The Resurgence of Scurs

Just when you think you have everything under control - good fencing, a weatherproof shed, a reasonable schedule - that's when you'll be reminded that with goats you are never safe from the bizarre and unexpected. Friday night I picked up Megan from camp, and after helping to haul in her suitcases, I decided to go check on the goats, leaving the rest of the family enthralled by the Olympic opening ceremonies on TV. Em and Ellie ran up happily to greet me, and in the fading daylight the first thing I noticed was that the white patches on both of their heads were no longer white, but red. What on earth??

My powers of goat deduction worked rapidly. Two goats - both with bloody heads, this has to be related to head-butting, scurs or both. (And yes, it's the weekend, which means if we need a vet we're on overtime rates. Let's hope this is a problem solved by a liberal application of BluKote!)

With Emily helping hold them for a thorough examination, the verdict was this: Elliot was bleeding where a knobby scur (horn bud) seemed to be knocked off. Emerson was not actively bleeding, but a nasty little sharp scur we had noticed recently was very loose. Head-butting - scur contact - who knows? We washed away all the blood and sprayed Elliot's head blue (no easy job as we had to hold him absolutely still to avoid his eyes).

Scurs are apparently quite a tricky thing with goats. Our boys were disbudded (horn buds burned off) by the breeder soon after birth, then done again when they were banded (neutered) since the horns were growing back. It was a ghastly, horribly traumatic and painful procedure and I don't think I would attempt to have it done again - I'm not sure you can even do that to goats this age. Also it doesn't seemed to have worked very well the first two times! Scurs, though, can be an ongoing problem as they are connected to the blood supply of the brain and therefore bleed profusely when knocked off. In a species so prone to head-butting and rubbing against fence posts, this seems like a bit of a design flaw! The only bright spot is that we only have three scurs to worry about - while Ellie has knobby horn buds on both sides, Emerson thankfully only has one (the sharp pointy one). For Em, the red hot iron at least took care of his right horn bud.

By morning, both goats seemed fine, no more blood (though I haven't seen any head-butting either and they both shy away from letting us touch their heads). Emerson's loose scur fell off altogether, and Emily actually found it on the roof of the goat shed. Something to keep for the memory box! I'm sure another one is ferociously growing in to take it's place! 

Elliot even felt well enough by the next day to help shuck corn with the girls, though Emerson prefers to watch and supervise!