There is a lot to consider when managing sheep and goats. Hoof health and more specifically
hoof trimming cannot be overlooked. There are a couple of factors that effect the need
to trim hooves. One would be genetics so the breed that you are working with and also the
particular individuals may need hoof trimming more than others. Also consider the environment
such as the soil moisture, housing, and diet of the particular animals. So why do we trim
hooves? So we want to encourage proper hoof growth. We also want to open up the hoof so
the air can circulate within that hoof to reduce any kind of bacteria growth. We want
to prevent lameness and we also want to create a flat sole for that animal so they are able
to walk around more comfortably and to reduce any type of infection. Okay, so let's talk
a little bit about the equipment needed for hoof trimming. First of all you want to make
sure you have some hoof trimmers or some shears. I personally like the ones with the shorter
blades. I feel like they are easier to maneuver around the hoof but there are all different
types out there that you can get a hold of. Then you want to make sure you have disinfectant
for cleaning your equipment in between animals and just in case you happen to quick an animal
you want to make sure that you have a blood stop powder on hand. And when it comes to
restraining the animals there are several different things that you can get that can
help you do that. One would be a stand um another might be a tilt table or a chair if
you have sheep. Um and then if you don't have any of those equipment you can also just do
this with a halter um putting it on the animal and tying the animal to a sturdy gate or if
you have sheep you can roll them on their dock to restrain them for hoof trimming. The
first thing I like to do is clean out any manure or dirt and take your trimmers to do
that carefully and if the hoof is hard it hasn't rained in a while you can definitely spray the
hoof with water or disinfectant to get it nice and soft so you can get started. Next
thing I like to do is work on the excess hoof growth along the hoof wall here. So you can
see this hoof wall had kind of grown over so I'm going to start there and kind of get
that trimmed off. So you see that white line that is your hoof wall. And our goal here
today with hoof trimming is to get this hoof, get each of these claws even and then even
to the floor flat to the floor okay. So we are going to work around the hoof wall here.
And if you start to see um pink you know just look out for it because you could be um could
quick them and they could bleed so make sure you have blood stop on hand. So nice, just
nice and gentle, slow, take off small amounts um until you have gotten their hoof trimmed.
I always like to kind of if there is excess toe take a little bit off of the toe not much.
Again you want to continue to dig that manure out so you can see where you are at. And you
can may need to trim up the sole a little bit so on this girl we definitely need to
trim it up just a little bit. Okay so how you know that you are done at this point is
that when you run your hand across everything is nice and flat and level. You don't see
you can see the hoof wall has been trimmed back. There is no excess growth on those toes.
The heel is nice and flat the sole is nice and flat and I like for them to be even and
match as much as possible so this is about as good as we can do today on this hoof. So
next time you are out around your sheep and goats don't forget to look down and evaluate
their hooves because they might need to be trimmed.