Dehorning a 2 year old hereford cow

[livestock101]

How hard is it to dehorn a 2 year old hereford cow? I have no intention of doing it myself, I'd haul her to the vet's office. I know it's best to do it when their young but we didn't own her then. It can still be done, right? I was wanting to haul her down before the flies come out. Assuming it can be done, how long does it take for the holes to close?

 

[KNERSIE]

It can be done, but you need proper facilities to restrain the animal, if not rather take her to the vet. The wounds usually heel in about three weeks

 

[ALACOWMAN]

How hard is it to dehorn a 2 year old hereford cow? I have no intention of doing it myself, I'd haul her to the vet's office. I know it's best to do it when their young but we didn't own her then. It can still be done, right? I was wanting to haul her down before the flies come out. Assuming it can be done, how long does it take for the holes to close?

with a two year old gotta be a pretty big horn base. this time of year gettin it to heal before the fly's infect em is going to be your problem. get the vet to do it and sew up the holes

 

[Bez>]

How hard is it to dehorn a 2 year old hereford cow? I have no intention of doing it myself, I'd haul her to the vet's office. I know it's best to do it when their young but we didn't own her then. It can still be done, right? I was wanting to haul her down before the flies come out. Assuming it can be done, how long does it take for the holes to close?

Yes it can be done. We do it often.

To do this at home requires a cattle squeeze or a couple of gates set up to restrain the animal and then tie its head off to one side with a rope / rope and halter.

If you are going to haul it to the veterinarian as a newbie, you will have no problems.

S/he will likely trim away the excess hair at the horn base - use a wire saw to remove the horns and some lidocaine.

Lidocaine simply freezes the horn base - reducing the shock of losing the horns. When they are large, it is - as was put to me once - similar to cutting off your hand - quite painful! Hence the freezing. It also allows for a faster recovery time.

The wire saw makes for a very nice and clean removal - it is fast and it does a very nice job.

The holes will close within a month - give or take a bit.

If you were close I would come and do it for you - easy and a bit messy - but the cow will do ok.

We do it exactly the same as the veterinarian.

Overall it is a very simple procedure.

As for flies - there is a risk - so we tend to do it outside fly season - but I am sure the veterinarian will burn the cut area and that reduces the blood issues after removing the horns.

Burning also eliminates the chance for regrowth of a deformed horn.

Follow the veterinarian's directions and you will likely be ok.

If you decide to not to do this and are worried about the horns - buy some weights and put them on the horn tips. The weights will train the horns downward and the cow will gain the "traditional" Herf look. We do this as well.

There is a lot of info on this topic if you choose to run a search on this board. There are a few of us here who train horns down on a regular basis.

Have fun,

Bez>

 

[Aero]

There is a lot of info on this topic if you choose to run a search on this board. There are a few of us here who train horns down on a regular basis.

Have fun,

Bez>

do you choose to have horns on your animals? if you are removing them from 2 YO's, why not just paste them at birth?

 

[Bez>]

There is a lot of info on this topic if you choose to run a search on this board. There are a few of us here who train horns down on a regular basis.

Have fun,

Bez>

do you choose to have horns on your animals? if you are removing them from 2 YO's, why not just paste them at birth?

We always leave the horns on our animals because they are Horned Herfs. If they have then we believe in showing them.

When someone buys a cow from us, they may / may not want the horns. We will remove if requested. Most do not ask us to do so - but it is a simple procedure and can be accomplished in very short order. We avoid fly season if possible but the holes can be covered with an open mesh if someone is worried. Only ever did that once.

We will keep the animal until healed but you pay for the animal BEFORE we de-horn. That way I do not ruin its looks for someones whim. Any sickness or death - we will refund. Never had to do that to date.

Anything shipped to market as a stocker is dehorned. We do not use paste - we cut them off with a gouger at about 2-3 months - or whenever they get in the chute for de-nutting or vaccinating.

Bez>

 

[livestock101]

I apologize in advance if this next question is stupid but I dont know the answer so....

Does it matter if we have rain or snow after the horns are taken off? I mean, what if rain or snow got in the holes? Would that cause any problems? And how big of holes would be open on a two year old?

