Dehorn Infection

[BAC]

I've got a 7 month old heifer I had surgically dehorned 10 days ago, this morning I noticed that it appears that there is some infection (pus) draining from one of the incision sites.  It also appears that one of the stitches also popped.  The dehorning was done by a vet in as sterile a setting as possible.  The vet is out of town for the next few days and there are no other large animal vets in the area.  I have always dealt with polled cattle in the past and want to know what, if anything should I do.

 

[Gargan]

try to flush it out by squirting hydrogen peroxide in the infected area with a syringe. try to do this every day or even 2 times a day for a week. if its still infected maybe call ur vet in a week or so. it will more than likely be fine. may need to put her in a shoot to flush it. good luck

 

[twistedhshowstock]

Ok I have been up for a while studying for a test,so now I am having a total brain fart on names of things. LOL. ??? But I had a heifer get infected after surgical dehorning way back when I first started showing.  Hers actually got kinda bad because we were gone for a couple days and my granddad was feeding, when we came back and realized she was infected on both sides it was so bad that she ended up blowing all the stitches. What the vet had us use, was go get some of the tubes of antibiotich that you use for mastitis(it will be in a tube similar to a paste deworming tube, but the end will be made to insert into the teat of a cow with mastitis).  I would actually use like an iodine or betadine surgical or wound scrub to squirt in to clean, peroxide is great for cleaning surface wounds, but can actually cause added inflamation and you dont want that inside an area that is sutured.  After flushing, squirt some of the mastitis antibiotic in where the stitch has blown.  If it does swell and the incision gapes, get you some silver sulfadiozene cream and put in the opening after the antibiotich. Do this twice a day, and you are golden.  The heifer that we had ended up blowing all the sutures on both sides, big swollen, gaping holes in her head, we did this twice a day for about 2-3 weeks and you couldnt tell she had ever had an incesion, healed over perfectly, no scar line, she looked naturally polled.

 

[DL]

I've got a 7 month old heifer I had surgically dehorned 10 days ago, this morning I noticed that it appears that there is some infection (pus) draining from one of the incision sites.  It also appears that one of the stitches also popped.  The dehorning was done by a vet in as sterile a setting as possible.  The vet is out of town for the next few days and there are no other large animal vets in the area.  I have always dealt with polled cattle in the past and want to know what, if anything should I do.

OK folks - underneath the horn site is the sinus which is pretty close to the brain - before you go dumping toxic and irritating stuff in there you need to be a little cautious and see the extent of the infection - I assume that these are individual not continuous sutures and that the one popped because there is a pocket of puss under neath - I would cut and pull a couple more sutures (near the bottom - ie where things would drain and flush from the top down with a 60 cc irrigation syringe and saline solution) - if you don't have or can't get saline solution you can add about 4 tablespoons of NON iodinized salt to a gallon of distilled water and use that - your vet is out of town - who did he leave on call to cover for him?? You might want to call them too

 

[chambero]

Unfortunately I have quite a bit of experience with cosmetic dehornings gone bad.  Not to scare you, but over the course of nearly 30 years I've had or seen more calves ruined by dehorning infections than I've ever had cripples/etc. 

What usually happens is a little small sliver of bone gets left in and it keeps the wound constantly irritated.  It almost certainly has to get cleaned out and unless you are real lucky it has to get done by a vet.  DL is absolutely right about the hydrogen peroxide, it's really too harsh and irritating to the tissue.  If you use it (which I have sometimes), it has to get rinsed with water so that it doesn't keep irritating the skin.

Do exactly what DL says - it needs a hole to drain at the bottom.  You aren't needing to sterilize the area, you need to wash that splinter out - that's why saline is great.  If you are lucky, the splinter (if that's what it is) is loose inside and might get washed out.  If that happens, the head will heal up very quickly (you'll see in improvement in a day or two).  If not, get him back to the vet as fast as that bet is back if they don't have someone else filling in for them that can handle it.

If you don't get it taken care of, this will be a longterm irritation for the calf.  You'll keep messing with it, you'll have rotten flesh that winds up having to be removed, and the calf will get mean from having his head hurt constantly and often with constant doctoring.

Thankfully (and knock on wood) my troubles with this issue are in the past.  My current vet that we've used the last several years is very careful on cosmetic dehorning and takes a lot of care with cleaning the site afterwards. 

 

[lightnin4]

+1 on just using saline or water to flush it out.  And, flush it ALOT! Do it until you get tired of filling the syringe and squirting it out--then do it a few more times!  Then definately consult your vet when he gets back.

 

[Gargan]

Thanx for the info on the peroxide. My vet had us do this for a similar situation this summer. Guess he was wrong and it just healed itself. Will know from now on. I stand corrected.

 

[chambero]

I use peroxide for external wounds regularly, but you really do need to rinse it off.  It is very strong and when left on for a prolonged time, very irritating.  It's hard to get it all out of something that's hidden from exposure to air.

 

[jeranch]

Try Vetricyn it is very safe and works suprisingly well, I used it the first time just to see and have very good luck with dehorn infections,  pink eye and even ring worms.  I was very scepticle but it works pretty well.

 

[DLD]

Have sure had some infections in the past, but for the past few years we give them all a shot of penicillin seven days (or thereabouts) after dehorning, and haven't had any problems since.  I'm sure that this might not be as effective in some cases, depending on the cause, but I'm very convinced that it helps.