# Broken Horn



## mommaof10 (Jul 20, 2007)

We have a 2 year old Brangus/Corriente cross cow that just had her first calf 1 1/2 weeks ago. We got her when she was about 7 mos. old straight off a 37,000 acre cattle ranch. Needless to say, she was wild. We have tamed her to the point of her warily letting us comb her and even rub her udder, but she is very, very leery of us getting near her head. She had a rope halter on for awhile but it frayed and came off and we have not been able to get a halter on her since then.

My son decided yesterday to rope her horns so he could try to get a halter on her. He succeeded. But, he left her on too long of a rope (think of the axiom - giving enough rope to hang yourself....) When I was told what he was doing and got to the pen, I immediately recognized the danger. She was mad and had a long rope. I told him to pull her in quickly, but it didn't happen fast enough. She ended up catching a rear hoof in the rope and going down. Thankfully, he had the rope tied in a slip knot and was able to release her quickly. Somewhere in the scuffle, she lost the sheath off one of her horns and broke the tip. My husband came home at lunch to try and help, but even though his dad was an ag teacher, he's not an animal person. He tried getting her tied to a tree, but she again got tangled in the rope and went down a 2nd time. This time they cut the rope to let her loose, which was still tight around her horns. 

I tried to find a portable chute (building a cattle chute is on our to-do list, but didn't hit the top of the list soon enough). Not even the vets had a portable chute. Two vets recommended a rancher who used to work for a vet that could come out and tranquilize her so we could get the rope off her horns and care for the broken horn, which is what we did. 

She was tranquilized at 2:30 p.m., given a tranquilizer reverser at about 3:30 p.m., tried to get up at 4:30 p.m. only to wobble and go down again. She didn't try to get up again until 6:30 p.m. when she walked over to get a drink of water and then lay down again.

This morning, she is not eating well, still careful on her feet, slightly wobbly, laying down alot, eyes look sunk in, milk quanitity very low (calf is not happy), and I'm not sure if this is left over tranquilizer, massive headache from the horn issue, weakness from loss of blood due to birthing last week and now the broken horn, soreness from her 2 falls yesterday, or something else that was hurt in her falls yesterday.

I don't think we can get close enough to give her any shots - she is NOT happy with us. Can we give her anything oral for possible pain. The vet was booked solid which is why he recommended the rancher. Should I call the rancher again? Should I just wait it out? With a holiday coming, I'm not sure just what to do.

Any suggestions?

Thanks so much,

Laralee
http://www.PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations


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## ksfarmer (Apr 28, 2007)

Did you saw off the broken horn? About the only thing I know to do with a broken horn, If so, she probably has a massive headache today. Over all , I would say the whole thing was very tramatic for her and she probably sustained lots of bruises. She should start coming around, if not, you may need a vet or the rancher who helped treat her, to come check her out. Some critters don't do well with being tranquilized.


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## mommaof10 (Jul 20, 2007)

Yes, the rancher cut off the broken horn, washed it in iodine and packed it with Blood Stop Powder. He cut the rope off of her horns and put a horse halter on her (the halter we had that my son was trying to put on her turned out to be a couple of inches too small ~ugh.) 

Her eyes look swollen today. Do we need to give her a tetanus shot? It's been a little over a year since she got her shots. Although I don't know how we'd get that close to her at this point. She's not eating well, but she did like the fresh pineapple scraps we fed her. We put some probiotic paste on them and 4 ibuprofen tablets to maybe help her with the pain since I figured she must have a doozy of a headache today. 

Her milk supply has dwindled quickly and the calf isn't happy. We do have a little raw goat milk as we are drying up our milk goat so we may supplement with that tomorrow if he seems to need it. We'll be watching him for dehydration just in case.

Thank you for your input. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Laralee,
http://www.PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations


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## ksfarmer (Apr 28, 2007)

I always say "If I can't catch it, it ain't sick enough to need doctoring." I think I would watch her closely for a couple of days, if she is eating and drinking. The calf may need supplementing, but that won't be easy to get him to take a bottle unless he is very hungry. I don't think tetanus shot should be necessary. I would not disturb her unnecessarily. Not sure why you want a halter on her. I've never had Brangus or Corriente but their rep is for a tough critter that isn't a tame pet. I would get a squeeze chute built for future needs. Doesn't have to be elaborate, a couple of solid posts and a panel on the side of the corral where you can restrain a critter to give shots and etc. Good luck, be interested to hear how you get along with the cow and calf. Hopefully she will be back to normal in a day or two.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

I've raised longhorns for years and they are very similar. She should be fine but she's likely somewhat uncomfortable and she's going to be fairly aloof with people for a while. That's an awful lot of stress for her after calving and she'll bounce back but for future reference, unless your son is a skilled roper, he could have gotten hurt quite badly if he was on the ground and she should have been left alone. I'm not sure what kind of rope he was using but a proper rope only requires a flick of the wrist to release them (we use ranch ropes and prefer a long rope, with 20' being minimum). If he does like roping and it sounds like he has some skill, maybe get him a mentor so he can do it safely. I can be very dangerous if they don't know what they're doing or how to make sure to stay safe.


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## mommaof10 (Jul 20, 2007)

WR - Thank you for your advice. You are very right in your advice. My son was doing something he shouldn't have been doing. He did have a mentor for awhile. A neighbor who is an ex-rodeo roper and horse trainer that he worked with some. But this neighbor moved and he lost his mentor. He was not using the right kind of rope, the reason why we couldn't get it off easily. We've discussed all of the issues you brought up and hopefully some lessons have been learned.

KSFarmer - She had a halter on at one point and was taming nicely, just leery. We are continuing to work on taming her and know we may have reached her limit. We have learned that any new cattle will either come to us as small babies that we can train, or already tamed cows. A cattle chute is definitely higher on the to-do list, but as we're living in a tent and a trailer, I'm not sure if it's moved to the #1 position yet : ) 

She is drinking, but not eating well. Tonight she developed severe scours. We've given her probiotics and will continue to do so. I also picked up some electrolyte powder and paste tonight and will give her some in the morning. If she isn't improved, tomorrow, I will call the rancher and/or vet for some advice. 

I also picked up a calf bottle tonight. We tried feeding him watered down goat milk with an egg in it. He wasn't too thrilled and it upset Mama. It was also dark, so we will try again in the morning when we can see better.

Thank you both for your wisdom and advice. It is very much appreciated.

Laralee
http://www.PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations


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## mommaof10 (Jul 20, 2007)

The cow is doing much better this morning. Thank you so much for your wisdom.

Laralee
http://www.PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations


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