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Good evening

I have a Shetland ram with a server damaged horn. He is almost 2. He lives with 5x fellow Shetland rams, so they have the odd disagreement, although they get on pretty well. I am not 100% sure that he has damaged his horn through fighting with the others. Can sheep have weaker horns, though diet? They live on grass and have a bit of hay when the weather is bad, although they seem pretty hardy so don't get much else. They are kept in a field which is stock proof fencing and hedging. They are kept as pets to eat down the grass which the horses won't. I have had them for almost 2 years. Before them I had never owned sheep, so really I'm a bit of a novice.

Please can anyone give me any advice on how to repair it. I would rather not get his horn removed. I have attached some photos.


Thank you for reading

Emily 

[shygirl]

is it bleeding?
my hebredian had cracks on his horns I presume from head butting other rams, and it never seemed to bother him, it just kept growing.

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Its not bleeding,  it just looks pretty horrific.  I wasn't sure if it would heal as such or grow out. Thank you for the reply

Emily

[shygirl]

my boys never healed, just kept growing.
I did have a goat who ripped hers horns out (they were deformed horns from a bad dehorning) and they really bleed.
have you separated him from the other rams? i had a few rams together and they bullied one in particular and he nearly lost an eye from them butting him.

[farmvet]

From the picture the horn looks pretty poor quality. The new horn at the base looks very flaky instead of a good shiny colour & hard horn.  The defect wont heal but you could patch it with artifical hoof to seal it if you wanted to but you'd need to be careful not to seal any infection in. Once the spring grass comes the new horn quality should dramatically improve - you should see a ring of red blood vessels at the base followed by good strong horn.  If this doesnt happen from the pics I'd strongly suspect you have a trace element deficiency.

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Thank you for all the replies. It was mentioned about a trace element deficiency, could anyone recommend a good mineral lick for my sheep. I have horses graze in the same field, so am a little worried that a sheep mineral lick could be dangerous to horses. Anyone have any ideas.

Thank you

Emily