These Horns are on Fire!

There are some goat people who love goats so much that they do not mind being poked and prodded by their eight inch horns.  There are other people who are so fanatical about goats that they take the hormonal behaviour of a buck in rut in stride and even claim to like his stench. 

I love my goats but with strict limits.  I do not appreciate head butts with sharp, pointy horns nor am I enamoured with the damage that goats with horns inflict on my fences, barn doors and walls, pant legs, etc.  After my experience with Granby, I vowed never to own another goat with horns.  I also vowed to limit my exposure to intact bucks.  Do not get me wrong, Duke and Bishop are adorable now.  BUT if they grow up to be anything like their father, they would not be so adorable as horny teenage bucklings.

As such, I put a quick stop to both horns and male hormones today.  Unfortunately doing so was a bit traumatic for our poor goaties.  Our lovely vet, Dr. Clarke, visited the farm and dehorned all the kids in addition to castrating the bucklings.

I understand that both of these procedures are painful for goats.  The kids bleated and cried just receiving the needles to put them to sleep and freeze their horn area.  There is not much that is sadder than poor tranquilized baby goats who have just had their horn buds burnt and their ball sacs tied off.

However, this temporary pain is not for nothing.  These babies will now make lovely pets who are easier to handle and much more pleasant to be around once they are full grown.  By supper time, the kids were all back up bouncing around and nursing like usual.  Their horn areas are red and sore looking but hopefully, in a few days time, they will have forgotten that today their horns were on fire!

Martha: "What did you do to my babies?!"
Mellie (in the background): "Quit whining Martha and take advantage of this unexpected
but very welcome mom-vaction.  I am!   Munch, munch, munch. "