Post by Selden on Aug 7, 2005 5:42:53 GMT -5
Hi everyone. Spanky is ten days old now and I need to know what others do for castration. Use an elastrator? At what age? Do you give a tetanus shot?
After having had Ferdinand's horns burned in January -- a successful but very sobering experience to watch -- I did a bunch of reading on dehorning. Recent studies have estimated and compared pain for the calf with the various methods. (They judged the calf was in pain from head shaking, etc.) It was found that for calves dehorning paste at a young age was the least stressful method. The paste scares me, though, so I was reluctant until I found the following website
Dehorning
Everything she says in this made sense to me. I called Nasco and ordered the paste (which is a HAZMAT so can't be sent overnight mail!) and on Friday I treated Spanky at 8 days old. First I shaved the hair over his horn buds, then, using a popsicle stick, I applied the paste, then I covered the whole thing with a precut piece of duct tape, like a wide head band. (It was good that I precut the duct tape because the caustic paste obviously burns painfully and within 30 seconds Spanky had started to wiggle and try to rub his head.) Then I released him to go back to the others. It was no fun watching him shake his head, obviously it hurt. But in less than an hour he had stopped showing any reaction and was back to normal. I liked the fact that I didn't have to separate him for a lengthy period (causing more stress); the whole procedure took five minutes. The duct tape works like a charm -- covers everything safely and doesn't move at all. I am going to leave it on for two weeks and then remove it, hopefully with the shed horn buds attached. I will let everyone know if it works.
I would love to have any suggestions for castration.
link verified: 2.28.11
After having had Ferdinand's horns burned in January -- a successful but very sobering experience to watch -- I did a bunch of reading on dehorning. Recent studies have estimated and compared pain for the calf with the various methods. (They judged the calf was in pain from head shaking, etc.) It was found that for calves dehorning paste at a young age was the least stressful method. The paste scares me, though, so I was reluctant until I found the following website
Dehorning
Everything she says in this made sense to me. I called Nasco and ordered the paste (which is a HAZMAT so can't be sent overnight mail!) and on Friday I treated Spanky at 8 days old. First I shaved the hair over his horn buds, then, using a popsicle stick, I applied the paste, then I covered the whole thing with a precut piece of duct tape, like a wide head band. (It was good that I precut the duct tape because the caustic paste obviously burns painfully and within 30 seconds Spanky had started to wiggle and try to rub his head.) Then I released him to go back to the others. It was no fun watching him shake his head, obviously it hurt. But in less than an hour he had stopped showing any reaction and was back to normal. I liked the fact that I didn't have to separate him for a lengthy period (causing more stress); the whole procedure took five minutes. The duct tape works like a charm -- covers everything safely and doesn't move at all. I am going to leave it on for two weeks and then remove it, hopefully with the shed horn buds attached. I will let everyone know if it works.
I would love to have any suggestions for castration.
link verified: 2.28.11