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[Marie McHarry <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 6:17 PM, EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I disbud because I think it is better for the goat in the long run. It
> only takes a few seconds, the kid only feels it for a few minutes, if
> that.  I spray it with Furall, which cools the site and is protective.

As James said, many goat people get all crazy if you don't disbud.
I've done both. Once, two friends and I did a hundred kids in a couple
of hours. Betty shaved around the horns and gave shots, I burned, and
Marty stuck the bottle in their mouths and tosed them back in the pen.
It helps to hold their little mouths shut while you're burning, so you
can concentrate and not burn enough (or worse, too much).

The main drawback I see about horns is that, if you have cattle
panels, goats will stick their heads in and then panic totally so they
can't get out. Of course, you hear the screaming at inopportune times.
Both ways have advantages. I'm now down to 4 does, and they are fairly
smart about cattle panels. All are mostly Saanen with fairly gracile
horns.

Marie