Post by tassie on Dec 12, 2010 22:08:20 GMT -5
Not sure where to post this, but I don't think it's an emergency at this stage so I'll do it here.
Two days ago I was rearranging cattle and decided to put Blossom out into the bigger paddock with the bull and his harem as she is now dry and waiting for baby no 2. There is always a bit of reasserting of dominance and a few displays of head butting, but this time it resulted in Blossom losing the keratin layer of one of her horns.....like ALL of it, clean as a whistle leaving a horn-shaped bone. It just looked like the horn had shrunk a bit.
Took me a while to figure out what had happened and it wasn't until I found the horn lying on the ground that it clicked. There wasn't a lot of blood, it dripped slowly for about 15 minutes then stopped, but she was in a lot of pain. I promptly decided to keep her in so I could keep a close eye on her.
It bled again once yesterday (she must have bumped it) but it was dry by the time I saw it. She's eating and, although you can tell it bothers her, seems OK otherwise. She's staying well clear of the other 2 cows with her.
I took some photos just now because I am worried....it's obvious where the blood came from now because there is a lot of dried plasma, but there must surely be some raw nerves there too, and that would be very painful. It looks pretty clean, but I'm guessing there's a risk of infectio
Horn photo 1
Horn photo 2
Horn photo 3
Has anyone dealt with this before? Does the bone part secrete keratin again and slowly form another horn coating? I don't think the bone part is damaged apart from the torn blood vessels and possibly nerves so do I just keep an eye on her and make sure it doesn't get infected?
Not sure if this is a vet matter or not....any opinions?
Trina
PS you can see the very pregnant Marieke in the last photo - the fat one in the shade
Looks like my photos haven't worked out.....I'll keep trying. Can only get the links to show, not the photos, sorry. Don't know why, it hasn't happened before
photo links verified: 3.7.11
Two days ago I was rearranging cattle and decided to put Blossom out into the bigger paddock with the bull and his harem as she is now dry and waiting for baby no 2. There is always a bit of reasserting of dominance and a few displays of head butting, but this time it resulted in Blossom losing the keratin layer of one of her horns.....like ALL of it, clean as a whistle leaving a horn-shaped bone. It just looked like the horn had shrunk a bit.
Took me a while to figure out what had happened and it wasn't until I found the horn lying on the ground that it clicked. There wasn't a lot of blood, it dripped slowly for about 15 minutes then stopped, but she was in a lot of pain. I promptly decided to keep her in so I could keep a close eye on her.
It bled again once yesterday (she must have bumped it) but it was dry by the time I saw it. She's eating and, although you can tell it bothers her, seems OK otherwise. She's staying well clear of the other 2 cows with her.
I took some photos just now because I am worried....it's obvious where the blood came from now because there is a lot of dried plasma, but there must surely be some raw nerves there too, and that would be very painful. It looks pretty clean, but I'm guessing there's a risk of infectio
Horn photo 1
Horn photo 2
Horn photo 3
Has anyone dealt with this before? Does the bone part secrete keratin again and slowly form another horn coating? I don't think the bone part is damaged apart from the torn blood vessels and possibly nerves so do I just keep an eye on her and make sure it doesn't get infected?
Not sure if this is a vet matter or not....any opinions?
Trina
PS you can see the very pregnant Marieke in the last photo - the fat one in the shade
Looks like my photos haven't worked out.....I'll keep trying. Can only get the links to show, not the photos, sorry. Don't know why, it hasn't happened before
photo links verified: 3.7.11