Caprine Disbudding

This morning, I had the opportunity to assist with disbudding a goat kid. Disbudding is a common practice in goat management that involves removing the horn buds of young goats before they develop into full-grown horns. It is typically performed within the first week of life, before the horn tissue fuses with the skull, and helps reduce the risk of injury to farmers and other animals.

For this procedure, I sedated the kid using hydromorphone, cepetor, and torbugesic. I then monitored the animal’s heart rate, respiratory rate, mucous membrane colour, and capillary refill time (Figure 1). The veterinarian administered a lidocaine nerve block around the horn bud and removed it by applying a hot iron for 10–20 seconds. Afterwards, I gave a subcutaneous injection of Metacam (a pain relief medication) and administered Revertor intramuscularly to reverse the sedation and wake the kid (Figure 2). 

This is a relatively minor procedure, and the kid was up and running around within half an hour after the reversal took effect.