# Bull Penis Dripping Blood



## Oatbran (Mar 20, 2009)

Sorry for the graphic title, but I wasn't sure what else to call it and I figured that direct and to the point was the best approach.

I have a 8-9 month old bull who has started to try to mount his mother. These are our first cattle and they came as a package. After seeing one of his attempts recently, I noticed that he had what looked like blood dripping from his penis. Should I be worried?

In a related question, we'd like to have him castrated. The vet wants $215 to do it plus a squeeze chute neither of which we have at the moment. How long can he go before it ruins the meat? At risk of severe embarrassment and flaming, I've read instructions, seen castrations done on youtube and people have been performing them on animals for thousands of years. Is it foolhardy to attempt on my own? It can't be that hard, and everyone has to do their first one sometime, right?

He is halter broke and pretty tame at this point. My plan would be to have a rope around its head tied to a tree, tie his rear legs around another tree and stretch him out to keep him from kicking. Then do the cutting: bottom 1/3 of the scrotum, pull testes out, pinch cords and run fingers up and down the cords several times to remove blood, twist cords multiple times, slice/fray cords as high as possible and pull at the same time. Then release his legs and head.


----------



## ksfarmer (Apr 28, 2007)

*Please* have an experienced person with the proper equipment do the castration for you. It would be very foolish for someone with no experience to try with an 8-9 month bull. *You will have a complete disaster, someone will get hurt, and it might not be the bull. *


----------



## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

I like to think I am a pretty experienced around handling cattle. I have been talked through, showed by the vet and watched all the youtube videos on castrating my self. So I thought I would give it a go, with 5 1 month old holsteins. Well all of them got infected! My vet bill to get the mess I made cleaned up was not worth it!!! I am going to stick with putting the rubber bands on them as soon and the balls hit the sack. 

When are you planning on butchering him??? What are you plans for the next calf that you get from your cow? It you are butchering in the fall, and plan on butchering the next calf as well. Then leave him! Let him breed his mother and put him in the freezer when you are ready. My parents have there breeding stock of 4 black angus cows, every year they do not bother castrating there bull calves they rebred there moms and aunties, and are butchering in the fall. The resulting calves are also butchered, so no worries about inbreeding.


----------



## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

Have you noticed if the sheath is swollen or if he is unable to retract his penis? I'm wondering if he broke/ruptured it.


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

wr said:


> Have you noticed if the sheath is swollen or if he is unable to retract his penis? I'm wondering if he broke/ruptured it.


This is my question too. Does it go back in all the way?
If not, it could get infected.


----------



## TSYORK (Mar 16, 2006)

Not to be crass, but is it from overuse?


----------



## Timberline (Feb 7, 2006)

The young bull may have injured himself in mounting the cow. How much blood are you talking about? A few drops or much more? 

I definitely would not attempt to castrate any bull that age that was not properly restrained in a squeeze chute, especially if it was my first attempt, halter broke and tame or not. That's just asking for trouble. 

On the other hand, we have butchered a lot of young bulls over the years and have never had bad meat. It's always been fine grained and flavorful, not like that light colored, fat strewn store bought beef.


----------



## Oatbran (Mar 20, 2009)

He is able to retract his penis just fine. There's no obvious injury. It hasn't been from overuse since his mom is the only other cow that is around and she doesn't stand for his shenanigans. It wasn't a lot of blood, but more than I thought would be normal. I counted probably 5-6 drops after the penis was retracted.

I like the idea of keeping him to breed to his mother since that will be another issue we have to deal with. We were planning to butcher him most likely next spring. His mom is pregnant right now and due in Jan or Feb (not by our choice), so the timing would work out. But is 20 months a bit long to let him go before butcher?

It may not make a difference, but these are Dexters. He's growing pretty fast right now, still drinking his mom's milk. I estimate that he probably weighs 200-300 lbs?


----------



## Oatbran (Mar 20, 2009)

Oakshire_Farm said:


> I like to think I am a pretty experienced around handling cattle. I have been talked through, showed by the vet and watched all the youtube videos on castrating my self. So I thought I would give it a go, with 5 1 month old holsteins. Well all of them got infected! My vet bill to get the mess I made cleaned up was not worth it!!! I am going to stick with putting the rubber bands on them as soon and the balls hit the sack.


You live in a similar climate to us in the PNW (Whidbey Island). I was hoping to reduce the chance of infection by leaving him with his mother (he's still sucking) and by rotating to fresh pasture daily. Do you think that would have made a difference with your holsteins?



