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bl0215
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Thanks Fay. It wasn’t very nice to do personally. We bought these and will only be taking horns off very early on from now on.
Dehorned too short
- Thread starter bl0215
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bl0215
Member
Does anyone have experience with using pine tar? We were advised to put pine tar on it. I’m not sure how to apply? Does it cover it like a patch? What if it gets into the sinus cavity?
Fay Holiday
Active member
Yes, it works great. Just use a smooth flat wooden stick and just smear it on the wound.
Fay Holiday
Active member
I wouldn't dehorn past 8 weeks of age, preferably before 6. I would use two electric dehorners. Do one horn, then use other iron for the other horn. This insures that the temp is right and also gives the other iron time to reheat before the next calf. I would apply pure Aloe Vera gel only. This relieves the burn. Get the calf to its mama immediately, so it can nurse. After nursing, it will be frocking around like nothing happened.
SBMF 2015
Well-known member
Just smear it on with something. I use an old calf size ear tag. We use pine tar when we cut bull calves in the summer. Works great for flies. Might be a little caustic around their eyes.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
As stated, the best way to dehorn them is by using a polled bull.
But... as you said, you purchased them this way. Dehorning an 11 month old - unless you're just tipping/blunting the horns, is going to open up holes into their sinuses. Depending on breed, this may be a whopping big hole that's going to take a long time to cover over, and in the meantime, they're gonna be subject to infection, so be on the lookout for purulent exudate (pus) coming out of the open hole &/or their nostrils.
Disbudding with a hot iron dehorner/disbudder is my preference, and the sooner you do it, the better.
'Pulling' arteries means grabbing that spurting artery with a hemostat or a pair of needle-nose pliers and pulling it so that it either breaks off below the skin &/or causes a vascular spasm, shutting off blood flow from the severed end.
I dehorn so few (less than a half-dozen/yr) anymore that I always do a cornual nerve block - which I rarely did when I was in veterinary practice - so there's little to no acute pain when I'm burning or cutting off horn buds or horns.
Pine tar... that's a throw back to a time when we had little in the way of effective fly repellents. But, Yes, I have smeared pine tar on dehorning and castration wounds... back in the 1970s, before I went to veterinary school. I'm not really sure how effective - if at all - it is as a fly repellent, and I can almost assure you that it has an adverse effect on wound healing... there is great truth in the old adage, "If you wouldn't put it in your own eye, don't put it in/on a wound."
But... as you said, you purchased them this way. Dehorning an 11 month old - unless you're just tipping/blunting the horns, is going to open up holes into their sinuses. Depending on breed, this may be a whopping big hole that's going to take a long time to cover over, and in the meantime, they're gonna be subject to infection, so be on the lookout for purulent exudate (pus) coming out of the open hole &/or their nostrils.
Disbudding with a hot iron dehorner/disbudder is my preference, and the sooner you do it, the better.
'Pulling' arteries means grabbing that spurting artery with a hemostat or a pair of needle-nose pliers and pulling it so that it either breaks off below the skin &/or causes a vascular spasm, shutting off blood flow from the severed end.
I dehorn so few (less than a half-dozen/yr) anymore that I always do a cornual nerve block - which I rarely did when I was in veterinary practice - so there's little to no acute pain when I'm burning or cutting off horn buds or horns.
Pine tar... that's a throw back to a time when we had little in the way of effective fly repellents. But, Yes, I have smeared pine tar on dehorning and castration wounds... back in the 1970s, before I went to veterinary school. I'm not really sure how effective - if at all - it is as a fly repellent, and I can almost assure you that it has an adverse effect on wound healing... there is great truth in the old adage, "If you wouldn't put it in your own eye, don't put it in/on a wound."
wbvs58
Well-known member
It involves using a pair of haemostats or a pair of long nose pliers will do the trick and grabbing hold of the artery and pulling it until it snaps like a rubber band. The fatigue on the wall of the artery means the damage is over a bigger area to help with the blood clotting and the muscle wall of the artery will respond by constricting better than a straight sharp cut.
Ken
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
I use Dr. Naylors dehorning paste used young on the horn buds, up to 6 weeks. It is basically lye. You shave around the bud and put one thin coating of paste on the bud, even when they have emerged and are still small. No bleeding, holes in skull or trauma. But polled dairy bulls are the best thing since sliced bread.
Travlr
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Isn't there a dehorning band that can be used on older animals. Pretty sure I've seen a video on Youtube about it. I think they put the band down below the line of the surrounding skin, and there's a groove it fits in. I think the only problem was that an animal might lose a band and you'd have to do it again.
GoWyo
Well-known member
I banded some with horns probably 10 years or more ago. Used the green cheerio bands. They would walk out of the chute slinging their head all over and keep doing it for over a week. They were miserable for quite a while - the nerves don't just get pinched off like a scrotum band. Swore I'd just saw or cut them off the next time and be done with it.
Mighty Mouse
Well-known member
I have some limited experience dehorning with bands. I bought a group of 5 bred Corrientes last fall and had the seller put bands on their horns. He used an XL banding tool and the square-shouldered bands made for it. I also picked up another Corriente a few months later and banded her horns myself using the same tool and bands.
All but one horn fell off within 5-11 weeks. For whatever reason, one horn is still holding on 23 weeks after banding. The other horn on that particular cow fell off at 5.5 weeks. I checked on the stubborn horn a while back and found the band was still
intact and had cut partway through the horn. I added a second band for good measure, but that horn is still attached. I may saw it off this fall after the flies are gone assuming it doesn’t detach on its own before then.
Of the horns that have come off, all but one detached with only minor bleeding. The one exception did bleed quite a bit when the horn came off. I’m guessing the cow was rubbing and broke the horn off before the band had fully done its work. I was concerned enough by the bleeding in that particular case to get her in the head catch and apply blood stop powder followed by Blu-Kote to disinfect, AluShield to seal the wound, and some roll-on permethrin to repel flies. I also gave her a shot of tetanus antitoxin as a precaution.
I dehorn with paste at birth. Not all calves have developed horn buds at birth. I brand my replacements at about 13 months, and removed any remaining horns at that time using OB wire. Some bleed for awhile but it looks worse than it is. I’ve never looked for an artery to pull. I’ve tried cauterizing with a hot iron and using blood clotting powder. Doing nothing is easiest and equally effective.
"Pulling the artery" is an effective way of stopping bleeding after dehorning. It is done by catching the cornual artery with an artery (Spenser Wells) and pulling until it snaps.
The cornual artery runs under the skin with the cornual nerve in the tempora groove between the eye and the base of the horn.
I ment artery forceps.
