Dehorning

[Turin5-3]

We have a longhorn cow that had horns that curled behind her ears and dug into her neck. Had her dehorned yesterday. The vet said to keep her out of the weather, especially rain, until the holes closed up. How long does that usually take? :???:

 

[Isomade]

I've never had a LH, but with my regular cows I don't worry about it. I'd just turn her out and maybe bring her in if it looks sure enough like rain.

 

[circlew]

When we dehorn cows, we would always put a paper towel over the tip of the horns and then use a rubber band to old it on with. By the time it comes off the horn as sealed up.

 

[JSCATTLE]

It's gonna take a few weeks to close completely . The skin will grow Over the hole . I've dehorned quit a few . I always turn them out but they have wOods and a shed to get under . I've never had one get under the shed because of rain .

 

[Aaron]

Wind is a lot harder on them than rain. If she looks like she is uncomfortable, you can throw white flour into the holes to help plug them up. Smearing pine tar on them with a stick, pushing the surrounding hair over the area of the horn base will help too. It will take a few weeks for it to heal completely, but you should notice a frothy plasma shortly (next few days) that fills into the holes and helps to seal them off.

 

[jerry27150]

how close did the vet cut them? if he cut them straight down out an inch from the head, you should have no problem. if he cut them with the ring of hair you have more chance of infection & alot bigger hole. if she gets any infection i'd give 48 hr penicillin. if he left more horn there should be no problem either. i put pine tar or koppertox on after cutting

 

[bigbull338]

it takes 3 or 4wks give or take for the holes to close up.if she will let you keep the holes sprayed good with wound dressing.thatll help protect the holes.as you dont cold to set up in them,thus causing them to run an get real stinky.

 

[Farmerjon]

When our vet dehorns our jerseys with a barnes dehorner, he puts some type of wrap or flex tape over the hole, sticks to the wet skin. He does this to keep debris from falling into the sinus cavity.

 

[3waycross]

We always used gauze dipped in pine tar to plug the holes

 

[Lane]

I buy 3 wt. calves weekly and a lot of them have horns. We scoop the horns and if any have
open holes I pack with cotton, let some stick out and we used to cover with pine tar. I have
not found any of the pine tar in a couple of years so we started using silicone sealer.

Around here it rains regularly and I worry about infection, but the sealer works well, I hate
to jinx myself, but I have not had to repull any calves with dehorning problems in a long time.

Lane