Would you dehorn?

[kansasdexters]

We used the Wadsworth XL Bander and XL bands to dehorn several Dexters this year. The bands were applied at the end of November 2011, and now the horns are falling off. Here are some before and after photos, so that you can see how cleanly band dehorning does the job:

A 6-year old Dexter cow (before banding her horns):


Same cow (one week after her horns fell off):


Close-up:


An 18-month old Dexter steer (one month after banding the horns):


Two months after banding the horns, they start to drop off (just a trickle of blood, notice there is no open cavity and that healing is already well under way):


We do give each animal a tetanus vaccination and a shot of tetanus anti-toxin at the time we band their horns. We have banded the horns on Dexters as young as 6 months old (using duct tape to create a ridge to help hold the band close to the base of the horn) and on mature cows (the ones that were using their horns aggressively and hurting other cows). When done properly, the banding method gives superior results and is far less traumatic to the animal compared to other dehorning methods we have tried.

Hope the photos are helpful to you.

Patti

[Dahdo]

Great pictures Patti, thanks posting these. I did not realize that you use castration bands--guess I thought they were something special for horns. Googling to see what a "Wadsworth XL" looked like I also ran across John Potter's description of the procedure. What do you think about the need for an analgesic, anti-inflammatory (Flunixamine)? Looks like a relatively painless way to get this done.
Dave

[kansasdexters]

Hi Dave,

We haven't used Flunixin Meglumine (aka, "Banamine" or "Prevail") when we've banded. When the bands are applied to the horn base, the animal does get a headache and it does show signs of discomfort (shakes head, lowers head, sometimes pushes head against a post or wall). But this behavior only lasts for a very short time, usually only an hour or two, but sometimes as long as 3 hours. Then the horns must go numb because the banded animals typically resume eating or grazing and act completely normal. Then, when the horns actually drop off, 2 months after banding, the animals show no signs of pain or discomfort. It's like when a scab sloughs off, after your skin heals under it.

Since we're mainly dehorning healthy, young steers (food animals) we avoid the use of any medication that isn't absolutely necessary. A 2-hour long headache just isn't a good enough reason for us to give a Banamine injection.

Patti

[jwneeley]

I did this on my two cows and really liked it. I have a heifer that was done a different way and she has a scur that we are going to band in a few weeks. I noticed on my cows when one side fell off they apparently knocked the other one off. My vet is now doing this for some of his larger cattle operation clients instead of surgically removing them. It is a lot less costly too unless the animals are to be shown. I think it could be used on show animals too.

[LizMO]

I have been doing research on this method of dehorning. We have some cows that have horns that need to be removed and I debated on the way to do it. I have the XL wadsworth bander and bands that I plan on using. I saw on some site where they had used these bands and used two on each horn, one on the hair line and one right next to it on the horn, I supposed to help keep the hair line one on. these bands are flat so I supposed that they aren't so inclined to roll, would that be correct? Some of our cows that need to be dehorned are pregnant, due in March and April. what is anyones experience on banding pregnant cows?
LizMO

[kansasdexters]

Hi Liz,

The red, 6-year old cow in the photo is due to calve in mid-April 2012. We don't normally band dehorn pregnant cows, but she was getting very aggressive with her horns on the younger cows and heifers, so we took our chances. We banded her horns on November 27, 2011 and the left horn dropped off on January 13, 2012. The right horn dropped off the next day. The photo was taken on January 21, 2012 (one week later) and you can see how quickly it's healing. She is doing fine and she is still pregnant. We'll see how things turn out for the calf, but I'm not expecting any problems (this will be her 4th calf).

Patti

[LizMO]

Patti
If we band the horns of these cows that are due in March and April, after thay have their calves, will flys be a problem? as it would be some time in the Summer when the horns fall off. Have you banded horns during fly season?
Liz

[kansasdexters]

Liz,

We have banded the horns on yearling heifers in early April and their horns fell off by late May. Flies were not a problem the year that we did that, probably because it was a very dry Spring. We did have a yearling bull that we banded, and his horns took longer to drop off. We noticed flies were attracted to his horns and so we sprayed them with ProZap Screw Worm aerosol for several days (once each day) until the horns finally dropped off. I found dead maggots on the inside of his horns (the part that fell off). The flies were small enough that they could crawl into the crevice created by the band as it cut through the horn. Until the horns fell off, that made a protected moist environment for maggots to hatch and grow in. Once the horns fell off, the wound scabbed over and quickly dried up, since the weather was dry.

