# Banded Horns today... ? about aspirin for pain



## Skyz84 (Jul 25, 2011)

My herd queen has been causing problems lately and pushed me to the decision to band her horns or sell her. I really don't want to sell her so today I pulled out the banding supplies.

When I asked my vet about pain management he said to use 2 adult aspirin daily. I gave her the aspirin about 30 minutes before putting the bands on. I very carefully removed all the hair around the horns, sterilized the area, put duck tape to prevent the bands from slipping up. All went well. I even got the bands in place perfectly! The bottom band slipped right into the grove at the base of the horns.

Right as I got the last band into place my goat went NUTS... Well more like CRAZY mad! I spent the last 90 minutes outside with her. I had to pretty much restrain her to a few inches of lead while controlling her head with her halter. She went from jumping, ramming, screaming mad... to laid out flat on the ground refusing to move... back to jumping mad again. FINALLY she has calmed down enough to be released in her pen. I came inside to research the aspirin and it seems 2 aspirins is not enough? My vet has me giving 1 aspirin daily to my 35 lb doeling for her leg so I didn't really question giving the 70lb adult 2 aspirin. Online I'm reading 1 aspirin PER 10lbs??? That would mean she is seriously under dosed? Could someone please clarify this for me? How often and how much aspirin is okay? I hate to have her in any more pain then she absolutely has to be in.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

In my notes I have 1 adult aspirin per 10# written down. I have never used aspirin before but that is the dose I would be giving.


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## Skyz84 (Jul 25, 2011)

Thank you! Do you know if it should be given more then once a day?


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Gosh I don't knoe. I don't use aspirin I have banamine. I don't think it could last more than 8 hours but I don't know. Hopefully a aspirin user will chime in here.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

I wuldn't do it, that amount of asprin over time is going to destroy her rumen. Then you get to try to get it working properly again. Her horns should be numbed pretty much now. She may act like she has a headache for a couple more days but, unless you put too many bands on, she should be fine. 
Asprin also thins the blood and if something goes wrong you don't want her bleeding thinned blood through a broken horn.


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## Skyz84 (Jul 25, 2011)

She seems just fine this morning. Although yesterday she was pretty sure she was dieing.... Now I know when I band my favorite doe to use more aspirin before hand.

After all the pain this particular doe has caused us (ramming our dogs, our rabbit, the other goats, and every time we were "in the way" us) I still feel terrible putting her in any pain. Just happy to see her feeling better today.










Great point goathiker. I didn't think about that!

One last question ~ How long until she runs the risk of breaking her horns off? I put her back with her sister last night to calm her down but she has a BAD habit of ramming things. I am going to separate her into our backyard (which one side runs along the goat pen). Should I do that ASAP? Or is it okay to leave her with her sister for a week or so?


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## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

Goathinker makes a great point about aspirin thining the blood given how much they are apt to bleed when those horns come off anyway. But as far as how many times a day, I wouldn't think once would do much good as I've heard from different people that goats metabolism is so fast that meds can be out of their system in as few as 4 hours...


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

That's why you don't want to take all the pain away. Her headache should keep her from ramming things. You'll see when the band starts cutting into the horn. We can't tell you an exact time because they are all different. It looks reallt good, shouldn't have any trouble at all.
Some of these that are so dramatic about things will go nuts again when the horns loosen and start flopping on their heads. It isn't pain it's just the weirdness of their horns flopping, at that point knocking them won't hurt anything, just something to be aware of.


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