HOW TO TATTOO
By Judy Balmer B’s Barn Fainting Farm www.bsbarnfaintingfarm.com 270-864-3709 Tattooing is a permanent way of identification and states are requiring that your goats be identified by tattoo (REGISTERED GOAT), chipping or tagging. When tattooing goats usually both ears are tattooed. The right ear is tattooed with the farm identification letters and the left ear is tattooed with the letter designating the year and the sequence of birth, of that goat on your farm, or a system that would work for you. For your farm identification letters you may want to contact your state veterinarian department and see if there is a program within your state that will make a one of a kind ID for your farm. . This is all part of the scrapie program in our state and all registered goats are allowed to be tattooed and not tagged if the producers prefers that method. We use the small 5/16” tattoo system for our goats. This system will hold up to 5 digits on the pliers. You can find these tattoo systems in Jeffers Livestock (JeffersLivestock.com), Hoeggers (www.thegoatstore.com) or several other livestock catalog on line order stores. We like to use the paste ink as it seems to penetrate into the holes better and we use green ink for light ears and white paste ink for dark ears.
We use two (2) sets of tattoo pliers. The one has our State farm ID. This always remains the same and never needs to have any of the letters or numbers changed. This is what is tattooed into the right ear of the goat. The other set of pliers is used in the left ear and contains the sequence and year of birth and so will change with each kid being tattooed. We use the tattoo schedule from the American Dairy Goat Association which can also be found in the Hoeggers catalog. Year 2006 is “W” Year 2007 is “X” Some registries prefer this schedule other registries like the MGR are not requesting a particular letter to represent the year. So to avoid confusion we will remain using the ADGA system so all our goats will be the same. First things first, get all your equipment together which will include: a. tattoo pliers and digits ( you may need to order extra letters or sets) b. tattoo inks (for dark and light ears, white & green) c. alcohol d. Preparation H ointment or Baking Soda e. Old toothbrush f. a container or tub to put used digits or pliers into g. a table or shelf h. a work stand or a kid box to contain the goat ( second person)
We first start out by cleaning the inside of both ears with rubbing alcohol and cotton balls. Let the ears dry. Then we smear paste ink onto the ear between the two ribs of cartilage and veins. We have the pliers ready with our farm ID and have tested the digits onto paper making sure they are inserted correctly into the pliers. We then make sure the farm ID pliers are going onto the right ear, with the bottom of the digits are with the bottom of the ear, making sure we do not have them upside down. We squeeze the pliers firmly and quickly making an impression in the ear. Now we take a bit more ink paste and work it into the holes made by the tattoo digits. A toothbrush can help greatly in getting the tattoo ink worked into the holes in the ear. After we have worked the ink into the holes we put a thin layer of Preparation H onto the area where the tattoo was made. This is said to help reduce any swelling and to keep the ink in the holes. Some use baking soda which is supposed to help raise the tattoo impressions. If there is a bit of blood we wait till the bleeding stops before we ink the ear. As always, it pays to do a good job the first time so as not having to repeat the procedure again. We then put the farm digit pliers into a container and the dirty digits from the other pliers into a small container with alcohol. Before doing the next kid we will pour a bit of alcohol over the farm ID pliers. You will find that some kids will holler and some will not. Be sure to be ready as some of them can jump when you squeeze the pliers onto their ears. Afterwards, we do not try to clean up any excess ink off of the kid. We leave all the ink alone letting the ears heal. Your kids will look like they are ready for Christmas all colored in a pretty green. Time does clean all of this off leaving only the color in the holes made by the tattoo digits. We always make sure our kids have had their CD&T or at least a Tetanus Antitoxin vaccine when doing their tattoos. Another hint to help is that the tattoos do fade in time. If you are transporting or showing your goat then you may want to dab a bit of oil or Vaseline onto the tattoo and rub it. By doing this it will help to show up the faded tattoo. When buying your tattoo set you may need to buy extra letters to use for your farm ID. Also the letters G, I, O, Q and U are not used as the birth letters. You may also want to find a plastic storage box with a handle to store all your tattoo equipment in, To store my digits and letters for the tattoos I use a piece of Styrofoam that I push the digits into. When that piece of Styrofoam gets to messy I then just cut another piece to fit my digits. I always keep any Styrofoam that comes from boxes to use at a later time.
On some breeds of goats the breeder tattoos the goat on their tail webbing. This is the underside of the tail where you can pull the skin away from the cartilage of the tail. The procedure is the same except you are at the other end of the goat. In doing the tail web you want to make sure the bottom of the letters and digits are toward the outside edge of the tail. The farm ID is put onto the right side of the tail and the sequence of birth is put onto the left side of the tail