[Marigold]

I have trimmed hoofs before but it was always with help and today I attempted without help. I got the two front feet done on my older doe and the younger one was just being to fidgeting to be able to get her feet done completely. Will they be alright until tomorrow when I can have someone help or should i finish it now? Also i would appreciate any advice on how to get them to stay still lol

 

[cteague]

U could try when feeding them. Its a lot safer if someone can hold them. Also use shingles on stuff they play on.

 

[Marigold]

Okay, ill wait till tomorrow when my boyfriend will be home to hold them. They were sitting on my lap but then when I would try to trim their feet they would move around to much. They play on a lot of rocks right now but I'm going to put one of those cable spools in their pasture and I'll put shingles on it! Thanks for the info!

 

[Marigold]

While i was working on one goat the other was eating my hair and I just noticed now that she actually bit some off idk if she actually swallowed it cuz I pulled it from her mouth when I noticed, but if she did swallow it is that bad? My goats came to me very unfriendly and skittish and now I get completely mauled when I go in there!

 

[Jessica84]

I don't think it will hurt her at all. If so my doeling would have been dead a long time ago. I had to pen her up because she would eat my daughters hair while she played.
And about trimming their back feet. I got sick of having to wait around for someone to help me trim my goats and this is what I do that makes it easy....well for me. I just simply straddle them...kinda like my butt to their butt then reach between my legs and grab a back foot. I hold it between my legs and with my hand.....kinda like they do with a horse. They will kick and not be happy at first but just hang on and they will calm down. Just a little idea if ever you can't get help

 

[Marigold]

Okay thanks so much! Yeah I don't think she swallowed any of my hair i think.she just kinda chewed it up. So I got a nice chunk taken out lol. And that sounds like a good idea, i guess I just didnt wait long enough for them to stop kicking out their back legs

 

[cteague]

If my boys aren't pulling my hair they are biting holes in my shirt. Lol. I had just got my new uniform shirts for work and went down to feed them and sat down to pet them a minute. Didn't think anything about them chewing it. The next thing I knew Flash had my new shirt chewed with holes in it that looked like it had been shot with a shotgun. Lol little stinker.

 

[Marigold]

Oh no! Yeah they seem to chew on everything...

 

[Marigold]

So i trimmed my girls hooves while my boyfriend held them for me and it was much much easier. But now a few weeks later im noticing that one of my does is walking on her heels and after some research i figured that i dont think i trimmed the heels enough, so i want to correct her hooves and see if that gets her walking better before i see if its from something else.
But my question is, i didnt trim the heels because i felt like it wasnt part of the hoof and it was part of like the soft interior of the foot, almost like a horses frog (idk if im explaining this correctly sorry..) but i just want to know what parts of the hoof are okay to trim and what parts i should keep my trimmers away from
thank you for any suggestions to a beginner

 

[dchemphill1]

I just did my first trim in October and the heal part is kind of like a callused area. I used the trimmers and clipped off some and then used the rasp to file it down further. If it starts to get pink you are close.

 

[Marigold]

Thank you. I didn't want to hurt them but that makes sense. Thanks again

 

[GoAt-Newbie1138]

What does putting shingles on the stuff they climb on do?? I am new to this, if you can't tell lol

 

[cteague]

I'm new to this to. Folks that have had goats awhile have told me to do that because it helps with not having to trim feet as much. It's like a nail file is what I understand.