How to cope with bleeding.

Severe bleeding may result when a horn scur is knocked off or a horn being cut by rubber bands gets broken off. All the blood looks awful, but this crisis is easy to cope with.

Fasten the animal so you can work on it. Put the head in a stanchion, or tie it to a fence.

Pour a bucket of water over the head so you can see what you're doing.

We keep a container of blood stopper powder in the barn, just for emergencies. Bought it from the vet. But in years past we've used flour with good results. Cornstarch is another possibility. A handful of plain old dusty spider webs from a corner of the barn stops blood. Not too sanitary, but in the case of spurting blood you don't worry about sanitation.

Fill the hole in the head with powder, or whatever you've got, then push something down on top of it. Use a wad of sterile gauze, a hunk of sterile cotton, a clean ironed handkerchief or rag, paper towels or tissues. Apply pressure. Stand there and apply pressure with the blood seeping through your fingertips for a half hour if necessary.

Then tear clean rags into strips and tie them together and wrap a bandage over the head and under the chin to hold that compress in place. A day or two later you can cut away the bandages. Let the compress fall off when it wants to.

In really ugly cases, when powder and compresses don't do one bit of good, you may have to reach into the hole and pinch the artery shut while someone else runs for the vet.