# those horns



## wakili (Dec 20, 2012)

Hi, 
We just got our goats about a week ago. I have 3 does and one buck. The 3 does are in a pen together w/ the buck close by. The does have been sorting things out and seem to be getting used to the arrangement w/ Ruby the "queen". This has been somewhat painful to watch as no one debuds their goats here (we live in Africa). And Ruby (about 2 years judging by the teeth - thanks Fias Co Farms) has some devilish horns - the type that stick out so that when she butts another goat she is spearing them at the same time. So what can i do about her horns? The local solution would be a hack saw. This doesn't seem very nice to me, am I right? Would she feel it? Local solutions don't really take the animal into consideration, which we would like to do. If there is a way to take care of those horns it would be great - not only for the other does, but also it is something we could teach our neighbors. I suppose we could leave them but the other two does are pregos and I hate to Ruby do any damage to the little ones. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks in advance.


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## sunshinegoat (Feb 7, 2012)

This may sound silly but when we got our first Boer (who had horns) she was head butting our herd queen who is disbudded... We were worried someone was going to get hurt so we actually padded her horns with flexible foam pipe insulation and duct tape...The pads stayed on pretty good and we took them off after a week when they had worked everything out...as long as you don't mind looking silly this works great 
I wouldn't saw them...It would be painful and could lead to infection and other problems associated with it if they bled alot


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## Stacykins (Mar 27, 2012)

Don't use a hack saw on her horns. There is a big artery running through the horn. You'd basically end up with a goat that is bleeding to death if you tried.


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## Used2bmimi (Oct 3, 2012)

Some people glue or tape balls to the tips of the horns. Looks a little silly, but it's much safer. Or, you can tape a stick crossways between their horns at the tips. There are large blood vessels in the horns, so just cutting them off is messy, painful and risky to the goat's health.


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## clearwtrbeach (May 10, 2012)

It's my understanding due to the blood vessels and using horns to cool them selves you don't want to pad the entire horn. We've just slit holes in tennis balls and a little duct tape to hold them on the tips.


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

Please don't cut them off. Just tape a stick on the front of her horns. This is what I used for my queen. She was spearing my other goats too. You can also put some tennis balls on the ends of the stick as well. Be sure to use a good tape as it lasts a long time and do not but the tape too far down. Goats horns breath so they shouldn't be entirely covered. To test this you can feel up the horn from the base up. You will feel where the horns get colder. As you can see in my signature Candice's horns also wing out this works for her horns too. If her horns are sharp you can also trim them by trimming a quarter of an inch at a time slowly so as to not hit a blood vessel.


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

First off, thank you for caring about the wellbeing and feelings of the animals  Yes, sawing off horns is incredibly painful and potentially life-threatening to goats. If you choose to tape the horns as the poster above has suggested, just be careful not to pull the horns together -- that will hurt them. The horns are very sensitive and if they are being pulled together that will give them a headache.


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## kristinatucker (Jan 3, 2012)

Are you able to band them? You can purchase castration bands and do that to remove them. Fiasco farm has some step by steps on their page. You do have to file a ridge and the lowest level of the horns and then place the band and then another on top. Some people use some electrical tape to help keep them from rolling then ever week or so add another band below the lowest till it falls off. Takes 2-3 weeks. They can bleed a little when it actually falls off. We just banded some bucks here the other day. We use the castration expander to get the bands opened wide enought to put them on.


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## Stacykins (Mar 27, 2012)

kristinatucker said:


> Are you able to band them? You can purchase castration bands and do that to remove them. Fiasco farm has some step by steps on their page. You do have to file a ridge and the lowest level of the horns and then place the band and then another on top. Some people use some electrical tape to help keep them from rolling then ever week or so add another band below the lowest till it falls off. Takes 2-3 weeks. They can bleed a little when it actually falls off. We just banded some bucks here the other day. We use the castration expander to get the bands opened wide enought to put them on.


Since Wakili is in Senegal (West Africa), some of the tools available to us might not be available there. Though they may be, I have no idea!


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## kristinatucker (Jan 3, 2012)

Yes, thats what I was wondering too but maybe so.


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## sbhministry (Oct 12, 2012)

I cut 3/4" from my bucks horns with a PVC pipe cutter. It took only a few seconds per horn and he didn't feel a thing. You could use a hack saw without pain as long as you don't find the vein. They say the last 1 1/2" won't draw blood. I went less to be sure. If he gives us anymore trouble I'll use the rubberbands.


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## wakili (Dec 20, 2012)

Thanks everyone for the help. We decided to try the stick gorrilla taped to the horns. We were careful not to pull them together - thanks for those ideas, we are clueless. 
If the butting stops will take it off and hopefully everything will be well. if not we will look into the other options (cutting the tips off, banding). 
No we don't have access to banders but may order some for someone to bring over to us. I was wondering about castration but we'll leave that for another post (I won't even tell you how they do THAT locally -  describes it perfectly). 
Here is a pic just for fun. Note our "fireplace" in the background. It gets "cold" here too. But we only dream of a white Christmas...


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## kristinatucker (Jan 3, 2012)

Your daughter is adorable. Do you mind telling us what takes you to Africa? Looks facinating. I look forward to hearing about the castration tactics too! Eckk! I can only imagine!


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## wakili (Dec 20, 2012)

Hi Kristina, 
We are here in Senegal as missionaries. Are primary responsibility is teaching the Bible, but our team as done various other projects in the past like teach literacy, dig wells, some medical (but not so much anymore now the govt. has a medical post nearby), currently our biggest project which is just getting started this year is a model farm. All of our neighbors are farmers but still using the same practices their grandfathers used. So we are trying to model/ teach some different ways of doing things, but keeping it low cost and uncomplicated so they can do similar things themselves. Goats are pretty much readily available and attainable by most people, so that is why we are raising them. (And we are already getting addicted - as all of you can understand  Thanks again to the whole TGS for the help and encouragement thus far.


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## wakili (Dec 20, 2012)

The castration is done either by removing the testicles, or using a hammer and two pieces of metal to do something similar to those Burdizzo pliers but with a lot more violence. :-/ not cool.


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## KarmakeeFarm (Jun 3, 2012)

beautiful picture!!!! very pretty girls :]


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## S+S Homestead (Jul 23, 2012)

wakili, Thanks for your posts and pictures. I would love to hear more about your life there. Sounds fascinating and you are doing so much good. Your daughter is adorable and so is your goat. Hopefully the head-butting will slow down once the goats establish a hierarchy. 

We personally don't worry about the horns and head-butting issues. The goats just seem to work it out and, so far, nobody has ever gotten hurt.


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

Your daughter is adorable, and so is your goat.

 Thank you for NOT cutting the horns. I would not use a hack saw at all. All my goats have horns and they have to (Cashmere), they will die without their horns.

 What a great thing you are doing there. That is wonderful. You should post pictures fo all the neat things you see and do over there.

 As for the castrating, holly cow, the hammer thing is plain cruel, and someone here said a vet told them banding is cruel? :shocked:


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

It's great you're setting a good example! I beleive God cares very much for his animals, and through loving and taking good care of them, I find that we benefit back tenfold. God is the good shepherd, after all


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