[Jacob-list] broken horn

[Linda]

Sorry to hear about your ram!  Broken horns sure can bleed.  They will usually stop bleeding on their own, although it 
can take awhile. The only time I've ever done anything for a broken horn is one time when the horn was broken, but 
still hanging on by a tiny piece.  I just clipped the horn off that time, as it seemed it might form a pocket where 
infection could grow.  It's interesting to me that that by the day after the profuse bleeding that usually occurs with 
a horn break, there is so little sign of blood left on the sheep.  I'm guessing that the lanolin in the fleece prevents 
the blood from sticking.  The "inner horn" is called the core.

Spider webs will help to stop the bleeding and there is a product you can get at feed stores.  It's a powder and I 
believe it's just called "blood stop powder."  Something like that.  

If you remember Asher and his nice horns, you will see that a horn broken that early can grow back nicely.  Asher broke 
a top horn and at three years old, the two top horns were very similar in size and length.  The growth direction did 
change on the broken horn, so he was no longer so close to perfectly symmetrical.   But, it made him that much more 
interesting. 

Linda


On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 23:12:46 EDT, ACAMDA at aol.com wrote:
>Hi y'all:
>
>About four hours ago (seems like 16) one of our four horned ram lambs (the
>only one with beautiful horns) completely broke off his right upright horn.
>When I saw him a few minutes after it happened, he looked like he had been in
>a car wreck - blood was everywhere and on everyone.  After much cursing,
>begging, and chasing, we managed to corner him and let him calm down while we
>called the vet.  Even after an hour and a half, he was still bleeding horribly
>(running over his eye, down his chin, into his mouth, eww, eww, eww)  Husband
>was useless at this point.  At sight of so much blood he had his head between
>his knees.  Vets only advice was to apply pressure until it stopped.  It took
>3 of us to hold him down, while I cleaned him up  enough to see what was what
>and applied pressure. It seems the outer horn was broken off, but the soft
>inner horn remained which was spurting blood from the tip. It took about 30
>minutes to stop the bleeding using spider webs and pressure.  He is resting
>now with Mom, and hopefully will survive, which is more than I can say for my
>clothes.  And my daughter now has a nice story for "what I did on my summer
>vacation."
>
>Questions: 1)  Are there other options for stopping the bleeding?   I sent a
>search party out for a styptic pencil, but hubby lost his years ago. 2)  What
>is the best way to restrain these guys when they need medical attention.  We
>tried holding legs up, then putting him on his side, but he was always one
>wiggle away from getting free.  I hesitate to use too much force as I don't
>want him to die from stress while I'm trying to save him! 3)  Do I need to do
>anything else?  Is there a risk of infection?  He probably won't let me within
>a mile of him, but I could try. 4)  Since the outer horn was broken off, but
>some type of inner horn (my terminology) remains, is there a chance it will
>grow back since he's only 3 months old?  5)  Would the bleeding have stopped
>before he bled to death as the vet said? Sure didn't seem like it to me.
>
>Thanks.  It has been a long evening.  Seems everything happens when I have
>something boiling on the stove.
>
>Kathey Sweet Georgia Valley Farm


Meet our flock:
  www.patchworkfibers.com/ewes.html