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cutting bulls

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gbr

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cut two bulls this morning, never done it before, one bled to death. The only thing I can figure is that I didn't get the bottom of the scrotum completely cut off before he kicked and I didn't think to go back to it. Do you think leaving that flap hanging could have caused it not to clot? What are the options when you think one is bleeding too much?
 
Sorry to hear about you luck. I've never heard of that happening before. You didn't cut the testes out, but pulled them out right?
 
You need to invest in a Wadsworth Bloodless castrator. Sorry about your loss but castrating is major surgery and a person needs to know what they are doing.
 
I pulled them down, one at a time, then cut the cord.
I failed to mention he was a yearling if that makes a difference.
 
We use a Calicrate bander and it works real good!! So long as you give them their shots to keep them from getting tetanus it works good. They never usually go off feed. We ve did yearlings right up to 1000 lbs.
 
gbr said:
I pulled them down, one at a time, then cut the cord.
I failed to mention he was a yearling if that makes a difference.
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I would pull them until the cord breaks its kind of like plastic when they stretch and brake they kind of twist up and dont bleed to bad if you just cut the cord thats a major artery left wide open.Don't worry we've all had them die..
 
Have seen a vet suture the cords on the older animals after castartion. Always said he worried about the mature animals bleeding out through the cords.. Just a couple quick nots of suture material and he felt better... Didn't cost anymore than a standard castration would have either.
 
To bad on your loss. We do quite a few bulls around here and one thing we always do is dry lot them at least over night. A lot of comm. grains and green grass thin the blood. One trick of the trade that will stop most bleeding is flour. My dad cut a fall calf in July( dad was pretty old and unsteady at the time) that calf was on deaths door and still bleeding. We pullled open the sack and put as much flour as we could in, he was fine the next morning. One other thing never put your cut or dehorned stock in with the "good " stuff. They others will pick on them until the do die. Sometimes the only way we are able to learn is thru trail and error. Well mostly error for me. javascript:emoticon(':)')
Smile
 
Our experiance is that if they are fat they bleed like a stuck hog....We band ours nowdays simply because of the bleeding and the stress put on the bulls.. Sorry about the loss.... Been there done that.........
 
Sorry about your loss.I tried the big banded last year on a 800 lb bull that I hoped to use as a bull, but he had horns so I wanted to make him a steer. It worked great ! When his bag fell off, the pup wanted to use it as a chewy so I threw it away.
 
If you don't know what you're doing.....CALL THE VET.

It will be cheaper in the long run than loosing and animal and letting the poor thing just bleed to death!

What a waste!
 
like was said take the testical and wrap the cord around your finger a couple times and pull and stretch the cord into do it slow as possible this will seal off the cord. how big were these calve? the older they are they will bleed a heck of a lot more
 
I lost my first knife cut bull this winter. His testicles were strangely deformed and I had a heck of a time getting them down into the sack. The bull was from a share deal so I wondered if he had an implant that affected him. It would have been almost impossible to band this one. There was no sign of blood where he died but I assume he bled out internally.

The others were as big as 30 cm and 1000 pounds no problem with them.
 
gbr said:
cut two bulls this morning, never done it before, one bled to death. The only thing I can figure is that I didn't get the bottom of the scrotum completely cut off before he kicked and I didn't think to go back to it. Do you think leaving that flap hanging could have caused it not to clot? What are the options when you think one is bleeding too much?
Click to expand...

Throw away the knife and get you a bander,if you are determined to use a knife as some of these ole coots around here,have some one show you how to use it...........when I cut bulls I would cut the bottom third of the sack off for good drainage and pull the cord till it breaks and or use the back of your blade,the dull part to scrape the cord into,never cut it............good luck
 
We had similar luck losing older bulls (yearlings ) when we cut them. Went to the bander last winter and it worked awesome. Bulls never went off feed at all. The only way to go on older bulls.
 
Best to cut them standing, and from behind, they don't kick you if you curl the tail up tight in a circle by their tailhead. Have someone hold it while you work. Never knife cut anything without pulling each ball bag out firmly and consistently until the remaining part is just a thin string, as in thread. Continue to pull until it snaps, and seals off any bleeding. Works here.
 
Hay Maker is right no matter what us"youngins" think those old guys are worth their weight in gold. They've been around and know what works and what doesn't. The trick is to find one that has really done it and isn't blowin' smoke. A good way to tell who's who is look for the one that ISN"T in the coffee shop swappin' stories!!!
 
Castarating is something even the most experienced man can lose a critter to. I do believe there is a knack to it. I've seen calves at brandings lost due to something not being right in the casteration process. It's unfortunated you had to lose your bull but don't think you are the first or the last that will lose one to a casteration gone wrong.
 
There's the freak ike jason noted - that you are likely going to lose no matter what. Additionally, a well fed, prosperous animal will clot much better than something from the stampeed cartoon. Sombody noted to slowly stretch the T-cord, this is sound advice. On the larger calves with large T-cords, I sometimes pull the cord well down then start the tearing with my knife with a little nick - then stretch and pull.

Anymore, I use a callicrate bander on anything over 500#. There are adds and disadds to a knife and a bander, but I think the bander is safer on the larger calves. When we've been selling 6cwts for $800, who can afford to lose one.


Don't torture yourself over losing one, just learn from it. If you learn, it wasn't a total loss, and if you torture yourself after every loss - the cow biz sucks. Learn and let go is the toughest part of cattle ranching.
 
Our vet uses a Newberry knife and an emasculator-he's fast with it and so far soo good. We've used those banders too with good luck. As for using the dried up nuts for a chewy toy-I made the mistake of banding my gf's cocker spanial for her in highschool-we'd done lots of dogs before but never a house dog-lets just say the road to romance was fairly rocky while he licked the afflicted area till the planned result was achieved.
 

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