[trying]

Hi, we are expecting our Boer girls to produce some kids very soon, I personally do not feel Boer goats need disbudding but I know others do, so we contacted our vet for a price, we will take them to him and the cost will be £66 per goat, I know he will do them properly but this does seem expensive, how much do others pay?
Regards Ann

[ballingall]

Wow, that is expensive. We do ours ourself, but this is only because my mother is a vet. However, I know last year a friend in Aberdeen told me that it had cost her £25 per kid. So £66 seems far more expensive.

Beth

[trying]

Hi, I thought it was and as I have said I would prefer not to disbud (Boers are so layed back and have close curved horns) but as we will be selling I may need to have this done. I have had a very helpful message from another member on this forum who has put me in the direction of a vet a lot cheaper and within travelling distance.

[cuckoo]

Our vet is at Goole and charges less than a tenner - we also have Boer goats - might be interested in some kids if you can pm me when they are born with details of the lines...

Thanks

[Blinkers]

I paid £35 for 3 disbuddings and 2 castrations last week 

[Lesley Silvester]

I think I paid around £25 to £30 for disbudding and castration ring last June.

[jinglejoys]

I rememmber (The day before vets made  it illegal to have it done  by anyone else)when  it was £2.50 a kid!(the day after it jumped to £15
I gave up having  it done because they always made a crap job and I was fed up with scurs,curled horns or unicorns and stressed kids.last time I had it done properly was when I sold them to someone else and bought them back 10mins later ...kids unstressed suckling happily and heads like a polled goat

[Anke]

My vets charge 35 plus VAT per kid, but as they are the only decent farm vets and only 4 miles down the road I will stick with them.

[fifixx]

I went on the ADAS course this week and interestingly the vet suggested that perhaps goats should not be so routinely disbudded.  He cited Denmark, which has a large national herd and is all horned.

It was interesting to hear just how delicate the kids heads are and how difficult the job actually is - calves heads are much thicker and have just 2 blood vessels going into the horns whereas goats are very thin and have 4.  this apparently necessitates a very high level of anaesthetic, the reason for vets having to do the job.

Mine have horns, but are Boers.  I know how much it hurts when the golden rule of not bending down in the goat pen is forgotten....!

[Anke]

I think the problem is that mixing horned and disbudded goats can be quite difficult, and also if you are trying to sell your kids/adults - for dairy goats it will always be more difficult if they are horned. However if you have Boers that do not need twice daily handling, live in large communal pens and are all horned I wouldn't necessarily bother.

[colliewoman]

There is a huge dairy herd near me, and when I was chatting to the owner before I bought my goats (elsewhere) he said he could not understand why any one would NOT have their kids dehorned.
But I would say that at least half of his herd have horrible scurs, broken or bleeding stubs etc. There is no way I am dehorning mine, if that is the result.
But then looking at his goats feet..... unless aladins slippers make more milk?

[Lesley Silvester]

That's bad.  There's no excuse for not doing hooves.

My girls still have residual horns but it can't be as painful being butted by one as it is being butted by a full set.

[wytsend]

Having nearly lost my right hand many years ago to a horned goat.... this is something that I always do.
I have also seen the results of an udder torn half off by a doe's un-disbudded kids........horrible.

Because we keep goats in an artificial manner.......disbudding is really a necessity.

Interestingly at the ADAS meeting I went to.....there was a lot of talk about experienced goat keepers being trained to disbud by a Vet....clearly this would entail some sort of testing  but an interesting thought.   Can't see it happening anytime soon  but at least it shows that goats are now being considered seriously.

[Lesley Silvester]

That is encouraging.

[jaykay]

And I keep, and milk, Old English goats who are never disbudded. I'm glad, it would worry me having it done, their little brains under so much heat.

You have to operate with horns in mind, but that becomes second nature. My sheep, until recently, were a horned breed too, so you just adapt. My goats come in every night and I spend lots of time with them. Ellie sets up to butt occasionally when she disagrees with me, and yes, if she follows through it hurts - we have to sort ourselves out about why she's feeling cross and calm things down, it's almost always cos I'm rushing her.

The only real issue I can see is mixing horned and polled animals, but since all mine are horned, and always will be, that's not a problem here.

If the Danes can manage horned goats.....?