# Banded Horns: Before and After



## Stacykins (Mar 27, 2012)

I figured I'd share these images and my experience from when I recently banded my boer wether's horns.










These are his horns before I banded him. He is over a year old, but they are tiny horns. He was a stunted boy, genetically. His parents threw another kid on a different kiddings who also was stunted. Coccidia, worms, malnutrition, etc. was not an issue, as all other goats that year thrived. Obviously the parents will never be paired up again.

Anyway, so I banded my little lad's horns. It was a pretty awful experience. It caused him a lot of pain. And since he saw me as the source of that pain, he became fearful of me. I could not handle him. He went from being curious and friendly (he was never big on petting, though, but he still liked people) to trying to get as far away from people as possible. I've only begun to regain his trust, and it has been a few weeks now since the second horn came off.

The first horn came off after only two weeks. He knocked it off early. It bled, not a lot, thankfully. He was hard to catch and handle, but he got cleaned up and scarlet oil dabbed on. The second horn came off three weeks after the first. This one came off more on its own, rather than him catching it on something. This one too got protected with scarlet oil while it healed. When he was first banded, he got banamine for a few days. And each time a horn came off, he got banamine again too. It hurt him, a lot, so I wanted to relieve as much pain as I could.










He is is a picture I took about a week ago. The first horn area is healed completely. The second one still has a bit of a scab. I think I got close enough to the base that scurs shouldn't be an issue, but time will tell.

I will never get a goat with horns again. Not only did his horns (and my incompetence of leaving a collar on another goat) lead to another goat's death, he often got them caught on other things. And even though they were small, he could still hurt ME with them on accident. I had to pick him up one time, and he threw his head back and a horn nailed me in the cheek, gave me a nice gash. A half an inch up, and he would have speared my eye.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

They look good. Hopefully he will come around and be friendly with you again. I agree, I won't buy another goat with horns either. While the experience wasn't as bad as yours, I just plain old don't want to go through it again. No matter what, it is not the most pleasant experiences.


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## peggy (Aug 11, 2010)

Looks like you did a good job. I have wanted to do my wether but his horns are much much bigger than that. I hate to cause them pain but sometimes things have to be done for the protection of the animal and ourselves.


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## GoatsLive (Jul 1, 2012)

You did a great job!
I'd never want goats with their horns intact. Too dangerous for humans and other goats. My kids were disbudded right after birth, and only one has a tiny scur that falls off on its own.

He'll begin to trust you again with a little time and work. It's amazing what a pocket full of Stouffer's animal crackers will do to help rebuild trust.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

My goat was an adult Alpine/Nubian mix. Her horns were very thick. I did do it. She got Banamine when needed. You do have to replace the bands every 4 weeks and it can take a long time. My doe's horns took a very long time. The one horn broke off at 9 months and I had to have the other horn sawed off at over 10 months. The horn may die before it falls off. The horn that was sawed off was clearly dead and there was almost no bleeding at all. The broken off horn bled like the dickens.


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## primal woman (Sep 17, 2011)

I concur; I'll never buy another goat with horns either.


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## 8566 (Jul 18, 2012)

Hey Karen,

thanks for letting us know your timeframe on the horns. I've been trying for EVER on getting one horn off of a doe. I'm going to reapply the bands tomorrow and keep at it. Could be she's a 9 monthier too ....


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## Paige (Oct 14, 2010)

I banded a 6 month old kid's horn two weeks ago and it is already off. Not much blood, about like knocking off a bucks scur. Been giving her Neosporin and she is doing great!


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## primal woman (Sep 17, 2011)

I wonder why there are so many differing results. some take two weeks, some take nine months? I know it is true, but makes no sense.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

A lot depends on how mature the horns are. My goat is around 6 years old. So she has very mature horns. It just takes a lot to cut off that blood supply.

Yes, I couldn't believe how long it took. I probably could have had the vet out sooner but I was just hoping that the horns would fall off on their own. The more mature the horns are, the longer it will take.

It is critical to change the bands monthly since bands weaken with time.


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## clearwtrbeach (May 10, 2012)

Question, what type of bands do you use? I don't like them on my NGD but I was too late on one so he has horns- I don't know I can put him through that, the other little boy has about a 1 1/2" piece that is growing (He came to me that way). However, my one big boer doe is horned, and the younger two are not. The buck, someone did a pretty bad job on, here's this big boy with these funky retarted looking type nubs. I'm worried they may grow out deformed??? Or should I leave him alone with his nubs?:chin:


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I just used the bands used for banding little bucks. The little green bands. Used the blue banding instrument from TSC to put them on as well.


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## Stacykins (Mar 27, 2012)

I used the little green bands, too, and the cheap banding tool from TSC.


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## kristinatucker (Jan 3, 2012)

Anyone have experience banding a nubian buck? He was disbudded when we got him but the one side did not take at all and he basically has a full horn. Its shaped a little funky at the base. We used the green bands before on other goats but they grew back on our nigerians so we decided to tri these other bands though jeffers called Tri-banders. They are more squared off vs round and the reviews were really good for banding. They also dont roll like the round ones since they are shapped different. I put these on a nigerian buck and his horn was off in 1 week! Basically no bleeding at all and seemed to not bother him at all. Then the nubians is just chillin. Dosent seem to be changing anymore than initially when it just made an indention in the horn about the thickness of the band. Im thinking about trying to get another band below it or if I cant then on top of the first one. Its been over a month now.


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## honeymeadows (Nov 20, 2012)

I banded a 1 year old doe. I used a dremel to cut a shallow groove for the band to stay in, and duct tape to keep it there. One horn took several months to come off. I had to reapply the band to the other horn and it took another month or so. Lots of blood requiring a pressure bandage for a few hours on both sides when they finally came off since I think she was trying to butt another goat at the time. Happy I did it though - she is no longer a bully and integrated well back into the herd.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

kristinatucker said:


> Anyone have experience banding a nubian buck? He was disbudded when we got him but the one side did not take at all and he basically has a full horn. Its shaped a little funky at the base. We used the green bands before on other goats but they grew back on our nigerians so we decided to tri these other bands though jeffers called Tri-banders. They are more squared off vs round and the reviews were really good for banding. They also dont roll like the round ones since they are shapped different. I put these on a nigerian buck and his horn was off in 1 week! Basically no bleeding at all and seemed to not bother him at all. Then the nubians is just chillin. Dosent seem to be changing anymore than initially when it just made an indention in the horn about the thickness of the band. Im thinking about trying to get another band below it or if I cant then on top of the first one. Its been over a month now.


You need to change the bands every 4 weeks. Putting a groove in the base of the horn down by their skull helps a lot too.


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