Disbudding Niblet

Niblet and his mom, Scarlet

Whew! Glad that's over. Today was the day we sucked it up and disbudded Niblet. For those new to the goat lingo, disbudding is when you cauterized the horn so that it will not grow. Why do this, you ask? Because I don't want me, my children, my dogs or my other goats gored, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Plus,they can tangle themselves in fences, hay mangers etc, and tear a horn later which is a bloody mess. There's the why, here's the how.

Our first choice was to have a vet do this for us. Her response was - "everyone does it themselves so I don't even have the equipment for it." Eek! Are we goat farmers or not? We had already gotten the equipment so it was up to us. I did get an Rx for banamine from the vet to help take the edge off the pain. Yay drugs! I also picked up the tetanus antitoxin just to be safe. Time to disbud.

The time came, I gave Niblet his meds- he was a trooper. Then, shaved down his fur around the horn nubs while we waited for the banamine to kick in. After about 45 minutes he was feeling very loopy. Chuck heated up the iron while I got into position holding Niblet. He was not happy about being restrained and hollered for his Mommy pretty quick. Then he REALLY hollered when Chuck applied the iron, cauterized horn one, reheat iron, cauterized horn two. A touch up to make sure it's done, then take Niblet back to mom for some soothing milk.

Here he is back in the paddock an hour and a half later. He's recovering fine, hanging out with his mom and aunt Merry. He was even head-butting Merry a bit when I checked on him last. You can see the burnt ring around his little nubs, and a touch of blood. These will scab up and heal, then the fur will grow back.

So glad that's over with. Next up for Niblet is castration, and I think we're actually going to keep him as here as a friend for Roscoe now that he needs to be separate from the does. Roscoe is definitely not happy being by himself. We were pondering getting him a donkey as a companion/guardian but I think Niblet will be a much better friend. Plus, we don't have a lot of pasture available for a grazing animal. A donkey may still be in our future, but not soon.

In fowl news, Cackle Hatchery finally gave us a ship date for our next lot of birds. We have 5 Blue Slate turkeys, 5 Ancona ducks and 12 Plymouth Rock chickens on the way the week of May 10th. Yippee! I also ordered a killing cone to aid Chuck in all the processing he has coming up.

The Cayuga ducks are doing well. They are 2 weeks old today and only need to be in the brooder another 2 weeks. I still can't tell the sexes yet. I guess I really should choose sex-linked breeds so I can tell immediately. Oh, well.

I leave you with pictures of the Cayugas on Easter. Cute, cute cute!