This morning one of my goats, normally my most friendly and easiest to handle, didn't meet me at the gate for milking. I called her and she just stood and looked at me, which was unusual. I walked up to her and reached to lead her by the chin. She jerked her head away and I grabbed a horn, at which time she let out a blood-curdling scream and threw herself upside down. When I got her in the stanchion, she acted like she didn't know me and was really touchy about her head. Normally she loves her chin scratched. My daughter noticed a small amount of blood at the base of one of her horns, but any attempt at closer examination threw the goat into another fit. Feedback, please!

-- Judy Bowman (bowman61@altavista.com), April 17, 2000

Answers

Could she have gotten her one or more of her horns caught in a fence, hay feeder, etc? The horns connect to the sinus cavities and some major blood vessels, and can be a BIG mess if they are pulled or cut off. The hole looks huge, and goes WAY down into the head. It HAS to hurt. If it gets pulled completely off, be ready to deal with the hole (flies love the darn thing, and screw worms are a good possibility), and the hole takes forever to close up. PLUS there can be a LOT of heavy duty bleeding; you might have to cauterize the wound, to stop it. Be ready with antibiodics, both shots and topical, because you will be dealing with an open wound. Bandages are a good idea, if you can figure out how to keep it on, after the horn falls off. You might seperate her from the others, because she won't feel like defending her place in the barn pecking order, and goats can be merciless in climbing the social ladder.

Please folks, disbud your kids, even the ones that you are taking to the auction, 'cause you don't know where they will end up (that's a whole 'nuther topic). I know this may not be the reason for the goats "headache" but horned goats can be a real pain, in more ways than one! Get a disbudder, and learn to use it. This lady probably bought the goat with horns, and I remember de-horning a buck goat. It was one of the grossest memories of my goating experience. UCCCCK.

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), April 17, 2000.

I think the last lady was probably right-our experience was with a ram, not a goat, but same situation. He caught his horn under the edge of some tin siding, which we thought was nailed down enough, but he somehow just got the edge of a crack in horn under it, and broke the horn partially off. It hung by a piece of skin, kept hitting the sore area where the horn had been attached, etc. until we could corner and catch him. You could tell by his eyes and cries he was in tremendous pain. We were told later we could have used plain alum to stop the bleeding..has anyone hear of this or used it, and is if safe? New to me, but we put some wound solution from the vet on the hole, and he seemed fine. The horn, by the way, has continued to grow out from the wound area, and is about 2 inches long now. Wish we had known how to disbud when we got him! Good luck with the doe! Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), April 17, 2000.

Me again! Sorry for the typos. I'm SURE it must be my keyboard! I certainly wouldn't have done it!:)Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), April 17, 2000.

Jan I never noticed the typos ! All thats important is the good advise .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), April 17, 2000.

I second Leanns plea to disbud the goat kids, for two reasons. 1. We've twice had a horned goat gore a sheep -- fortunately not actually puncturing the abdominal cavity, but definitely making a hole in the skin. The second sheep we thought at first had been shot, but when we caught her and looked more closely realized what had happened. That was the end of keeping them together! And if they can gore a sheep, they could gore a person. 2. In case of an accident, such as what might have happened to Judy's goat, or if you just decide you want the adult goat dehorned, even the vets don't want the job. It's AWFUL. They bleed so bad you'd think they'd bleed to death, and it's really hard to get it to stop. And when you are disbudding a kid and a scur starts to grow, disbud again and get rid of it, because if a scur catches on something and gets pulled off, it bleeds almost as bad as a regular horn.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 17, 2000.

Some breeds of goats should not be dehorned, like Angora, which we have. We lost an older doe last year due to the blood loss from a broken horn. It broke about three inches from the base and was just hanging there. A good tip from our vet if you ever get a broken, gushing-blood horn is to push a wooden toothpick (broken into a smaller piece if necessary) into the artery to stop the flow. The blood stop powder would not work in this case. The pick will fall out after a while when it is healed up inside the horn. We gave the doe Nutri-Drench and watched her carefully, but maybe should have given her iron injections or had the vet come check her again because she was so weakened by the blood loss that she died. We felt terrible! One of our harder lessons learned. A long story, but do dehorn them if they aren't required for the breed, it's less trouble!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), April 18, 2000.

Sounds like the horn was injured,I'd put her in a pen of her own for a while before one of the other goats takes advantage of her weakness by breaking it more. I have used cayenne pepper with very good sucess to stop bleeding on broken scurs and horns that had elastrator bands and broke off too soon.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), April 18, 2000.