De-Horned 2yr old Doe-WEEK 3 update

[taylorm17]

She has a very colorful head

 

[Baymule]

Love the duct tape! So Miss Queen of Mean got took down a notch? haha She will have to play nice from now on.

 

[alsea1]

Wow. She has made prison shanks.
I would def. lope those things off.

 

[hilarie]

Southern, that looks fabulous - it appears she's healing beautifully. Does the bandage stick? How much trouble does she give you at the dressing change?
I *love* the fancy duct tape. Yet another case of America being held together by the Duck! I had a young man in the clinic a few days ago who had a bad hand laceration. He had wrapped it in a clean cotton sock and duct tape; pretty good job, actually.
I know what you mean about the fall from power; William was a bit taken aback when he discovered he didn't have headgear anymore, and of course he tried headbutting before his head completely healed.....he didn't like that, either. I suspect Millie will totally get over this, tho; she'll be just like herself, only..... less so

 

[Southern by choice]

WEEK 3

Millie is doing great. Her attitude has changed a great deal.
She does really well with the bandages up until about a day before they need to be changed... then she gets it off overnite! Booger.
We only change the bandage about 1x week, we do keep a close eye on her and smell for changes.
She got her bandage off the night before her scheduled change as usual. So there are hay pieces in there.

healing over nicely

this weeks style- fancy hearts

we did a little "extra" on the tape.

 

[SA Farm]

She's really starting to look like she's healing! Love the tape

 

[taylorm17]

Love the tape. She is looking good. How is she acting with the herd

 

[greybeard]

I personally have never dehorned an animal. But I have been one of the party at the squeeze chute. My job was to dab (slop more like it) black gooey stuff on the open wound. It was dehorning cattle and this long handled scoop looking thing was used. The dehorn tool was placed at the base of the horn where it grew out of the skull and the long handles were squeezed together. It made a crunch, sucking sound, blood spurted, the horn fell, I swabbed it with the "medicine". It was a part of "working cows" we wormed, branded and dehorned. We also dodged some pi$$ed off cows, dodged kicks and tried to keep them from climbing out of the chute, which sometimes they did. Then it was everyone for themselves and we ran for the fence. LOL I miss cows.

Interesting thread. Those, Sound like Keystone dehorners. I never liked them much, but for mature cattle, back in the day (and assume still today) they are the fastest and easiest to use, tho pretty messy. Closing the handles forces the knife blade into the horn and it is sheared off.

Some vets and large cattle producers use a very high speed elec saw, while most of us today use OB saw wire. The other mechanical option is what is known as a Barnes type dehorner, which looks like:

They are placed over short horns or scurs just as they are in the image and the handles are then opened which causes the shearing edges to cleave the horn, but you have to be careful 'where' you begin your cut as this tool has a tendency to make a cupped cut, often digging inward more than is neccessary. I saw a pic last year here at BYH of a black baldie calf that had been dehorned with a pair, and it had a hole in it's head that was quite deep. They come in several different sizes and are best used for scurs, nubs or horns less than 1 1/2 wide or 2" long. (in cattle, a scur is not a real horn, just a short projection of horn/bone like material and it usually isn't actually attached to the scull bone--you can move it around with your fingers)

And of course, for young calves and goats, there are the elastic bands and elec dehorners that burn the young horns off. I have no experience with those.

The black goop you were smearing on was most likely refined or raw pine tar. It's primary use is to stop blood oozing even after cauterization or blood stop powder, and to prevent fly problems. It's still sold and used today as a wound protection for cattle and horses.
One trick many many cattle producers use if they encounter a really persistant bleeder, is to pull the vessel/vein etc out with a pair of pliers, and I have seen vets do it. Just jerk it out. This pops the vein further down in the sinus area, where the bleeding soon clots off and stops. I don't recommend doing this if you are not very very familiar with dehorning practices. It may not even be applicable or practical with goats.

In some places, a vet will sell or subscribe a prescription to producers a 20 ml vial of Lidocaine for pain prevention, but I'll prefer to let the vet administer it. It's referred to as "freezing" the horn material, just as a dentist 'freezes' a bad tooth with lidocaine.

None of us like to dehorn or otherwise cause pain to our livestock, but it is a necessity at times,and IMO, it is far better to discuss it and even post the images we see in this thread than to avoid doing so. This is a learning media, and we would be in neglect if we did not teach. SBC did the right thing posting the information and the pictures, and of course also made the correct choice by dehorning Millie.

 

[goatboy1973]

The pine tar is messy but wonderful as a fly deterrent. The keystone dehorners are the way to go for cattle especially mature animals with mature hornage.

 

[Baymule]

@greybeard it was the Barnes type dehorner, the second picture you posted. As always, your contribution to the thread is informative and teaches me more than I already knew. (which might not be much) LOL