gift
The Humble Soapnut - A Guide to the Laundry Detergent that Grows on Trees ebook by Kathryn Ossing
will be released to subscribers in: soon!
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

Treating broken horn

 
Posts: 27
Location: Coastal Alaska
10
purity foraging medical herbs sheep
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Background:  This year's lambs really want to stick their heads through the 4x4in metal fence to nibble the garden.  Some of the lambs are out of new breeding stock that carries scur horn genes (otherwise excellent animals).  We don't do any disbudding so everyone's growing whatever kind of horns they got.

A 4.5 month old lamb tore a horn off, I spotted him looking like a horror movie with blood down his face.  I was soo relieved when I got closer and saw it was a partially torn off horn and not a bunch of torn flesh from some kind of predator attack.  At this point I've seen a mature ram with small 2-4 inch scurs have his knocked off on multiple occasions, and they're just bloody, quickly scabbing stumps.  So I thought, well this guy should be fine.  Caught him, rinsed the blood off this face and upon closer inspection the horn had pulled up and off the attachment point, but was still attached less than a cm of connection and pointing upright but tweaked to the side.

I made a bad decision and let him keep it and go about his business thinking he'd probably just knock it off himself and so I didn't need remove it.  Well after 4-5 days I saw him covered in blood again and the horn was then dangling.  So we caught him and I removed the horn with a sharp knife, it was attached by maybe 4 mm of living tissue.  I put a yarrow poultice on it temporarily, the bleeding stopped really quick and I blasted the whole area with an irrigation syringe until I was satisfied that nothing else would be washed away.  I then covered the whole area with Cottonwood bud tincture (he actually calmed down as the cottonwood was being applied which gave me confidence that it was helping).

My big question:  Has anyone dealt with a significant wound on livestock who are on pasture in a wet environment using natural treatments?
*no industrial farm store stuff please.

I'm worried about the wet environment and infection.  The site would be very hard to get any kind of bandage or wrap to stay.  My next thought is to mix up  strong tea tree&water combo and spray that around the area when I re-apply the cottonwood bud tincture to the wound.

 
pollinator
Posts: 5347
Location: Bendigo , Australia
477
plumbing earthworks bee building homestead greening the desert
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Look at this debudding treatment
 
C West
Posts: 27
Location: Coastal Alaska
10
purity foraging medical herbs sheep
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thanks, interesting thread, at least good to know its not a wholly uncommon occurrence.  Unfortunately for my information quest those folks are all using industrial molecular medicines.  On my farm we tend to use plant meds either whole or extracted into simple solvents (food oils or alcohol tinctures) so this in my current goal, to find an effective treatment within our specialty.

if only there was something i could rub on their heads to prevent them from sticking them in places they'll get stuck...
 
C West
Posts: 27
Location: Coastal Alaska
10
purity foraging medical herbs sheep
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
update:  

Little fluff ball is looking good (though lopsided).  Horn nubbin is now showing regrowth of usual colors!  I think we're past the infection fear stage.  I didn't do any further treatment after removing dangling horn with sharp knife, stopping bleeding with mushed up fresh Yarrow flowers and leaves (mostly leaves), lots of rinsing with water to clean area, and then covering with Cottonwood bud tincture.  All hail Cottonwood buds!

Another successful treatment with plant medicine!
 
Do Re Mi Fa So La Tiny Ad
Freaky Cheap Heat - 2 hour movie - HD streaming
https://permies.com/wiki/238453/Freaky-Cheap-Heat-hour-movie
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic