# Broken Horn



## sweetmusic (Sep 15, 2009)

Yet another bleeding goat! This is one of my daughter's fainters, not a pack goat, but I'd be grateful for thoughts and suggestions. 

Angel is a good experienced mother. We keep a spreadsheet on breeding dates and expected due dates, so we can care for expectant does and put them in stalls at night as kidding nears. Angel had stood for her favorite buck on two separate heats last summer - so when her earlier possible due date passed last week with no real changes in ligaments, udder, or vulva, we figured on the later due date a couple of weeks from now. Instead she surprised us with a very pretty doeling dropped outside. And a mysteriously broken horn.

The horn isn't broken off, it looks more like a green stick fracture with ragged cracks a couple of inches down from the tip. It appears to have taken a pretty hard blow on the front as if she had been banging heads with another goat, not broken at the back as I'd expect if she'd gotten her horn caught in something and pulled it loose. The horn is cracked all around, with soft tissue showing in the spaces. The bleeding has stopped for now but I'm concerned how best to treat it. 

Am I right in thinking that the horn won't repair itself as a broken bone would? Should we try to reinforce it like a temporary or even permanent cast, perhaps with fiberglass mat and epoxy resin? Or should we take the broken tip off and pack the wound or cauterize it? I'm very worried that if she knocks it off she could have a catastrophic bleed while nobody was around to save her. Does the new kid complicate treating the doe?


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## ryorkies (May 4, 2010)

found two places online. Both are horns that were broke completely off at the skull. I think I will ask the Meatgoat list I am on about half broken horn repairs.
This first one is pretty graffic.
http://goat-link.com/content/view/25/90/

http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/artic ... ounds.html


> Broken Horn. A five-month old Tennessee Meat Goatâ„¢ buckling broke his left horn at its base and into the skull. Blood had already coagulated, but the horn had to be removed. Since the goat was current on his CD/T vaccinations, a booster CD/T injection was given to protect him from tetanus. Had the vaccination not been given within the last six months, a tetanus anti-toxin injection would have been necessary. Procaine penicillin was given sub-cutaneously (SQ. . . under the skin) over the ribs for five consecutive days at a rate of five cc's per 100 pounds bodyweight.


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## imported_ashley (Jun 9, 2011)

This may not be helpful but here is what i've been dealing with for the last month..

I have a 4 month old horned kid that butted heads with a de-horned kid that was a couple months older. Upon impact, his horn seemed to break at the base and he began bleeding. His horn was still in the anatomical position but was wobbly. We rushed him to the University of Idaho Caine center where he was evaluated. His horn was intact but the skull around and below the horn was fractured and broken into his frontal sinus. The vet said that splinting a horn can cause more problems for a goat as they feel the extra weight and it will make them want to shake their heads and possibly cause more damage or irritation. He also explained that there is a live bone inside the horn that is very vascular and that if the horn becomes damaged, as long as the vascular bone/tissue underneath the horn stays perfused, the damaged outer horn will fall off, like a smashed fingernail, and a new horn will eventually regenerate over the bone, though it may be slightly deformed. He also said to stop bleeding on goats, use corn starch. It is highly effective and not as painful as something like pepper, which is extremely irritating to tissue. 
I don't know much about goats so take my experience for whats it is, trial and error.... Good luck!!!!!


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