Having a hard time with the hooves

[Rechellef]

My girls came to me with crooked hooves, so for the past 4 months, I have been trying to straighten them out. I am fairly new to doing all this myself, so so far, they aren't looking much better. I try and trim them about every 3 weeks to gradually reshape them, but I am obviously doing something wrong. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! Oh, yes, I have watched several YouTube videos on how to trim, but I must be visually disylexic or something.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Go down to every two weeks. At three weeks, you don't get the opportunity to get more off than what has recently grown, unless you are willing to be aggressive.

Also, I've found using a right angle grinder helps!

[Cannon_Farms]

draw with a sharpie a strait line on the outside, this helps as a hoof can look strait while its upside down but totally off angle when its back on the ground.
I cant hold onto stuff well enough though I have used a grinder on goats and horses alike, its not easy so I would hold off onto that until you are a bit more comfortable in what you are doing, but if your feeling brave theres no time like the present to jump right in.

I like the hoof plane from Hoaggars, its a rasp that allows you to take a little bit off and keeps the foot flat. I use a razor knife and those green handled clippers to do my goats the knife is great for when the clippers cant grab enough to cut.
Hoof and Heal is a great product for helping heal the hoof, I have had some pretty bad cases here in Ga with hoof rot and clients goats and it does good for that and helping them grow. If you want faster hoof growth for them to grow out use a horse hoof supplement with the most biotin in it.

[freedomfrom4]

When is that baby due again? When you are better able we should all go on a road trip and bring our goats to you for foot work
Mine are horriable these days

[motdaugrnds]

What I have discovered works best for me is a box cutter with a fresh blade in it.

I would agree with Alice in the more frequency in trimming. You just want the hoof to be walked on enough for the blood vessels to pull back some. When they do, you trim again.

I have found the "trick" to trimming is to have a goat cornered so it does "not" move around. (This was easy when I had my alpine doe as she would always stay close and "talk" to the goat whose hooves I was trimming; and they would stand still as I worked.) The best way for me now is to situate the goat next to a wall where her head is in the corner. Then I use my body to hold "her" body up against the wall. I start with the heel part of each toe, then move to the center (with curved cuts) and then to the outer part. By holding both toes together, you can see what needs more work on each toe as they both need to work together as "one" hoof, else one toe will influence the other toe to develop wrong and your trimming will be "causing" problems instead of fixing them.

Hope I've been clear. It was a hard thing for me to learn.

[Cannon_Farms]

I tie some to a fence especially bucks or those with horns.

[LoneStrChic23]

I had to work on my Alpine's feet once a week when I got her for about 6 weeks.

I used my trimmers, then the rasp, then my dremel with a pink grinding stone to smooth everything out and get the area in between the toes that was badly screwed up. Three of her feet are perfect now, but the one front leg still needs some work, but at least now it looks like a proper foot.

I put everyone on the milk stand to do feet...makes my life easier

[mekasmom]

I just use goat trimmers to trim the flat to the bottom of the foot. It helps if you have two people so you can have her lie on her side, then the other. I just sit on the ground and so it that way while my daughter holds the collar and offers them tiny pieces of carrot. It goes faster for me that way, and they are up within a couple of minutes.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I just built an extra "milk" stand with longer legs to do my hoof trimming on. The extra height saves my back!

[Cannon_Farms]

for most of my personal goats I have a box that I keep all my goat trimming stuff in, its a tool box/step and when I sit on it its the perfect level for me to let the goats rest on one of my legs while Im trimming, found that the back feet are a bit easier to do.. I have a taller "milk" stand I used for the nigerians and the health care but with me having big goats now it would put me at a level for a serous injury

[Hollowdweller]

What do you mean by them being crooked? Please describe.

Some crooked hooves are fixable and some are not.

[Rechellef]

Originally Posted by Hollowdweller

What do you mean by them being crooked? Please describe.

Some crooked hooves are fixable and some are not.

One doe has a crooked tip and they are slightly slanted so she stands almost on the side of one hoof and these are her rear hooves - her front are fine. She is the most difficult to straighten. The other doe isn't so bad and has one rear hoof that points uphill on a flat surface, so I have been working on getting her back heal flat without causing bleeding.

[noeskimo]

you described my problem perfectly-I purchased an older doe last year and her hooves are better-but the same problem with hind foot.

[Heritagefarm]

How about trimming every other day? I've only had this problem a couple times. Cut as close as you possibly can without drawing any blood. On really bad ones, I'll go until I can just barely see the blood underneath. I'm very careful not to cut into that, then it recedes nicely and I can finish.

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

Also, I've found using a right angle grinder helps!

How about a Dremel?

[Alice In TX/MO]

The Dremel is too slow.

[RedSonja]

I'm glad you asked this, as I have the same problem with the back hooves on two of my does. They are related (one's dam is the other's grand-dam) so I wonder if it's genetic. I've been trying to correct them for a year now and it's very frustrating. I've been trimming every 3 or 4 weeks, think I'll try once a week for awhile and see if it helps. Both of them had kids with great feet, and the doe I have from the same breeder but completely different bloodlines has great feet.

-Sonja

[PrettyPaisley]

This is great info. I've got the same issue with Oma-love the Sharpie idea. There is also an article in the recent Hobby Farms on trimming goat hooves, if you get this magazine.

[Donna1982]

I use a dremel on mine. At lot better for me but I'm use to it since Ive used it for years on my dogs.

[gila_dog]

Northwest Packgoat Supply has a DVD for $15 that shows how to trim hooves. I watched a bunch of youtube videos, but they weren't clear enough to learn anything. This DVD shows it very well, and the guy doing the trimming explains things clearly.

[Cannon_Farms]

fiasco farms has a great picture chart for free if that helps anyone.