[Jacob-list] Re: Spider webs

[Jacobflock at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/16/2003 10:07:14 AM Central Standard Time, 
GBAnderson at UCDavis.Edu writes:

> Hi, Fred.  Last weekend Dianne and I trimmed the horns of a two-horned ram
> that were growing too close to his face.  (Maybe I should say, "We trimmed
> the horns of a friend's ram...")  We cut way too far up the horn, and that
> sucker bled like crazy.  As we were quickly considering how to stop the
> bleeding, I told Dianne that I remember from a previous JacobList that you
> use spider webs.  We have plenty of them, and Dianne ran about collecting
> webs while I compressed the cut horn.  When she returned with a handful of
> webs, I told her that I must not remember everything in the message or 
> Texas
> webs are cleaner than California webs, because I couldn't fathom putting
> dirty spider webs on an open wound.  I ended up compressing the wound for
> what seemed like 30 minutes, wrapped it, etc.
> 
> I was interested in your message that I received today that you don't worry
> about dust and dirt.  Is there something about the horn that makes it o.k.
> to put material on a wound that you wouldn't consider putting on wound at
> another site in the body?
> 

I guess the width, area and depth of the horn must be a major consideration.  
The horn bleeding for breaks at the end, middle(?), and at the base of the 
skull will differ in apparent severity by the amount of blood and exposed 
core.  Your point on putting material on a would that you wouldn't consider 
putting on at another site is well taken.  Perhaps even more so since the 
horn veins/arteries are so closele connected to the carotid artery and 
carotid rete ... sinus cavity ... and eyes.  We did use gauze and vet wrap a 
couple of years ago on a wether that broke one of his top horns off about 
half way; about an inch in diameter.  The horn was hanging from the top so a 
cut the top off and "folded" part of the jagged material into the remainder 
horn.

The spider web "dust" seems to act as a clotting substance.  I hadn't thought 
of the dust as an infection matrix but it probably is more so than a gauze 
and vet wrap or duct tape.  

We had a ram break his lateral drop horn off all the way to the skull and 
"plugged" it with cotton until it could be treated by the vet a couple of 
hours later.  The "hole" was into the skull. He unpacked it, cleaned it and 
repacked it, gave him a couple of shots and we penned him for about a month.

For my shearing cuts (epidermal and small dermal cuts) we use "purple coat" 
in the spray can, for pedicure cuts to the quick we use powdered blood stop 
(which seldom seems to work).  Haven't had to deal with any long or deep 
dermal cuts which would probably require a stitch but we have needles on hand 
(really for the horse emergency).

One that I have thought about but not used is "new skin" in a spray can. 

I am going to send a copy of this to the listers because you are on point and 
spider webs may be a problem rather than a solution.

Fred Horak

PS.  The Jacob breeder that reported using the Konefal method to time lambing 
for daylight hours said he was misquoted in his remarks and that his feeding 
time was 10AM (not 10PM) and about 80% were daylight births.  There is also 
an article in April 25 Science, Vol. 300, which again suggests that "hungry" 
ewes have short gestation periods; fetal ACTH concentrations being high 
shortening the time in the control groups 139 vs. 146.  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20030519/cf1d32ba/attachment.html