Post by Lesli on Jan 13, 2008 19:53:11 GMT -5
by Liz.
We had taken Loretta to the vet for other reasons as previously mentioned back in October. While there, because she had a history of mis-using her very sharply pointed horns (popping Peekaboo in the eye with them when she was a tiny thing, on purpose--You just don't get many chances on my farm) we had Loretta dehorned by the vet. He first used these huge guillotine styled de-horners and cut the horns very closed to her head. She was in a chute with head gate and her head was tied back where she could not move it.
After they were cut off of course it was bleeding- the vet used some sort of needle nosed plyers to crymp off and twist the blood vessels feeding the horns and the bleeding stopped rather quickly. He then used what looked like tin snips and "cleaned up" the edged where they were rough and got them even closer to the head. As you can see a little bit in the picture they have healed rather nicely. Oh the vet said best to not do it when they will be sticking their head in a big round bale of hay or such. He said better to keep her away from hay all together for a few days.
She never vocalized her obvious pain, and after a day or two she acted like they didn't bother her at all. Really I only assume it bothered her for a couple of days, it was not apparrent, other than her trying to use them and found them gone. And it put her at the bottom of the pecking order in my dad's herd, because he said she always used her horns before poking the other cows in the herd to get them out of her way. She is smaller than all of them. About half of my Dad's cows are polled the others have some sort of horns sometimes facing weird directions. She was only there to be bred so she is back home now, and still (same as before) is 2nd in command and pretty much lets Peekaboo know every day, by busting her in the side with her head. We are thankful that it was done, best $15 I ever spent. You can spend more and have them scooped out and stitched up and you would likely never know she ever had horns.
I know this can be a hot topic and I didn't post on it to stir things up. I know some feel it is an unnecessary cruelty to an adult cow. To those I say, offer your self up to get a horn to the ribs or maybe lose an eye. I didn't want a blinded calf, somehow that sounded worse than losing very sharp horns.
We had taken Loretta to the vet for other reasons as previously mentioned back in October. While there, because she had a history of mis-using her very sharply pointed horns (popping Peekaboo in the eye with them when she was a tiny thing, on purpose--You just don't get many chances on my farm) we had Loretta dehorned by the vet. He first used these huge guillotine styled de-horners and cut the horns very closed to her head. She was in a chute with head gate and her head was tied back where she could not move it.
After they were cut off of course it was bleeding- the vet used some sort of needle nosed plyers to crymp off and twist the blood vessels feeding the horns and the bleeding stopped rather quickly. He then used what looked like tin snips and "cleaned up" the edged where they were rough and got them even closer to the head. As you can see a little bit in the picture they have healed rather nicely. Oh the vet said best to not do it when they will be sticking their head in a big round bale of hay or such. He said better to keep her away from hay all together for a few days.
She never vocalized her obvious pain, and after a day or two she acted like they didn't bother her at all. Really I only assume it bothered her for a couple of days, it was not apparrent, other than her trying to use them and found them gone. And it put her at the bottom of the pecking order in my dad's herd, because he said she always used her horns before poking the other cows in the herd to get them out of her way. She is smaller than all of them. About half of my Dad's cows are polled the others have some sort of horns sometimes facing weird directions. She was only there to be bred so she is back home now, and still (same as before) is 2nd in command and pretty much lets Peekaboo know every day, by busting her in the side with her head. We are thankful that it was done, best $15 I ever spent. You can spend more and have them scooped out and stitched up and you would likely never know she ever had horns.
I know this can be a hot topic and I didn't post on it to stir things up. I know some feel it is an unnecessary cruelty to an adult cow. To those I say, offer your self up to get a horn to the ribs or maybe lose an eye. I didn't want a blinded calf, somehow that sounded worse than losing very sharp horns.