If you are willing and able to use ProZap and have a squeeze chute or head catch (where you can control the animal's head and protect its eyes while you spray ProZap at the horn bases) then banding horns during fly season can be done. Just don't try spraying ProZap around the animal's head without being able to restrain its head and protect the eyes.

Patti

[ctownson]

The pictures and description are excellent and offers a good alternative to other methods of dehorning at a later age. As suggested, this procedure is better when no flies are out.

[cddexter]

I know Patti advertises her beef as having no chemical additives, so as a selling point, no pain relief works for her.

I don't go along with 'it only hurts for an hour' (or three..). Try putting your finger in the door jamb and closing the door on it, and see if the comment makes the pain more acceptable.

I'd freeze the horn nerves. By the time the freezing wears off, the pain should be marginal. There is also a 'cow valium' called Rompin you could use instead/as well so they are sort of doped up and don't notice much.

c.

[kansasdexters]

Hi C.

We do give pain relief and therapeutic antibiotics when necessary for the health and well being of our livestock. In this case, there is a big difference in the degree of discomfort produced by banding the horns versus sawing them off and cauterizing the open wounds. How do I know this? Well, we've done it both ways and the banded animals resume eating and their normal behavior within the herd in a few hours. Animals that have had their horns sawed off and cauterized can take several days to recover from the procedure.

Injecting Banamine (or other analgesic medication) carries it's own risk and potential adverse side effects. For example, Banamine depresses an animal's body temperature, not such a good thing when there isn't any fever to begin with and the animal is outside in the cold of winter. Doping up an animal can result in the animal injurying itself or being injured by another animal while it's in a "drugged" state. Most of these medications affect an animal's behavior for at least a day, sometimes longer.

I birthed two children without the use of any drugs, painkillers, etc. Yes, it was painful for several hours during labor, but it was a "bearable" type of pain. For me, the benefits of being drug-free before and after the birth (normal healthy delivery) far outweighed the potential benefit of using the drugs. Similarly, when cows are in labor and when they deliver their calves, they experience discomfort and we don't give them pain medication for it. However, if a caesarean-section (or other invasive procedure) was required for the birth, then we would give them pain medication.

Patti

[legendrockranch]

Everyones comments got me searching the web. I'm sure that there is other information out there but found the below intersting. This also looks like a small study group.

"Comparison of three different dehorning techniques on pain, behavior, wound healing and performance in feeder cattle in a Western Kansas feedlot"

www.vet.k-state.edu/studentorgs/PhiZeta/2011/casp_b05_neely.pdf

Hopefully I won't have to deal with dehorning anymore ;D

Barb

[kansasdexters]

Hi Barb,

All that I can say is that our results have been excellent with band dehorning. The article that you put a link to concluded that band dehorning was painful and that they observed more blood loss with band dehorning. We have not seen this at all and we've band dehorned more than 30 Dexters over the past two years.

I'm not sure how they could compare band dehorning with mechanical dehorning (sawing off the horns). With band dehorning, the horns aren't gone for many weeks, since it typically takes about 2 months. How could they possibly compare the behavior of animals that were immediately hornless (mechanically dehorned) with animals that took 2 months to shed their horns (band dehorned)? There is no bleeding with band dehorning until the horns fall off. At that point, there is only a small trickle of blood. With mechanical dehorning, the bleeding is severe and the artery has to be shredded and then the wound has to be cauterized to stop the bleeding. Blood stop powder is applied to the open wound and cotton is put into the exposed open cavity created by mechanical dehorning. None of this is needed with band dehorning.

Patti

[legendrockranch]

Hi Patti,

As I mentioned earlier it was a small study. I don't know how much control they had in a feed lot situation.
I always take things like this with a grain of salt until there is more written and proven evidence.
It was still interesting non the less the results they noted.

Barb

[carolinagirl]

I will be getting a couple of calves in early March. I do plan to band the horns on the bull, but the heifer can keep her horns.