De-Horning Rosie's Little Bull Calf

We're not big on having horns on any animals on our little farm - cows or goats.  While they are young we de-horn them.  Sometimes we do it with an electric de-horning iron, but since we don't own one, we usually opt for using de-horning paste to do the trick.  This afternoon when I got home from work, I fed Rosie and then separated her little bull calf and tied him up.  I got the clippers and trimmed the hair on his head that surrounded his little horn buds.  This allows the de-horning paste to reach the skin level so that the horn bud is killed.

Although I captured the step-by-step process in the blog in the past (you can search the posts to find it), I didn't get pics today as my hands were full.  I'll explain the process.  After his head was shaved around the horn buds, I used Vaseline Petroleum Jelly to make a dam around each of the horn buds.  This helps prevent the de-horning paste from dripping around and into his eyes.  This is a cautionary move as the paste is an acid and could potentially put his eyes out.

Then I used my pocketknife to scoop out a glob of dehorning paste and I rubbed it on each horn bud and the surrounding skin so that it covered about the size of a quarter on each horn.  Then I held him tight.  Experience taught us that this burns the horn and surrounding skin and is very uncomfortable to the animal.  I held him tight for about 30 minutes.  The animals will writhe around on the ground.  You don't want them rubbing their heads on anything as they could get the acid in their eyes or on you.  After 30 minutes I use duct tape to completely cover the area on which I applied the de-horning paste. This serves as a precaution to keep him from rubbing it off.

Later on in the evening, I went out to check on him.  We was up and moving around but very suspicious of me being around.

The duct tape seemed to be sticking and doing a good job of keeping the de-horning paste on his horns.

Tomorrow morning I will bring some scissors with me and I'll cut off the duct tape and use a wet rag to remove the remaining de-horning paste.  I wouldn't want him rubbing any of that on Rosie's teats while he's nursing on her for his breakfast.

It will heal up fast and the de-horning paste will (hopefully) kill the horn bud so that the horns will never grow.  A bull with no horns means that he won't get tangled in the fence.  It also means that he won't be able to gore any of the other animals or us!