Goat Founder - UPDATED foot PICS in #13

[katrinag]

Go slowly. Her feet did not get like this over night. Removing to much at a time will cause soreness and start another set of problems.
How does she walk? Does she favor any leg? When you are messing with her hoofs does she have any sore spots? Are her hoof warm or hot to the touch?

 

[katrinag]

Double post

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

Quote:
Oh certainly. We have been wittling LITTLE amounts at a time to slowly try to get her weight shift back to the center of her lfoot instead of the back. She walks fine but you can tell it's hard for her to manuver. She doesn't act like it hurts per se, more like it's difficult because of the way her hooves are growing. No sore spots and she doesn't seem to favor any legs/feet.



Now, for Farrier here are more in-deoth pics of her feet:

Right front:

Left front:

Right rear:

Left rear:

Both back feet:

 

[farrier!]

What I "think" I am seeing is the hoof wall rolled especially on the hind feet.
When they get rolled it traps moisture and they often get sore or infected. I have goats and have done hundreds of trims over the years for clients. I simply trim them down all at once. The sore ones get better in days and the ones that were not sore do fine.
I tried to get pictures and a lot did not come out well but here are some.
On your girl I would get all that extra heel off right away.
Here is one before trimming.

After trimming

Here is a nice light colored foot with all the yuckies cleaned out before trim

After trim.

The one goat I saw that had really foundered moved around on her knees and refused to stand on her feet....

So it sounds like your girl will be fine in time.

 

[helmstead]

I think all you're dealing with is a too long toe which has caused a WAY too long heel. You could bring that toe back quite a bit more. Over time, the tendons and ligaments stretch, which rocks them back on their heels. See where the live sole ends? There is a huge amount of toe in front of it...that can go. I'd use a new sharp rasp and take it back slowly. Also use the rasp on her heel...until you see pink...every couple of weeks to force the quick back up where it goes and shorten her heels.

BoSe will help tone her tendons/ligmaments to help them contract and correct the rocking back.

A lot of this is conformational. She probably had poor hoof conformation to begin with...allowing her to grow this way since it was left unchecked.

 

[Goattalker]

I agree, this looks more like improper trimming than foot rot. Take off as much toe as you can, and stop trimming when you see pink. If you will leave the heel alone, and just trim her toes, her feet should come back to normal in a couple of months (weekly/biweekly trimming). At that point, you can decide of she needs some heel removed. Trimming too much heel and not enough toe is what we all seem to do when we first start trimming our goat's feet. You'll get there, just keep at it.

 

[Skyesrocket]

I agree. She just looks way overgrown. The flap across the bottom of the hoof needs to come off. It's real common for that flap to cover the bottom of the hoof when left untrimmed. It's where bacteria grows and causes problems. And the toes do need quite a bit trimmed off. As the heel does.
If she were mine I would use a hoof pick and scrape the dirt out of there and then start trimming from the sides. Just a slice at a time, and look for pink. Like everyone has said. You will have quite a way to go before you start seeing pink, but do it slowly.
Once you get some of that trimmed away you will start seeing the bottom of the foot. Don't mistake the heel for the bottom of the food.
Once you get one trimmed down good and see how far back those toes belong and what the bottom of the foot looks like you will understand.
Do you have any goat people nearby to show you how to trim? Actually seeing something done is always helpful.
I know I just repeated what has already been said, but they are valid points and make sense.

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

See, that's just the problem - there is no flap of hoof going underneath

. All of that stuff at the back and side is her frog! There is no overgrowth. Her hooves are trimmed flat - my pics just suck and she was MOST unwilling

Thanks to everyone's input. I'm just glad it's probably not founder. Bad hooves can hopefully be corrected - founder is forever.....

 

[Goattalker]

The stuff on the back of her hoof is the heel, the stuff in the middle is the sole, goats do not have a frog in their foot. Take your trimmers, and measure from the coronet band to the ground on her heel, then do the same thing on the front of her foot, they need to be exactly the same measurement.

 

[Skyesrocket]

Yes, that is the heel. It needs to come off...a little at a time. In the fourth picture it is growing almost to the toe. The toe is still overgrown too. The two things at the very back don't sit on the ground. Those aren't the hoof.
When you get that heel off and cut back that toe her foot should be fine. The toe won't be pointed and curved. That is just overgrowth. Maybe you can find some pictures online of a well trimmed hoof to understand.