WildLife Group
of the SAVA
bosbrokkies
Bush buzz
FROM WILDLIFE VETNET:
Dear Colleagues
Just a word of caution on dehorning of rhino.
We held a black rhino capture workshop
attended by 12 wildlife vets where we dehorned
8 black rhino and demontrated anaesthesia, horn
removal and in discussions it was clear that there
are still a lot of problems out there with removal
of rhino horn.
In the past two months I had to deal with five
cases of rhino that were dehorned recently
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where I believe too much of the horn was initially
removed and not enough protection was left
over the growth central area for protection. In
three of these cases cases the rhino had virtually
very little original horn cover left over this area.
The other two cases were horns that regrowed
over what seemed to be a damaged germinal
area. The horns are then full of cavities and quite
a smelly object, The one horn could be literally
be removed by hand and it is probably better as
the entire horn growing process can start from
fresh.
The other one was removed and still had a