Poor kids...

Baby goats are born without horns, and their little hooves are the consistency of jelly beans. The hooves harden in a day or so, and within a week tiny horn buds are erupting. Many goat owners have their kids "disbudded." This is a fairly barbaric event. A very hot iron is used to burn through the skin and damage the horn growth. The kids cry piteously, but luckily they then nurse from their mamas and soon act as if nothing ever happened. 

In the past I have chosen to let some kids keep their horns, and I always regret it. Horns can be troublesome. They get stuck in fences. And goats with horns can be rough on the goats without horns. One scary time a sweet little horned kid came over to give me some love, and raised his head up suddenly, brushing perilously close to my eye with his sharp, pointy little nub.

In the past I've had a goat farmer with years of experience come and disbud by kids. Then I found out my vet could do it, with the benefit of sedation.  So this year's crop of kids had veterinary quality disbudding. They were given an injection of sedative, and some local anesthetic was injected in the top of their sculls. I wrapped each in a towel to keep them warm, and they dozed in my arms while the vet took care of business. It was still gruesome, (especially when a bit of burning matter flew through the air and landed on my eyelid,) but they didn't know. While they were out the good doctor took care of the troublesome testicles on the other end, gave them their shots, and a big dose of pain killer. She sprayed some magical, silver, liquid bandage on the wounds and soon the kids were up, but wobbly. They nabbed a drink from the milk bar, then headed to the goat cozy to sleep their bad afternoon off. I piled a layer of clean hay on top of them to help them stay warm.

I have more pain medication to give them tomorrow if they act unhappy, but I suspect they'll be bouncing around acting perfectly fine. Goats are tough.