My goat scared the living daylights out of me.

[janedoe]

We got our goats when they were almost a year old or so. They were a project for a family (4H or some such thing). They got the goats from someone they knew who bred goats.

When kids are a few days old, they are generally disbudded. This means that the horn areas are burned out so that they don't grow. Unfortunately, if this isn't done correctly, residual horns that don't have blood flow grow. They are called scurs, look like horns but are basically huge scabs.

One of the reasons for disbudding is that the horns can curl around and grow into the head or, worse, into the eyes. So can the scurs.

Thelma and Louise's disbudding was not done properly. Louise's scurs tend to break off easily so she usually just has really short ones. Thelma's are thick and huge and curl all over the place. One of them recently began curling around her face. On Wednesday night, I looked at it and it had lifted off her cheek and was right under her eye so I called the vet for an emergency appointment. Goat vets are few and far between and her first appointment was this morning. By then, the scur was pressing against the lower part of her eyeball with the eyelid just barely between the two.

Took her in and the eye was watering. I was very unhappy. The goat vet has a goat farm and is very well versed in these kinds of things. She walked out and it was clear that she's about eight months pregnant. She took one look at the scur and said that it was a true scur with no blood flow, went inside to get a wire and cutters and went at it with me holding Thelma's body and the vet tech holding her head.

What a mess. The thing would not cut. It was so thick. Thelma does not like to be handled and was freaking out. Finally, the scur just broke off at the base. There was a bit of blood but not much. Kwik Stop took care of it almost immediately. The scary thing was that within one day the scur had pressed the lower part of her eyeball into her socket and we're just trying to keep her comfortable with antibiotic eye gunk (Terramyacin) but she's still squinting pretty hard. Poor girl. The scur could have squished out her eye.

On a side note, my husband is just happy that the vet's water didn't break.

[labsnewfy]

I am glad that Thelma is ok and hope that her eye is too. I can't imagine being 8 months pregnant bending over to help Thelma have to agree with your husband.

[LucyTudeOn4Feet]

Poor thing! I feel really bad for animals when the eyes are in peril, because eye issues are so, so painful.
Is it going to slowly grow back over her life? Could you go at it periodically with a big file, like using the dremel on a dog's toes, to keep it in check? Or is the issue solved for good now?

[POPTOP]

Learn something new every day. I didn't know about scurs. Will it grow back? Glad both Thelma and the vet are OK.

On a different note, at the county fair yesterday saw some goats who appeared to not have ears, the flaps I mean. Is that a particular type of breed?

[janedoe]

Learn something new every day. I didn't know about scurs. Will it grow back? Glad both Thelma and the vet are OK.

On a different note, at the county fair yesterday saw some goats who appeared to not have ears, the flaps I mean. Is that a particular type of breed?

I had to look that one up. Apparently, they are called Lamanchas and are a specific breed.

The scurs do grow back but the shape they take can't be predicted. Fortunately our goat vet is very dedicated ( ) so she should be around for a while. I could do it but I'd need at least two other people.