 

[Bez>]

I apologize in advance if this next question is stupid but I dont know the answer so....

Does it matter if we have rain or snow after the horns are taken off? I mean, what if rain or snow got in the holes? Would that cause any problems? And how big of holes would be open on a two year old?

Nope - not a dumb question .....

Not likely a problem - at least it has not been so for us.

Last ones we cut were done at about minus 25 or so and it did snow the next day - no probs that I observed.

Cattle actually throw a lot of heat.

A 2 year old does not really have that large an opening - I could probably put one to two fingers into the sinus hole if I tried. But come to think of it I never have tried. It is actually a fairly small opening.

Bez>

As a quick edit - I have never done this with a down pour of rain following so I could not say for sure - but in retrospect I would probably still do the job despite the weather. Less fly trouble.

B

 

[bigbull338]

if you dehorn her in the rain.the horn hole could get wet inside if its not packed.the rain will cause her to catch cold in her horn holes.an the holes will run a white muccus .an youll have to keep the holes sprayed with wound dressing.

 

[Caustic Burno]

How hard is it to dehorn a 2 year old hereford cow? I have no intention of doing it myself, I'd haul her to the vet's office. I know it's best to do it when their young but we didn't own her then. It can still be done, right? I was wanting to haul her down before the flies come out. Assuming it can be done, how long does it take for the holes to close?

All you need is a hacksaw and a good chute. It is kinda of bloody for those that are weak stomached.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

i have dehorned in late winter and had a hard time with one healing. due too constant rubbing and keeping it open and then got infested with maggots . like to have never got her healed. swore after that to only dehorn after first kill'in frost so to have plenty of good healing weather.

 

[farmwife]

We just recently tipped the horns on a 2 year old bull. We left about 2 inches on each side and I'd guess the diameter of the base at about 2.5 inches. After the vet used the wiresaw, he taped the horns with regular old medical tape and applied pressure over the tips for about 5 minutes on each side. It was pretty bloody for a few minutes and continued to drip a little over the next day or so. After about 7 days, we removed the tape and everything was okay. I was pretty smelly too for a several days afterwards. Our vet wouldn't remove them completely since he had nothing big enough to go over the entire horn base.

As for dehorning a young calf, make sure it's horned and not scurred. Scurs are typically left on as proof.

 

[livestock101]

Okay, after reading all the posts....I'm guessing I should wait until fall? I havent seen a fly yet but then again we're still getting a bit of snow here and there. What do you think? Wait for fall (September-October) to dehorn as a precaution. One note on waiting.....the cow that needs to be dehorned will be bred by then. Can you dehorn a bred cow?

 

[Herefordcross]

Somebody said something about sewing the hole shut,

HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU SEW a boney hole shut in a cow's skull?????????

 

[Bez>]

Okay, after reading all the posts....I'm guessing I should wait until fall? I havent seen a fly yet but then again we're still getting a bit of snow here and there. What do you think? Wait for fall (September-October) to dehorn as a precaution. One note on waiting.....the cow that needs to be dehorned will be bred by then. Can you dehorn a bred cow?

Do it now and be done.

Bred cow? No probs. Do it.

Bez>

 

[Bez>]

Somebody said something about sewing the hole shut,

HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU SEW a boney hole shut in a cow's skull?????????

I guess I missed that one.

Bez>

 

[milkmaid]

I've saw a nasty sinus infection on a steer last spring when the weather turned nasty and dumped a bunch of rain right after dehorning. Wintertime works OK for me -- I did a bunch of almost-yearlings over Christmas break with no problems.

 

[Bez>]

All in all folks have been cutting horns off for years.

If one is going to drive to the store for milk and talk about every car accident on the face of the earth - then I suppose I'd never drive again.

You want the horns off - cut them off. You want them left on leave them on.

Bez>

Second read - this was not meant to sound harsh - simply factual.

Thnx

B

 

[farmwife]

Why do you want to cut them off anyway?

We tipped that bulls horns, because he was getting bad about trying to use them on us. We are polled breeder, but the horns don't really bother me until they try to use them as a weapon against us.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Somebody said something about sewing the hole shut,

HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU SEW a boney hole shut in a cow's skull?????????

called cosmetic dehorning they sew the hide up over the hole.