Guide To Trimming Hooves

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Hoof Care : Why You Should Be Trimming Your Goat’s Hooves

Schedule For Trimming Hooves

Equipment For Trimming Goat Hooves

Guide To Trimming

Trimming hooves is not one of the most yearned after chores but one can’t deny the accomplishment you feel afterward. It is an intrinsic chore for maintaining good herd hygiene and ensuring that your animals are in good condition to avoid any health complications. Goat’s hooves, much like our fingernails, never stop growing and will grow outward and longer than the pad. I’m sure if you’re just entering into your farming or homesteading journey, you’re wondering if you should be hiring a farrier or taking care of it yourself. It might seem intimidating but, I promise you the easiest and best way through it, is to DO it. Action cures fear and experience breeds confidence.

Scheduled Trimming

How often you’ll have to maintain the hoof really just depends on the type of terrain you live on and the individual goat. The tougher the terrain, with rocks + gravel and other stony or rough textures for them to climb on will naturally grind down the hoof leaving less for you to do and more time in between trimmings. Goats, like human beings, also have individual body functions, meaning that from goat to goat the growth can be different.

As a general rule I check 2-4 weeks between trimmings to keep an eye on foot health.

Hoof Care

Hoof care isn’t something novis people think about when bringing home their first herd but it is a vital thing to check before purchasing goats. Not keeping up with or allowing the hooves to get out of control can introduce bacteria, infections and pose serious health issues to have to be dealt with later that could lead to a large dent in homestead finances. Examples of this are:

Founder Foot - inflammation of the laminae of the foot//soft tissues of the foot to hoof wall

Hoof Rot - an infection referred to as hoof rot ( pododermatitis) which rots away the area between the two toes of the animal. Extremely painful and contagious.

Before you bring any of the animals home, you should check the entire herd to ensure that non of them have any foot issues you need to know about. This also gives you an opportunity to check to see how many of the animals need trimming when they get back to your land and how tame and able to be handled they are. If you’re purchasing babies, you may check and trim as early as 8-9 weeks.

Equipment

There are several ways to go about trimming. Some are easy-some are more complicated. Where you are in your current journey and finances are going to determine a few things. A milk stand is the ideal way to go for this, giving a, area for them to secure their head from moving, a place to set a bucket of treats and keep the goat restrained during the process. I haven’t gotten around to building ours just yet, but it is extremely easy to do and you can find plans and tutorials on Pinterest. If you’re lacking in the equipment department, it isn’t an end all situation. Depending on the temperament of the goat you can do several different things. One is to use a facial harness or collar, rope ie; leash. The second is just to lay the goat down and flip and straddle them. Our heard is very trusting with all of the time we spend with them and so we go for the later and just straddle while we trim. You could also place their head between your legs, gripping firmly, placing alfalfa or a bucket of treats behind you as you face their rear and take care of it that way as well.

BE CAUSIOUS

while trimming, don’t get your face to close to the back hooves, as an irritated goat CAN kick. Even smaller goats like the Nigerian Dwarf packs enough punch to fracture cheek bones and cause serious eye damage.

A Guide To Trimming

A good idea before you start trimming is to do a little bit of delving into hoof anatomy. You don’t have to earn a degree in it, but it will ease your mind of hurting your animals if you skim the surface and create comfort around where you should and shouldn’t be trimming.

However you’ve chosen to restrain your goat, grab the area above the hoof (pastern) and gently bend their knee inward. You will plainly be able to see where their pad is and if the hoof is overgrown.

I rally all goats into their homes or pens and trim each goat away from the others. I do this for a few reasons -

.01 To allow the goat being trimmed to lean into our soothing presence and assuring pets.

.02 To not startle the other goats or bring anxiety as to what is happening to the other

.03 Goats are greedy and will try to steal the treats from the goat being trimmed, get in the way or could cause you to move and cut yourself or the goat being serviced

Understandably this seems like a frightening and daunting task, especially if you are not used to handling or have ever had exposure and experience dealing with animals - But we are dynamic and capable! This life we have chosen is not for the faint of heart- but for those courageous enough to follow it. After your first several attempts at this, the feelings will die down and you will settling into new and innovative ways of accomplishing it. If you have younger children as I do, they make great treat holders and can even be a comforting presence for the goat.

notice the dirt and rock lodged in the over growth. This was a few days after we brought home this goat “Taffy”. His hooves had not been serviced in a while.

If you’re hear reading this article, you have chosen this life. God guides us through the calling of our intuition and so I know and believe that you can accomplish this task, or he would not have lead you to the wild task of homesteading.

If you have any questions, I would love to answer them in the comment section.

If you follow me on Instagram @thewildwoven, there are daily posts and stories that deal with everyday happenings animals that may give some insight to any quarries you may have

xoxo Deandra