Tuesday 7 August 2012

Goat Hoof Clipping Time

It’s time for trimming the goats hooves. After a fairly wet and cold mid-winter, the goats hooves are starting to look a bit messy. Inspecting the kids hooves shows that the horn has got a bit long.

Hoof_detailed
image and detail from The Kebun website
  1. Inter-digital Region (Skin)
  2. White Line (Hoof Wall)
  3. White Line (Hoof Wall)
  4. White Line (heel bulb Junction)
  5. Caudal Aspect of the Sole
  6. Anterior Aspect of the Sole
  7. Heel Bulb
  8. Hoof Wall (Interior ½ of Claw)
  9. Hoof Wall (Posterior ½ of Claw)
  10. Coronary Band and Skin
  11. Skin Above and Between Heels

The above shows a well trimmed goats hoof.

In the past, I have put the goats up on the milking stand and given them light trims. Mostly I have given them a light trim because the goats tend to wriggle around and I don’t like them having their neck in the stanchion while they can fall off and potentially injure themselves quite badly.

This time, I am going to put a lead on the goats collar and attach the collar to the fence while I get a helper (my lovely wife) to help control the goat while I trim.

The first thing to do is to clean the crud out of the hoof base, usually the frog (Caudal Aspect of the Sole) has grown over, the hoof wall (White Line) has started to separate from the sole (Anterior Aspect of the Sole) and some muck has pushed into the void created.

untrimmed

Cleaning off the hoof is necessary so that I can see what needs to be done, there is less material that will blunt the hoof trimming shears and the build-up that is pushing the hoof wall away from the sole is removed.

Next, I trim the tips of the hoof wall down to the sole and start trimming the hoof wall in between the two toes, moving around to the outside of the toe.

At this stage you can get an idea of the overgrowth of the pad when you look at the hoof overall. Because my goats don’t have much hard surface to wear their feet on, the pad will be a little overgrown too.

Usually, this is taking a clean line from the heel to the toe keeping the cut almost parallel with the top of the toe (slight angle … about 8o). I’ll smooth off any rough bits with the hoof rasp as well.

When doing this, make many shallow cuts rather  than one big cut. Blood vessels can be ruptured in their toes if you take off too much. When the pad starts showing pink, it’s deep enough … any more and the goat’s foot will bleed and be a possible site for infection.

Keeping the goats hooves trimmed properly is important because a badly trimmed or untrimmed hoof puts pressure on their pastern's, this in turn puts pressure on their knees and hocks, then shoulders and hips and finally their spine. It’s not about making the goat look pretty, it is simply good husbandry.

When the goat’s hooves are trimmed, watch them move around, they should look like they are walking on tip-toes (because they are).

If your goats hooves have got out of hand (like over winter) plan to trim their hooves a couple of times rather that just going in and doing it all at once. This will give their feet time to adjust to the change in their hooves and will have a better outcome. Use an iodine solution (1/8th solution) on any blood-spots to help to prevent infection if they happen (and pay careful attention to the goat afterwards!).

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