dehorning older calf

I was out in the pen this evening feeding and to my horror noticed that my 6 month old bull calf has little horns poking up through all his fuzz. We planned to keep him as a clean up bull and I will not have a bull with horns so what are my options for dehorning him as an older calf?

Quite likely that since you are just now noticing them that they are scurrs. Shouldnt be a big deal to tip off the scurrs because hes at the age where most people do dehorn them.

We have dehorned surgically clear up to a year. I am sure you will be fine.

Put calf bands on them as close to the head as possible.  Works on horns and should work fine on scurs too.

Dozer45 said:

I was out in the pen this evening feeding and to my horror noticed that my 6 month old bull calf has little horns poking up through all his fuzz. We planned to keep him as a clean up bull and I will not have a bull with horns so what are my options for dehorning him as an older calf?

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Dozer, we had the same thing happen to our son's 4-H steer last year except he was a year old at the time.  We had a local vet come out and do the procedure.  It was really simple and in no time you couldn't even tell anything had happened.  I would do it now as we don't have a fly problem .....yet.

Barnes dehorners should do the trick.  In terms of age, he's a younger calf.  I'v dehorned plenty of grown cows w/ horns big around as your wrist- couple minutes later they're back in line eating.

Yeah...This is actually relatively young for dehorning. I would have them scooped out. When it heals up, you won't even be able to tell they were there.

Just for record keeping purposes, though, you might try to determine whether these are horns or just scurs...especially if you're planning to keep him for a bull. You should be able to tell. Scurs are not attached to the skull...instead, they are attached to the scalp and will wiggle. I treat em both the same, though...have em taken off. He'll be fine.

Thank you guys! His mama has scurrs so I'm hoping that's all they are but I haven't had a chance to catch him and really look yet.

If his dam has scurs, he HAS to have inherited the scur gene - cows have to have two copies in order to express 'em.  Could be scurs, but they could be horns.

-XBAR- said:

Barnes dehorners should do the trick.  In terms of age, he's a younger calf.  I'v dehorned plenty of grown cows w/ horns big around as your wrist- couple minutes later they're back in line eating.

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There are substantial risks involved with dehorning mature cows. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but I have seen cows bleed to death from doing it. There are also chances of cattle getting infection that starts down in the cavity that is left when dehorning mature cattle. You are right into their sinus cavity there.

CAB said:

-XBAR- said:

Barnes dehorners should do the trick.  In terms of age, he's a younger calf.  I'v dehorned plenty of grown cows w/ horns big around as your wrist- couple minutes later they're back in line eating.

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There are substantial risks involved with dehorning mature cows. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but I have seen cows bleed to death from doing it. There are also chances of cattle getting infection that starts down in the cavity that is left when dehorning mature cattle. You are right into their sinus cavity there.

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That's what I hear but I've dehorned cattle of all ages with every means imaginable- barnes, keystone, ob wire, hacksaw, sawzall- and never not once had a problem. Several times I've taken off more than I should have and more than the sinus cavity was showing.  I've had flystrike pretty bad but I always just let that take care of itself.  More times than not, people that have problems from dehorning are the ones that try and bandage the cavity as opposed to letting it 'dry' out.  I've used antibiotic gel, pine tar, gauze, and so on and I've found that packing it w/ nothing and leaving it exposed is by far the best as far as healing time.  Hit them w/ a shot of nuflor and send them out.  I really believe its one of those cases where the less intervention the better.

-XBAR- said:

CAB said:

-XBAR- said:

Barnes dehorners should do the trick.  In terms of age, he's a younger calf.  I'v dehorned plenty of grown cows w/ horns big around as your wrist- couple minutes later they're back in line eating.

Click to expand...

There are substantial risks involved with dehorning mature cows. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but I have seen cows bleed to death from doing it. There are also chances of cattle getting infection that starts down in the cavity that is left when dehorning mature cattle. You are right into their sinus cavity there.

Click to expand...

That's what I hear but I've dehorned cattle of all ages with every means imaginable- barnes, keystone, ob wire, hacksaw, sawzall- and never not once had a problem. Several times I've taken off more than I should have and more than the sinus cavity was showing.  I've had flystrike pretty bad but I always just let that take care of itself.  More times than not, people that have problems from dehorning are the ones that try and bandage the cavity as opposed to letting it 'dry' out.   I've used antibiotic gel, pine tar, gauze, and so on and I've found that packing it w/ nothing and leaving it exposed is by far the best as far as healing time.  Hit them w/ a shot of nuflor and send them out.  I really believe its one of those cases where the less intervention the better.

Click to expand...

One of my college classes was an Animal Health Practicum, the instructor was a Vet and as part of the class we had to go to the salebarn with him once and assist with everything from mouthing cows to semen checking to giving shots etc. anyhow on the day I was there a buyer requested that we dehorn two 4y/o longhorn cross cows that had big horns. we used OB wire to cut them off and then used a universal branding iron to cauterize and packed them and let them roll out the chute. Dunno how they turned out but that's my only experience with dehorning mature cattle with BIG horns.   

I have a question that this brings up, I have a 2 year old heifer that has a scur, that I believe is a scur. I had her dehorned as a calf, she has what I believe is a scur on only one side of her head as it is loose and wiggles. But she was dehorned as a calf and don't know if they were scurs or horns at the time cause the vet did the dehorning. Any danger in dehorning that side again? I know horns can regrow back if they don't get it all down deep with the scoops, which is the way she was done, is scurs the same way or is it likely a horn that is just loose from being dehorned in the past? It is about a 1 1/2 inch wide now.

GoWyo, using a calf castrating band? Never heard of doing it that way. I think I could get a band over it and believe it is just a scur cause it is so loose, will just fall off like a sack after awhile?

Big M - I have used calf bands on yearling steers with horns.  I just put 2 on each side at the base of the horn where the skin starts and the horns fell off within a couple of weeks.  The first hour was kind of miserable for the steers and they were trying to rub them off on posts and the ground and walking around backward, but once everything went numb they dealt with it fine.  Not as pretty looking as a cosmetic job, but sure enough took them off and no bloody mess.  I would think scurs would come off quite a bit quicker.