A local block is sufficient, or general anesthesia such as xylazine is suitable. This has proven to be very satisfactory for short surgical procedures, such as dehorning, but weights of goats must be determined accurately and overdosing avoided. Ideally, goats should be dehorned when they are very young. It is advisable to wait until they are 1-2 weeks of age and in good flesh to be sure they are healthy and not coming down with neonatal diarrhea. If discolored skin is fixed to the skull in 2 rosettes, horn buds are present.
Moveable skin indicates a naturally hornless condition.
At this young age, the goat can be surgically or electrically disbudded. In either case, about 1 cm of tissue should be removed around the horn to prevent regrowth and horn scurs. Long term application may lead to thermal meningitis. Whether using surgical removal or this thermal cautery, the horn bud should be removed completely. In older goats the surgery is much more extensive and requires opening the frontal sinus.