Dehorning, one horn off

Monday, after we banded/castrated the latest calf, Donna noticed the steer with horns was acting strange.  I looked and saw blood on the side of his face.  It came from his left horn.  A small circle of blood was around the horn near the band.  The horn looked like it had been knocked against something and may be cracked or loosened at the band.

No more blood was flowing.  The steer looked like he had a headache.  Every so often he would shake his head.

I called and spoke with the local cattle vet. He had no experience with banding to remove horns or knew of anyone who had done it.  "Let me know how it turns out."  The vet did suggest giving the steer a tetanus antitoxin shot (http://www.drugs.com/vet/tetanus-antitoxin.html) due to the open wound.

I kept an eye on the steer during the day.  No more blood.  I saw him drink water but mainly he wanted to stay by himself.  In the evening I saw him eat hay from the feeder and he looked better.  I put some hay in the wooden feeder as that has a larger area for the cattle to move their head around as they eat.  I suspect the steer caught/hit his head on part of the metal feeder and cracked his horn.  In the evening I noticed the horn was drooping down a little bit.


Tuesday I bought a dose of the tetanus antitoxin serum.  Late afternoon Donna helped me give the shot.  We herded the steer into the loading corral ramp area.  He didn't want to go into the head gate so we added a few boards to the ramp area to box him in.  I never gave a shot before so I screwed up.  I forgot to take the cap off the needle and lost 2 to 3 ml of the 5 ml of serum when I squeezed the syringe.

I went to the vet's office and got there just before they closed.  The serum cost almost twice as much ($7.70) than at CHS ($3.99) but I had it.  I was able to give the steer an additional 5 ml serum.  The vet said a few extra mls of serum wouldn't hurt the steer.

The steer had bumped against the loading ramp's fence and it appears he had loosened his horn some more.

I decided to completely remove the horn.  I had a hacksaw but first I tried to grab and pull the horn off.  On my second try I got a better grip and pulled it off fast.

The steer made no cries when I pulled his horn off.  He didn't cry when I gave him his shot earlier.  Both times though he tried to move away when I touched him.

The horn area was bloody but no new blood flowed. I then decided to clean the wound with warm water with Epsom salt and a rag.  The steer moved his head about to evade me.  Finally he decided to go forward and then got trapped in the head gate.  He mostly stood still as I cleaned the blood from the horn and his face.  When touching his horn he made no movement or cries indicating he felt pain.

Once I had a good amount of blood cleaned off I released him to join the others.

As you can see, no open hole where the horn used to be.

One horn off, one horn to go.

The remaining horn and rubber band.

The 'circle' in the following photos is the rubber band I had placed on the horn originally.