I had my 2 goats dehorned 1 week ago, both were on antibiotics for 5 days following being dehorned by the vet and both are being sprayed daily with an aluminium spray to aid healing. Molly is 3 months old and is healing nicely.

However, Lucy who is 8 months old and had big holes in her head after being dehorned has goop in her holes (kind of thick plasma, runny stuff) it doesn't look infected or anything but my question is should I just leave it alone to heal up by its self or try to clean it out the holes????

I know the holes go down to the nasal cavity so I would be hesident to flush out the goopy stuff. Any advice???? Anyone had their goats dehorned before????

Thanks, Anita

P.S. I won't be buying any more goats with horns. Any more goats I get I'll make sure they were disbudded as babies.

-- anita Holton (anitaholton@mindspring.com), August 30, 2001

Answers

Hi Anita,

You did the same thing I did. My first goat had horns and I will never again do that! I got rid of her and later we had an adult doe with a 3" scur that went straight up. Really didn't bother me until she figured out how to use it. We had the vet remove it in the fall of the year, after fly season. If I remember right, there was a large sinus cavity hole in her skull just like youdescribed. Full of drying blood and fluids, we kept smearing it with antibacterial ointment and keeping it covered with gauze. She really hated us for a while, but the vet did a good job and it never did grow back at all. Remember that the sinus cavities drain into her throat, so she may act as if she swallowed something bad. Keep up on her vitamins because she may not want to eat for a while. Best wishes.

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), August 30, 2001.

We had a French Alpine buck who had this huge scur and it was curling around like a ram's horn. I also wanted to show him too and with the size of the scur it was too big. so we called the vet in mid april of last yr to dehorn him. he came out and did the job. Stinky had a huge hole too. We followed the vet's suggestions and kept it lightly wraped with gauze for files and then we cleaned it with peroxide after it hardened a bit, the blood that is. We also sprayed with Blue Coat. I don't recall our vet mentioning antibiotics after, he healed fine, took about 3 months to heal completely. And, when i was ready to show him at the buck shows in PA in July don't ya know he went into rut! Would have needed a case of lutlayse if we went:):) guess that was my payback, actually it was june and while we were at nationals he bred 5 older does who got out.

Also, watch for head butting with other goats or being in a place where he might hurt his head.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), August 30, 2001.

It is healing, it will smell if it is infected, and like any deep wound it will go through many colors :) of healing.

A pretty gruesome ordeal isn't it? We simply don't even suggest this type of surgery anymore for the removal of horns. In fact I have heard a vet say that he had no idea that they were hollow into their sinus cavities until he had already scooped them out like cows! The doe started bleeding from the nose, then he started controling the bleeders. Of course disbudding as kids is the best, but for horns, band castration and the sites that have already been posted to this site, shows just how good a result it can give. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 30, 2001.