Posted by Vicki McGaugh on January 14, 2001 at 17:25:47:
In Reply to: Has Anyone Tried New Disbudding Procedure? posted by Marsha on January 14, 2001 at 11:38:10:
Well to be perfectly honest, until this is much more widespread and being done on the farm, I think it is a comfort for the owner. Since most vets don't disbud goats, this is also an eaiser surgical process for them with few mistakes.
Disbudding with a hot iron, and doing it correctly is very easy to learn, and very easy to do. We have no scurs. We use a hot iron, with a big enough inside diameter to go around, no on top of the horn bud. And most of the disbudders you purchase need to be modified. 1 minute of pain, and then it is over and they are playing. To surgically open up the head of your kid so that stitches are then involved, would be fine for this time of the year, but what about spring and summer kids during fly season. This will definelty be a wait and see thing for me, will see it done the first chance I get. But this type of thing is really for the nervous newbie, you could give the same exact pain reliever to the disbudded kid, and have disbudding painless also, minus the stitches! It would also dramatically increase the cost per kid, fine for just a small handfull of kids. Vicki