Thursday, June 6, 2013

Disbudding, done for the year.


I took the girls to get disbudded this afternoon. They were not happy with me at all. Ella Belle had to go back for a little scur that was making her look all wonky. And we can't have a wonky looking doe, right? So she looks much better. Her brother, Ira Joe, has some scurs too, but he didn't want to go. They all did great. My friend Kendra, has been disbudding for me for years now. She lives in Trion, which is about 35 minutes from here. She's really good and gentle and gets it done pretty quick. One year though, I had so many kids born within a week of each other, that she came here and did them all. And castrated some of the bucks too.   But that's the only time she's come here to do it. Her 2 kids and husband all came out and watched. Her husband had to help hold Ella Belle while she fixed her up because she's quite bigger than the triplets are. And she was not a happy girl about the whole deal. And she let us all know it. So that little job is done for the year. I don't think there will be any more kids this spring.



Mariah wouldn't even look at me to get her picture taken. But she did in the next one. She's so cute. Every time I brought out a kid, Kendra's kids would oohhh and aww at them. They have LaManchas and Kendra said it'd been a long time since she's had to hold ears back.


Do any of you disbud your kids yourselves? It's just one of those things I'd rather get someone else to do. The first time I took kids, I cried. It was awful. Now it's just one more thing to have to get done. And I know it only hurts for just a few minutes. Then they are just fine. I can do a lot of things. That's just not one I want to do. And this time, we bartered for soap. Cool.

4 comments:

Sandra said...

The first couple of years we had ours done by someone elae. We eventually started doing our own. Mike gets stuck with the task

Betty Ann said...

Kristin did all her own. Had to redo them last week to tidy things up.

Kris said...

I'm just so afraid I'll burn their eyes out or something equally as gruesome. And Kendra does such a great job. Only a few times I've had to take some back. I actually have an iron. And have plugged it in. But when I see how red it gets and how hot it is, I just can't do it.

Kristin said...

It wasn't so bad doing it the first time, but since it was my first time, I was too timid and had to redo several of them.

That was pretty traumatic. The second go-round, I burned them down to white rings. That was about a week ago. They are still sporting little nubs that I hope will fall off when the scabs fall off. I certainly don't want to do them a 3rd time!

But you're right. You have to do them. If you want to sell them, you need to get those horns off. I wish there was someone here I could barter soap with, but there's not. I'm sure I'll do a better job next year.