> When are you planning on butchering him??? What are you plans for the next calf that you get from your cow? It you are butchering in the fall, and plan on butchering the next calf as well. Then leave him! Let him breed his mother and put him in the freezer when you are ready. My parents have there breeding stock of 4 black angus cows, every year they do not bother castrating there bull calves they rebred there moms and aunties, and are butchering in the fall. The resulting calves are also butchered, so no worries about inbreeding.


What do you do with the heifers? Do they butcher them too?


----------



## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

I think your method would work on a dexter that age. Except for the tying his back legs to a tree behind him - you'd have a hard time getting between his legs to do the deed that way - hobble his back legs and tie them to the tree his head is tied to. Oh, and make sure to tie his head securely and close to the tree so he can't hop forward.
The secret to castrating this way is to do it quick as you can. With as sharp an instrument you can find, slice the scrotum quickly then grab a testicle and quickly yank, repeat as fast as humanly possible. When you do it quick they just sorta stand there in shock for a few seconds. No need for all that other stuff you mention - the milking and twisting or whatever. The tearing of the cord makes it ragged enough for it to clot easily. If you cut it it'd be a different story.
The way we've done it with our dexter youngsters who have for whatever reason gone that long is to have one person throw the bull (helps to have horn for leverage and holding) and the other one quickly slice and pull.

If you decide to leave him intact and butcher him, 20 months is fine for a dexter.

Him being a bull is fine too. The meat won't have an off flavor providing he is unsuspecting and calm and he's killed cleanly.


----------



## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

I`m sorry I don`t mean to be rude, but I am always fasinated by all the backyard Vets out here. I have cut so many bulls in my life I think I could do it in my sleep. If you don`t have a head gate or equipment to do the job when they are larger, why not cut or band when they are 100 pounds. as far as how your doing it, all you have to do is cut off the sack, pull a nut, wrapp the cord around your finger and keep pulling slowly till it won`t come anymore and give it a yank to break it. Never other than grabbing the nut do you put your fingers up in there. I have never had a calf get much swelling before, and if you ever have one that won`t stop bleeding just tie a twine around the sack overnight, and take off the next morning. Mostly wash your hands before you cut him so you don`t contaminate him.>Thanks marc


----------



## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

springvalley said:


> I`m sorry I don`t mean to be rude, but I am always fasinated by all the backyard Vets out here. I have cut so many bulls in my life I think I could do it in my sleep. If you don`t have a head gate or equipment to do the job when they are larger, why not cut or band when they are 100 pounds. as far as how your doing it, all you have to do is cut off the sack, pull a nut, wrapp the cord around your finger and keep pulling slowly till it won`t come anymore and give it a yank to break it. Never other than grabbing the nut do you put your fingers up in there. I have never had a calf get much swelling before, and if you ever have one that won`t stop bleeding just tie a twine around the sack overnight, and take off the next morning. Mostly wash your hands before you cut him so you don`t contaminate him.>Thanks marc



Occasionally it's easier to rope and do a dexter bull that size in the field rather than take the whole herd across the farm to the corral for one young bull. A 8-9 month old dexter is tiny compared to our beef cows. I wouldn't do it with the larger cows at that age without getting them to the headcatch.


----------



## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

Oatbran, I raise holstein bull calves that I pick up from local dairys and then raise till weaning and sell. They do not suckle off cows they are usually bucket fed but we have just switched to peach teats, a teat mounted, the back side of the teat has a rubber tube that goes into a bucket of milk, they calves have free choice of milk! It is a great system, they calves are doing great on it. The calves are usually in the barn, but have access to go out side to the barn yard and head out to the pasture. I am not sure how leaving the calf with the mother would do? I never have calves on my cows, I take my calves away from the cows at birth and hand raise them and milk my cows to feed the calves.

And yes my dad even butchers the heifers. He has yearly sales for the same amount of calves he produces so they all go.


----------



## Timberline (Feb 7, 2006)

springvalley said:


> I`m sorry I don`t mean to be rude, but I am always fasinated by all the backyard Vets out here. I have cut so many bulls in my life I think I could do it in my sleep.Thanks marc


Lack of experience was my concern for Oatbran. You've done lots of them, this person obviously hasn't, said these were their first cattle. It's a nine month old bull with a health issue which has the potential to complicate castration. 
Nope, I'm not a vet, but was a vet tech for a dozen years. I've seen a lot of animals hurt to the point that the initial cost of having a vet do something was much less than having the vet fix a problem that could have been prevented. Worse would be if a person was hurt. If Oatbran could get someone like you with experience to help, that would be beneficial for everyone involved. I also raised Dexters for many years and those little buggers are strong and will fight to defend themselves, just like any bull. Just my opinion.


----------

