Pressley and Head Caught in Feed Basket - 200 reasons why Disbudding is Critical

Thursday Evening as I was rounding up the goats for the evening, Pressley's Brother, Fidel, was circling around with his head in the basket. As I entered the pen, I saw that Pressley's chin was caught in one square of the basket and his horn caught in another square. He looked at me and asked for help. It took about 15 minutes but I managed to get his head out of the basket.

When he was a kid, I took him to the vet at 10 days old and they said that they couldn't disbud him because it would cause scurs and that he would grow cute little horns. My mom and I decided to not disbud him and his brother and that was a mistake (because there are breeders out there who disbud at 2-3 weeks). These bucks did not grow cute little horns...they grew big whopping horns which have been an issue. We haven't been able to intermingle them with our other bucks. I have also been rammed with these horns in the butt and in the leg and it doesn't feel too good. Pressley and Fidel fight all the time because these horns cause more aggression.

Lesson learned...secure the basket so these two brothers can't use their horns to knock it off the fence.

All of my other goats are disbudded...most of the bucks have scurs but I would rather have scurs than horns.