Disbudding/Dehorning and Antler Removal Flashcards
Why disbud?
- Prevent injury to animals
- Prevent injury to people
- Remove damaged horn tissue
- No need for horns
Definition of disbudding/dehorning
- Removal of or destruction of those structurs from which teh horn will grow or is growing from
- Horn bud
Parts of the horn proper
- Corium
- Cornual process (becomes the cornual sinus)
- Cornual diverticulum
What is the goal of disbudding?
- Destroy corium from which horn and cornual process develop
AVMA recommendations
- Remove when it’s young
- Done at earliest age possible
- Use a local block (lidocaine is inexpensive)
- NSAID
- Benefits animal and producer
Three reasons to disbud at a young age
- Reduces stress
- Less development
- Fewer complications
When to debud a calf?
- First months of life
When to debud a goat?
- First several weeks
Complications of cutting into cornual sinus
- Communicates with the frontal sinus
- If you cut that open, risk of sinusitis and exophthalmia
Cornual nerve block location
- Underneath the frontal crest
- When we’re blocking out, we want to block halfway between the base of the horn and the lateral canthus
Types of dehorning methods
- Caustic paste
- Dehorning iron
- Horn gouge or tube dehorners
- Barnes dehorner
What nerve do we block for disbudding a cow horn?
- Cornual branch of the infratrochlear nerve that comes off of CN 5
- Lidocaine plus NSAIDs (flunixin or meloxicam)
- Longest pain control if you use NSAID plus local anesthetic
Caustic paste
- Alkaline compound (calcium chloride)
Advantage of caustic paste
- Destroys corium and horn bud
- Quick and less painful
Disadvantage of of the caustic paste
- Paste into eyes (keratitis) or onto udder of cow (dermatitis)
Clove oil
- Clove oil used to disbud goat kids
- But not used in the US
Dehorning irons goal
- Destroy the developing horn bud and corium
Dehorning irons length of time
- Put in place for 3-5 seconds
- Block them out first
- should look like leather
Cryosurgery
- They do it here
- Uses liquid nitrogen
- Can use a cotton ball, a sprayer, or something to tap it to
Barnes dehorner
- Gouge like device
De-bulking
- Line of cut
- want to get under the line of hair
Anesthesia for older cattle
- Local nerve block
- NSAIDs
How do you block the cornual nerve?
- Go perpendicular toe the crest
- Put it in under the frontal crest and inject as you pull it back
Tongs for dehorning
- Put these underneath the frontal crest
- This prevents them from bleeding all over
- If they start bleeding you can push underneath the frontal crest
Methods for cutting off a horn in an older cow
- Large Barnes dehorner
- OB wire (which he prefers)
- or a giant saw (he doesn’t like this)
- Keystone (large guillotine)
How to stop bleeding for dehorning?
- Blood stop powder
- Or you can tie a figure 8 with baling twine over the horn base and take it off in a bit
Cosmetic dehorning
- Charge people a bunch
- You undermine and cut off the horn
- Undermine the skin and suture it back together
- Not a fan
5 Post-dehorning
- Control bleeding
- Fly control (don’t do it during fly season; use a fly tag)
- Clean environment
- Feed hay on ground (don’t want to feed in hay nets or get into the surgery site)
- Examine animals frequently