Dehorn Goats with Bands and File

Dehorn Goats with Bands and File

My farm had field fence surrounding it when I bought it years ago. Hurricane Elena in 1985 felled so many trees that tore down the fences in so many places I had to sell all my cows and bull because the fences could not contain them, and I could not drop everything to do extensive fence repair. After the fences were repaired later I restocked the farm with goats and sheep.

I soon found out that horned goats got caught in the field fence when they stuck their heads through the fence mesh to eat on the other side of the fence and their horns caught on the horizontal portion of the fencing wire mesh, and they could not pull their heads back through the fencing. I had to untangle several goats before I thought of a possible way to solve the problem ...... dehorn the goats. After I lost one goat caught in the fence to a broken neck I decided to try dehorning the goats.

I was not aware if any others (years ago) had tried this method, but I decided to give it a try. I knew castrating bands would cause testicles and tails to lose their blood supply and they would eventually fall off. I had used bands on cattle, sheep, and goats. I thought why not give it a try on mature goat horns (bands can "cut" through the bones of tails, so maybe they would also do horns). I initially put the constrictor bands on the horns close to the skull; but most moved toward the tip of the horn and came off. I then thought of using a round quarter-inch file to make a groove on at least two sides of the horn to have a place for the band to grip and stay. The groove enabled the bands to stay on; after a length of time (about 3 weeks) one goat bumped its horns at a feeding trough and one horn fell off, releasing a fair amount of blood. The other fell off later without much blood loss. The horn stubs healed over and the goat went about its daily business without getting its head caught in the fence again.

I find that researching the internet now (2012) that some were having problems keeping the bands on the horns. I suggest using my trick of years ago --- a round file to make grooves to hold the bands in place near the base of the horns.

Adrian R. Lawler,  (C) 2012 --