Max the Ankole-Watusi is sporting an addition to his already impressive headgear.

The next time you take a ride on our Cape to Cairo Express, you may spot one of our three Ankole-Watusi cattle sporting a little something extra on his horn.

Our animal care team is helping 6-year-old Max through an overproduction of mucous in one of his horns, which is causing his head to slightly tilt over to one side. By adding weights to the opposite horn, we hope to correct this tilt and keep Max’s muscles strong enough to continue bearing his large horns for years to come. We recently added a 3-pound ankle weight to his horn, duct taping it in place. Our animal care team will continue to monitor Max and adjust the weights as needed for now.

So, you may be wondering why there is mucous in Max’s horns. Watusi have a unique horn anatomy that allows for them to have such giant horns without dealing with a ton of weight, said Dr. Rachel Turner, one of our staff veterinarians.

This x-ray shows the inside of Max the Watusi’s horn.

“Basically, the inside of their horns looks like giant honeycomb, with tons of little air-filled compartments,” Dr. Turner described. “All of those compartments connect to the sinuses and the nasal passages, so when they get a sinus infection, the pus drains into those little compartments and gets stuck.”

The head tilt develops when there is more pus in one horn than the other, causing the horns to be imbalanced. This buildup is due to respiratory infections, which are relatively common in cattle, that end up draining into the horns and getting stuck.

Our veterinary team is treating Max with injectable antibiotics for the infection as well as steroids to try to reduce inflammation.

Unfortunately, because of the horn’s special anatomy, there is no good way for us to drain the pus out of the horns in the meantime. After discussion with a large animal veterinarian, our team decided against either drilling a hole into the horn or removing the horn. The multitude of tiny compartments in a Watusi horn makes drilling a hole ineffective in getting all the mucous out. The horns are directly connected to the sinuses, so removing a horn would result in a huge hole in the skull leading to the sinuses and nasal passages.

Right now, our team will continue Max’s antibiotic treatment and monitoring him. We’re committed to ensuring Max has the best quality of life possible, and we’re hopeful that these weights will help him maintain a good quality of life while he continues to undergo treatment.