If your goats are new to your herd, or you’ve never trimmed hooves before, or these goats have never had their hooves trimmed, they’re probably not going to like it at all.
Beware of kicking, head butting, taking a long time to catch them, etc.
This is usually not a quick task, especially if you’re new to the hoof trimming world 🙂
Make sure you have everything you need before you get started!
- Bend leg back at the knee so the hoof is up facing you
- Scrap & brush away all dirt w/ a hoof pick
- Snip the outer hoof wall down to white/clear until it’s even with the sole of the hoof with a pair of snips. You’re going to want to follow the coronary band when you’re trimming, not necessarily the curve on the bottom of their foot when making your cuts to flatten out the hoof.
- Trim the soft heel right behind the sole until everything is flat and equal. Also trim in between the hooves to make sure when you press the hooves together is is nice and equal and flat.
- Now you can go over top of your hooves with some wood rasps (I call it the hoof cheese grater) and file down the sole until its flat. ​-As you can see from this picture I haven’t filed it down yet -it is very hard to get it completely flat and even with the snips.
- ​If their dew claws need trimmed, they can trimmed just like dog nails or finger nails.
If you see pink or blood-STOP TRIMMING!
Put blood stop powder on a bleeding hoof.
This hoof was not finished yet.
​This was after it was cleaned off, the overlapping nail was clipped off, and the soft heel was getting trimmed.
We still needed to trim the toes and shave down that sole and heel more.
Common problems in hooves is hoof rot. Look at the Goat Health page for more details on this.
We had a case of it this winter and the goats were not happy about having to stand on the stand for so long because we had lots of cleaning to do.
How Often Do I Need To Trim My Goats Hooves?
It will depend on how fast your goats hooves grow.
Usually it is every 1-2 months that your goats hooves will need trimmed.
Sometimes goats will somewhat trim their own hooves if they have concrete or stones to walk on, this will naturally keep their hooves flattened.
Make sure that your goats are trained to stand on the stand for a decent period of time, this will make hoof trimming so much easier!
I would also highly suggest having someone hold them or be of assistance to you while you’re trimming them!
You can start trimming a kids hooves as early as 4 weeks. You’ll need to just keep an eye on them in those first 4-8 weeks and see when you feel they need trimmed.
I would recommend from a very young age to start working with them on the stand with a head stall – this will make your life soooo much easier!
