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Tried to Cut my Thumb Off--Added a Pic--Almost Healed

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kwebb

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 21, 2006
Messages
112
Location
Texas
I was castrating yesterday with a knife. The calf kicked and I cut my left thumb where it joins the hand to the bone.

So, I am looking at other methods.

I don't want to band as I work them twice a year and some of them are big calves and that is not recommended.

I don't want to burdizzo because I would never really know if I was effective.

Bottom line is I still want to castrate by cutting off the bottom of the scrotum and removing the testes, but I want to do it safely.

Will a Newberry knife do that? Other suggestions?

Thanks!
For those of you that wanted to see the wound--here it is after two weeks of healing. It pushed the super glue out and is almost closed up now. It healed the deepest part inside first and the shallowest side on the outside first. Using the thumb pulls it open so it has been hard to do things for a few days.


Every day it closes a little and gets a little shallower and doesn't smell like roadkill is progress.
 
I know guy's who use a good scissor's at birth they just cut the bottom off and you know the rest.
 
Banding might not be recommended but it works. Wadsworth has a bander that works on bigger calves then the little green bands, If i can get both testicles through the green band it takes them off.Make sure you have BOTH in the ring.
 
Thank you for your responses.

I may go to banding. Sure would make for an easier day of it.

What is the oldest calf you've banded?
 
kwebb said:
Thank you for your responses.

I may go to banding. Sure would make for an easier day of it.

What is the oldest calf you've banded?
Click to expand...
With the little green rings i have banded early April calves in the first part of June. I have done yearlings with the big Wadsworth bander.
 
for the last couple years we have been banding the calves in the fall about a week before we wean, and have been happy with the results.

if we go back to cutting at branding time, i would for certain use the Newberry knife. i've cut alot of calves for neighbors using a newberry..fast, easy, and much safer than a knife...i think. i've never cut the bottom of the sack off with the newberry, but i think that may be a little tougher? when we use one, we just cut the sack down the middle.
 
OK, I'm going to give banding a shot.

I am vaccinating with Vision 7 at the same time.

Should I give them anything else to prevent infection? Tetanus?
 
Thank you for the responses.

About this cut: I washed and scrubbed it (the worst part of the whole thing) with iodine and glued it with super glue. That was yesterday. Today it looks great. If I can keep from getting it infected I think the super glue thing is going to be included in my vet kit from now on.

This cut is in the meaty part of the back of left hand where the thumb branches--right where you would try to cut the thumb off if you started on the back of the hand. It went to the thumb bone between the hand and first joint and is right at 2.5" long. It took an hour to get the blood stopped and then I washed it and it glued up prettier than if it was stitched.

If (big IF) this works and I don't get sick/infection, I'm done with 4 hour waits in emergency rooms to get stitches for $500.

I'm going to try banding and see how it goes as I think anything is better than what I am dong now. If my chute was better it wouldn't matter much. But, with the calves being able to kick like he did, I need to change my ways.
 
kwebb said:
I'm going to try banding and see how it goes as I think anything is better than what I am dong now. If my chute was better it wouldn't matter much. But, with the calves being able to kick like he did, I need to change my ways.
Click to expand...

When banding in a chute, come in from behind the calf, have a partner take the tail at the base and curl it toward the head, as tight as he/she can. Most of the time this prevents the calf from kickin' and shittin'. I just did this the other day, had my 11 yr old holdin' the tail, all done in the alley before the chute. Did 25 calves that way.
 
kwebb said:
I was castrating yesterday with a knife. The calf kicked and I cut my left thumb where it joins the hand to the bone.

So, I am looking at other methods.

I don't want to band as I work them twice a year and some of them are big calves and that is not recommended.

I don't want to burdizzo because I would never really know if I was effective.

Bottom line is I still want to castrate by cutting off the bottom of the scrotum and removing the testes, but I want to do it safely.

Will a Newberry knife do that? Other suggestions?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Get a set of good medical scissors.

Cut the bottom of the scrotum and pull the testicle down / slide the scrotum up.

Clamp the cord with an emasculator and cut the cord (below the emasculator) with the scissors. Some folks just rough rub their way through the cord with a knife but I like to clean cut.

Hold the emasculator on for a minute and then turn them loose - never had one bleed out doing this and never cut myself yet.

Hint - buy the good emasculator with the clamp on the end - that way you can lock it on the cord and rest your hand.

Cheers

BC
 
Sorry about your cut, I hope it heals quickly without complications. Super glue is a great invention, I understand is was developed for the army for first aid use, don't know if that's true or not.
Only time I've cut myself when casterating is when I let the knife get dull. Of course, we casterate within a day or so of birth so there is a lot less fight in them. Sitting on the calf with the top hind leg held back with my leg limits any extra motion. In my experience cutting is quicker than banding, but either operation only takes a few seconds. I prefer the look of knife cut steers to banded steers by far, and many buyers prefer knife cut over banded as well. Just my views for what they're worth.
 
kwebb said:
If (big IF) this works and I don't get sick/infection, I'm done with 4 hour waits in emergency rooms to get stitches for $500.
Click to expand...

I found that ground black pepper is good to stop the bleeding and I have used super glue a bunch of times. I hope it works out good for you.

If my family doc is open then I always go there. So far they have only sent us to the ER for when my daughter needed 15+ stitches with gravel removal and when my other daughter shattered her ankle and needed 3 plates and 8 screws.
 
ecofarmer said:
kwebb said:
If (big IF) this works and I don't get sick/infection, I'm done with 4 hour waits in emergency rooms to get stitches for $500.
Click to expand...

I found that ground black pepper is good to stop the bleeding and I have used super glue a bunch of times. I hope it works out good for you.

If my family doc is open then I always go there. So far they have only sent us to the ER for when my daughter needed 15+ stitches with gravel removal and when my other daughter shattered her ankle and needed 3 plates and 8 screws.
Click to expand...



Oooooohhhh, that would be hard to fix even with superglue......
 
Try this they work awesome any size calf or bull and very reasonable. vehttp://www.cattlestore.com/pc-1017-148-inosol-california-bander.aspxry
 

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