Urgent question - scur trimming

583 Views 10 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Feira426, May 10, 2022

Feira426

Discussion Starter · May 10, 2022

Hey guys! So this evening I was checking on Murphy’s scurs. He has one that kind of curves around and grows toward his eye, and so far we’ve only had to trim it once, but it’s been getting close to his face again recently, so I’ve been watching it.

Anyway, this evening I saw a little bare spot where it was starting to rub some of his hair off behind his eye. So I grabbed my husband and a rope and my loppers and went to work before it could cause any real trouble.

Well, I lopped a pretty good chunk off, so this time he should last quite a while longer before he needs to go through that again. And he hardly seems bothered, even though it bled quite a bit and now he looks like something out of a horror movie.

My concern is, it seems to still be dripping just a little. I cut it right about two hours ago now. I remember last time thinking it took an awfully long time for the bleeding to completely stop. But last time I did it much earlier in the day and could keep going out to check on him. This time... well, I’d feel better about going to bed if the bleeding seemed to be more finished.

I really don’t want to wake up and find he’s died from losing too much blood or something!!

Last time we tried putting flour on the bleeding part, but I don’t think it helped - the blood flow just seemed to push all the flour out, and then Hasi was eating bloody flour.

I was thinking about trying a sock or something onto his scur to keep some pressure on it. But when I go to take it off later, will it re-open the wound and just make it worse?

Any ideas? It sure seems like a lot of blood, but he’s just waltzing around like nothing happened. Maybe it just looks worse than it is...

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Boer Mama

· #2 · May 10, 2022

I know when we had some larger calves that had grown horns, my dad used loppers to cut one off and it was squirting a ton of blood. I think he just cauterized it with a hot iron.
I know he tied twine tightly around the base of the horns, but I don’t think that was for the blood squirting. I think that was to make the other horn fall off.
Sorry, that’s the experience I’ve had with horns. I know people have recommended using blood stop but I assumed maybe you don’t have it on hand?

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Feira426

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 10, 2022

Thanks for sharing your experience! I don’t have blood stop - I didn’t think I needed anything special because last time he healed just fine without it.

Maybe I will stay up a little late, and if it doesn’t stop on it’s own, I could try burning it unless I come up with something else.

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Boer Mama

· #4 · May 10, 2022

Feira426 said:
Thanks for sharing your experience! I don’t have blood stop - I didn’t think I needed anything special because last time he healed just fine without it.

Maybe I will stay up a little late, and if it doesn’t stop on it’s own, I could try burning it unless I come up with something else.

I think someone else on here had an issue with a horn that had broken so they trimmed it off and wrapped a tight bandage on. Some of that stretchy vet wrap stuff used for sprains? You could try and do it tight enough to apply pressure for the night and then see how it is in the morning.
Good luck- hope it stops up and he’s feeling well in the morning 🍀🍀🍀

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Feira426

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 10, 2022

I just found that same thread! Trying now to decide between cauterizing and bandaging.

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Feira426

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 10, 2022

Well! I was afraid to try cauterizing it because I’ve never done that and his ear is right there and I wasn’t sure I could burn the scur good and miss the ear.

So, I decided to go for a bandage. Of course we are out of vet wrap - my husband’s dog has an autoimmune thing that makes his toenails fall off and then his feet bleed, and I guess we must have used up the last of the wrap last time he lost a toenail and I didn’t get it on a shopping list. 😖

Anyhow, I grabbed some of that clean stretchy cottony gauze stuff and some rubber bands and made a little bandage for the scur. I was afraid to leave it overnight because if he knocked it off I’d have rubber bands somewhere on the ground, which of course is never a good thing around animals.

So I spent about an hour and a half removing his horror movie makeup and keeping an eye on things until I was satisfied the bleeding was good and stopped, and then I took the bandage off and put him in a stall with some fresh water and yummy alfalfa hay (his favorite).

He looks good this morning!

Poor guy - scurs really suck. I hope he doesn’t need them trimmed for a good while now.

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MellonFriend

· #7 · May 10, 2022

In the future you can use corn starch, flour or even cayenne pepper to stop scur bleeds. You'd just need to be careful not to get any in his eyes. I've used corn starch with success. Blood stop powder or wonder dust is what I prefer though. Scurs really do stink, I'm going to have to trim my bucks' coming up here. 😖

Glad you got it stopped!

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Feira426

Discussion Starter · #8 · May 10, 2022

I tried flour last time, but the blood flow was such that it just pushed all the flour out of the wound immediately. Maybe I just needed a different approach - maybe I needed more consistent pressure to hold everything. I couldn’t get a good hold of him to really press on the wound. So that might’ve been my problem. I didn’t know you could use cayenne to stop bleeding - that’s very interesting!

I actually don’t think I’ve ever had to use Blood Stop or Wonder Dust, so I’m not really familiar with how they’re used - I should probably look into those.

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MellonFriend

· #9 · May 10, 2022

I have used wonder dust a bunch of times for scur trimmings. It comes in a poof bottle, but what I do is unscrew the cap, dump it into a small cup, and actually dip the scur or pour it on the bleed depending on how it's angled. You really have to cake it on there. Sometimes if the bleed is really strong, you'll have to reapply a few times if it starts to bleed through. I feel like it really helps to dry up the scur quickly.

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Boer Mama

· #10 · May 10, 2022

I’m glad it stopped after a short while and didn’t need the pressure all night. Rubber bands to hold the graze was very good thinking 😂
Maybe in the future you could do the flour, with a gauze and rubber bands to hold for a bit - just long enough for the flour to be held on and absorb things. The flour should make sure you don’t have to worry about gauze sticking and then re opening the flow when removed…
But hopefully that’s a ways in the future and not too soon!

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Feira426

Discussion Starter · #11 · May 10, 2022

That’s a great idea! You’re right, the flour should prevent me reopening the wound when I remove the bandage.

I will also look into Wonder Dust - seems like a good thing to have on hand!

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