Best-practice recommendations for disbudding dairy goat kids

Abstract

Cautery disbudding is a routine painful husbandry practice carried out on young goat kids using a hot cautery iron to destroy the horn buds and prevent horn growth. The objective of this review is to evaluate scientific literature on cautery disbudding of goat kids and discuss variation in practice including training, kid-related factors (e.g., age, sex), iron-related factors (e.g., temperature, application time), and pain mitigation in order to provide best-practice recommendations for cautery disbudding dairy goat kids. Goat kid-specific training is required to improve consistency across operators and reduce any harmful effects associated with cautery disbudding. The best age to disbud doe kids is approximately a week of age, but buck kids may be disbudded earlier (3 to 5 days). Cautery irons can range in temperature depending on power-source, age and brand, all of which should be taken into consideration when deciding on application time. Not more than 15 sec should be used, and ideal application time of the iron may be between 5 and 7 sec to cauterize and remove the horn bud. Removing the horn bud improves efficacy in preventing scurs. Isoflurane or dexmedetomidine and meloxicam can reduce pain associated with cautery disbudding, whereas lidocaine may not. Goat kid-focused best-practice recommendations for cautery disbudding can improve goat welfare.