Ryder
Well-known member
Very good post. Well written.Aaron":m9ld2c5w said:List of things you need:
Wire saw cables for horns
Blood stop powder
Pine tar
Small flat stick to apply tar
New pair of needle-nose pliers with good teeth
Rope halter
Loop the cables across the backside of the horn, as close to the skull as you can.
Start sawing back and forth, the heat from the saw will help cauterize the wound. The animal will likely beller..don't be surprised.
Take the horn clean off, after 3/4 of the way through, your going to need another hand (person) to hold the horn so you can finish sawing (it will be flopping around loosely)
Soon as it comes off, the arteries will be spraying like nuts (good to wear old clothes for this procedure). Locate them both (arteries) in each horn and pull them out with the pliers. If you don't get them all, don't worry. Just give a good dose of blood stop power into the holes and around the base and take a good gob of pine tar and smother on top of both bases, bringing the surrounding hair (with tar) towards the horn to help cover it up and protect from dirt and flies.
Let the animal go and watch for the next few hours to make sure that bleeding stops. If not, call a vet. Although we have never had a problem.
If you have access to drugs like lidocaine to ease the pain, that should make the going easier. We have never done that, so can't really comment. You may need to use the rope halter to subdue the animal if they start thrashing their head around in the chute when your sawing. :cowboy:
Just make sure you pack the holes good with pine tar. Nothing nastier than fly eggs (in summer) or a head cold (in winter).
Similar to Bez, once you have the equipment, its fast and cheap to do horns. I figure about a buck a head and takes about 6 mins top to do wire sawing. We typically used Barnes dehorners at weaning as it saves about 3 min per head.
I would only add that a pair of artery forceps would be better for pulling arteries.
The arteries will look like small white worms. Just get a good hold on them and pull right out.
Might need to sponge the blood out of the way to see them. Paper towel works fine. But don't mess around as more bleeding will obscure you vision again if you are too slow.
Remember, there is a first time for everybody.