Goodbye, horns!

[Olga]

Macy and Polly went to the vet today. I dreaded having to catch and load them by myself in the cold wet morning. But I got it done and made it to the vet's almost on time. Ole Doc Wink must get a hoot out of my visits, 'cause he never quits chuckling. Here comes a Russian lady, wearing camo and rubber boots, talking with a southern drawl... I'd be chuckling too!
As to the girls, they both lost their horns today. Polly had tiny knobs and Macy had surprisingly large horns, even Doc Wink thought so. Macy's horns will be made into a bugle and may be a knife handle.

[ctownson]

Certainly the right time of year to do it!

[lakeportfarms]

Olga, did he use the Barnes tool or were they sawed off on Macy?

[Olga]

He sawed them off.

[lakeportfarms]

How did that go? We've used the Barnes on a few of ours (Dexters and Highlands), and though it looks painful at the moment, the seem to bounce back pretty well and a couple of days later it doesn't seem to affect them at all. I know most people would cringe that we've dehorned Highlands, but with the amount of time we spend in the pasture among them (and so many) we are too wary of being in the flight zone of one trying to escape from another one. So we're considering it with a couple of older ones that would have to be sawed, and then we'd move them into the "de-horned Highland" pasture. We're worried about them losing a calf if we did it in the winter too, but don't want them open for a year while we wait for the best weather. So, those are our circumstances...just wondering what your experience is with it.

[kansasdexters]

Hans,

We've used the Callicrate bander and bands to take horns off of mature cattle (male or female). It is very effective and allows you to dehorn animals where the horn base is too big for the Wadsworth XL bands. The Callicrate bands are not UV protected, so after you put them in place at the base of the horn, you put duct tape over the bands to cover them. Give the animal a tetanus shot (tetenus toxoid) and a shot of tetanus anti-toxin (for immediate protection) and a shot of Banamine (for immediate pain relief, if needed). The horns will drop off in about 6-8 weeks, with little or no blood loss. The sinus cavity will have filled in with healthy tissue by then and there will not be any open wound. We have dehorned pregnant cows (2nd and 3rd stage of pregnancy) during the winter without any losses.

Setting the bands and covering them with duct tape:


Results - 8 weeks later:


Patti

[lakeportfarms]

Patti, I know John Potter used this method too. Would you suggest winter is the best time before flies, or is the wound healed sufficiently that flies are easily managed with some screw worm spray and it could be done anytime?

[kansasdexters]

We only use this method in the winter, and the colder it is, the faster and better it works because there is less blood flow to the horns when it's cold. Think of it as a severe bruise at the horn base, to minimize any bruise, you would put ice on it. That's what the cold weather does for you. The blood vessels naturally constrict in response to the cold. The bands further cut-off the blood supply and the horn tissue dies. The horns then fall off with very little loss of blood.

[Olga]

Doc Wink used a shot of pain blocker in both cases, to the base of the horns. The cow didn't react much to them taken off and she acted business as usual by the time I brought her back to the pasture.

[Cascade Meadows Farm - Kirk]

I'll just tip-toe in with one little minor comment.

On our farm, whenever there appears to be a need for a vet or modern chemicals or drugs or medical procedures, we ask ourselves if there is a way to do without in the future. That's why our vet bill has been zero for years and years.

For example, most pig breeders have breeds of pigs that MUST have their testicles removed from all the baby boys, or the boys' meat will be stinky..... But there are breeds of pigs that don't have stinky meat and don't require that testicles be removed (so that's the breed of pigs that we have on our farm and our pigs are trouble-free with zero medications and zero medical procedures).

In the case of Dexters, rather than ever fussing with de-horning (and the pain and trauma and medications to the animal), we use the polled gene.

I don't want to start a debate about polled vs. horns, but just wondering why folks who de-horn, don't look into using the polled gene to avoid the cost and trouble and pain and risks of de-horning.

Because the dexter polled gene is a stand-alone gene, it can easily be imported into any of your favorite lines of dexters and you can convert your favorite line of dexters into a polled version of that same favorite line of dexters within a few generations (I'd be happy to explain how to do it).


PS. I understand why people who love horns would be opposed to the polled gene (I love the look of horns too and I'm glad some people breed horned dexters), but just wondering why folks who de-horn wouldn't switch to polled.

PPS. On our farm, if we sometimes use a heterozygous polled bull and get a few calves with horns, we leave the horns on and find folks that want horns for oxen and such.

[Olga]

For me the answer is simple.
My default product is a horned Dexter. If for whatever reason horns on a particular animal are undesirable, then the animal can be dehorned. By comparison, you can't make a specific polled animal horned upon request.

P.S.: I do have one heterozygous polled heifer and some of her offspring will be polled.

[copperhead]

I've thought about the bands, but, my vet says they hurt like hell...do you just give bannamine once of for several days?

[kansasdexters]

Hi P.J.

The bands are painful for several hours after they are applied. That's when the Banamine is helpful to relieve the discomfort. After the first day, the banded horns don't seem to bother most (but not all) cattle. This year we had a couple of animals that their bands caused discomfort initially and then again several weeks later until their horns finally dropped off. The Banamine was helpful for reducing their discomfort, given once a day (as needed).

The extreme drought conditions and warmer than normal weather that we are experiencing may have contributed to their discomfort at the end of the process. We are noticing that this dry weather seems to make the horns tougher and it's taking a few weeks longer for the bands to cut through.

Patti

[lakeportfarms]

Patti, How long (many days) for the Banamine? Just watch for them shaking their head?

[kansasdexters]

Hans,

Normally, it's just one shot of Banamine at the time the bands are put on. They are fine the next day, no head shaking or signs of discomfort. This year, we had two Dexters that showed signs of discomfort right before their horns fell off. They held their heads down low and would shake their heads from side to side. So they each got another shot of Banamine, and then the horns fell off a few days later, so we only gave them that single additional shot. We didn't have to give them additional shots of Banamine for several days in a row.

Each animal is different, some of them don't seem to be bothered at all after the first day when the bands are put on. You just have to watch them closely and don't put them in with new animals until their horns drop off. The horn base attachment gets weaker and weaker over time, until the horn drops off. If they get in a shoving match with another animal, the horn may come off prematurely and then there will be more bleeding than if it is allowed to just drop off by itself.