Just a quick one on horns again. I have two dehorned dexters plus a 7 month old steer which is not. Started using our yearling ring feeder today and found that the steer will not use it because his horns are too big. At one point he ended up towing it round the paddock backwards! He's not bright enough to work out how to twist his head. My question is regarding shortening them. The recent posts on dehorning talk of lots of blood etc, and having just had him castrated I'm a bit loathed to hack him about further. Can the horns be shortened by and inch or so with a hacksaw like sheep, or does the core go too far up?
Spencer
Horns yet gain!
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Duncan MacIntyre
- Posts: 2372
- Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2004 12:38 am
- Location: Isle of Bute, Scotland, UK
The sensitive core goes well up the horn, and only a very small portion could be removed without touching nerves and blood. Running horned and polled or dehorned cattle together is not a particularly good idea either, so I would strongly advise getting him properly dehorned, by your vet if you are not confident of doing a good humane job yourself. There should not really be a significant amount of blood lost in either castration or dehorning though when spread about it may look alarming. Even an egg-cupful of blood looks a lot but from a sizeable stirk it is nothing. Taking a very small bit off will be useless as the horns will grow considerably over the winter in any case. Any damaged horn with nerves exposed is liable to give rise to much more suffering as it will be likely to take a long time to heal whilst leaving exposed nerves.
Duncan
Duncan
Duncan MacIntyre
Burnside Dexters 00316
Burnside
Ascog
Isle of Bute
Burnside Dexters 00316
Burnside
Ascog
Isle of Bute
Spencer
I'm sorry if I alarmed you about the amount of blood involved when taking off horns, Only one of mine bled immediately after the event so that it trickled down her face but it did dry up quickly. Duncan is obviously more pragmatic than I am. My own vet said if blood is trickling it is OK, spurting it should be dealt with. Incidentally, I really do think this is something a vet should do, may as well get it done right and definitely worth it!
I'm sorry if I alarmed you about the amount of blood involved when taking off horns, Only one of mine bled immediately after the event so that it trickled down her face but it did dry up quickly. Duncan is obviously more pragmatic than I am. My own vet said if blood is trickling it is OK, spurting it should be dealt with. Incidentally, I really do think this is something a vet should do, may as well get it done right and definitely worth it!
Hello Sylvia
Thanks for the messge. No offence taken and i think the main thing was a little guilt after the castration. Not an easy thing for a bloke to watch ??? ! As an update the steer seems now to have worked out how to slide his head in between the bars of the feeder diagonally (amazing what good meadow hay wil do!) although I did find the feeder on its side this morning. He obviously hasn't worked out how to slide out again every time! I will monitor things. If he gets the hang of the feeder, and does not start bullying the other cattle I may leave well alone for the time being.
Cheers
Spencer
Thanks for the messge. No offence taken and i think the main thing was a little guilt after the castration. Not an easy thing for a bloke to watch ??? ! As an update the steer seems now to have worked out how to slide his head in between the bars of the feeder diagonally (amazing what good meadow hay wil do!) although I did find the feeder on its side this morning. He obviously hasn't worked out how to slide out again every time! I will monitor things. If he gets the hang of the feeder, and does not start bullying the other cattle I may leave well alone for the time being.
Cheers
Spencer