondering if goats knock off their horns naturally, as deer do. So much of the goatie browsing behavior reminds of us deer, as do their movements...so I thought I'd ask if they lose their natural horns periodically.


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## Nanno (Aug 30, 2009)

No, they don't lose their horns naturally. One of mine lost his horn because a dog chased him off a cliff and it broke from the fall (well, actually from the landing). It wasn't even broken all the way, just cracked in two places with the major blood vessels still intact, and it was still a nasty mess that required professional surgery to remove it without causing life-threatening blood loss.


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