# disbudding question for older babies



## Bekahbear (Jan 15, 2014)

we just aquired 2 baby Nubian bucklings and 2 baby Nubian/Boar doelings.
they were not disbudded but i really dont want horns for safety reasons for both them and us (partly because of the type of fence we have and partly because we have a young daughter)
we will be wethering one of the boys and keeping him as a pet for my daughter. the other boy we will find a good home for. we are planning on keeping the 2 girls as pets and for milk in the future. 

i have heard/read conflicting info on whether or or not it is too late to disbud them. i am pretty new to goats but my husband used to raise them for 4h when he was younger. he has disbudded before but only on younger babies. 

im not sure on age of the babies but i do know that the girls are older than the boys. the boys horns are fairly prominent bumps but they have not yet broken the skin. the girls horns have broken the skin and are about 1/2 inch or so is my guess. i have an X-50 disbudding iron and both the 1/2" goat tip and the buck tip attachments. i have heard that you can use horse hoof nippers to clip the horn down (for horns the size the girls have) then quickly cauterize them, which would allow the iron to make better contact with the horn bud for disbudding. 

we just built a slightly bigger disbudding box last night to fit the larger babies and are planning to go ahead with disbudding them tomorrow if it is something that is doable.

does anyone have experience disbudding older babies? do you think we can still do it with reasonable results? any and all help/information is welcomed.
thanks


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

How old are the babies?


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## Bekahbear (Jan 15, 2014)

I don't know how old they are. All I know is that the 2 boys are younger than the 2 girls.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

It sounds like you can still disbud them, I've done kids at 2 months old before and the buds sound like similar size as the does you have, and everything was fine, they didn't grow scurs (for me anyway). Just burn until you can knock the bud of, burn the caps, and around the cap some more. It will be fine.


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## erica4481 (Mar 26, 2013)

I just had my 8 month old lamancha done last week. I'm assuming she had already been done previously but scurs grew back. They looked and felt just like normal horns though. They weren't wiggly at all. And they were about 3/4 of an inch long. Had no trouble at all and they popped right off .


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

A picture would help to say for sure but I would think a dis budding iron would be out. MAYBE a calf de horning iron might work.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

As long as the disbudder fits over the horn, you can do it.


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## Bekahbear (Jan 15, 2014)

Little-Bits-N-Pieces said:


> It sounds like you can still disbud them, I've done kids at 2 months old before and the buds sound like similar size as the does you have, and everything was fine, they didn't grow scurs (for me anyway). Just burn until you can knock the bud of, burn the caps, and around the cap some more. It will be fine.





erica4481 said:


> I just had my 8 month old lamancha done last week. I'm assuming she had already been done previously but scurs grew back. They looked and felt just like normal horns though. They weren't wiggly at all. And they were about 3/4 of an inch long. Had no trouble at all and they popped right off .





ksalvagno said:


> As long as the disbudder fits over the horn, you can do it.


i am feeling a bit more confident after reading some of your responses. we will give it a go tonight after work. i have the rinehart x-50 iron with the cattle size end plus the 1/2" goat attachment and the buck tip attachment. i will try the different options before i heat up the iron to see what fits each baby the best. 
i will give you guys an update after the deed is done. i will post pictures if i can get them to work so you can let us know if you think we did a good job or not. hopefully all goes as planned.


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## DoubleR (Jan 13, 2014)

I also have gained a feeling of ease after reading this post. I feel ok with doing it here when the time comes now.  Thanks guys n gals!


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## milk and honey (Oct 31, 2010)

My little buckling was dissbudded at about 8 weeks... I didn't do it, but it all seems to have gone fine! No signs of any Scurs... I was surprised it could be done that late!!! Who knew?!?


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

I did 4 month old pygmies for a 4-h family once, I asked if they were sure, they said yes, do it. They had probably 3 inch long horns, I burnt the horn down a ways, waited a bit, repeated the process a few times until I got to a normal size bud, knocked the bud of, burned a bit more, and they were good to go. They never grew anything back. 
Not that I'd recommend waiting that long, but it is doable.


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