any tips on trimming hooves?

[Wanda S.]

I have a yearling longhorn heifer that needs trimming. She is fairly tame, I brush her daily and can clean between her toes while shes feeding. I have trimmed Llamas feet, would the procedure be the same for cattle? What do I need to watch out for? She is on soft ground so they wont wear down on their own. Are there special nippers for cattle..Thanks!

 

[cfpinz]

Don't get kicked. :lol:

Joking aside, I use a pair of pruning hooks, the handles are long enough to keep your buggar diggers out of harm's way. We do it in the chute, if they're too spirited I rope below the dewclaw and tie it off.

cfpinz

 

[KNERSIE]

hoof trimming is a specialist field, rather get a hoof trimmer in, you can do alot of damage if you don't know what you are doing.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Are there special nippers for cattle..Thanks!

I guess you could call these "made 'specially" for cattle:

 

[Wanda S.]

thanks for the imput, have called the few around here who shoe and they wont work with cattle. Will look in livestock sales catalog for long handle nippers.

 

[littleboss]

I bought a pair of those hoof trimmers pictured in the above thread. I broke the handle out of them on the first cow.
I next tried a Sawzall which didn't work.
I finally got out a pair of loping shears that have a solid steel handle. They worked ok

I called several vets around and none would trim a cows hoof.

 

[Wanda S.]

A sawzall ? Man, one slip and I'd have a three legged cow! Guy next door is going to butcher his steer soon, think I will ask him for the feet so I can practice.

 

[MikeC]

Have seen people use a rotary sander with 80 grit paper.

You'd have to lay them out to do it though.

 

[littleboss]

A sawzall ? Man, one slip and I'd have a three legged cow! Guy next door is going to butcher his steer soon, think I will ask him for the feet so I can practice.

I thought that my battery powered Sawzall would work great. With a fine toothed metal cutting blade it wouldn't hardly make a mark.

I had thought of using my 4.5" grinder but figured that the noise would scare her.

 

[vs_cattle]

Maybe get some one who knows what their doing and watch how it done and go from there that what im planning on doing

 

[Susie David]

Good idea to get the feet from your neighbor....saw it apart and see how the hoof grows. Should give you a ides of how to proceed...we just knock off the tips that need it when we have them in the chute for routine maintenance.
Use the angled trimmer...just keep it sharp and squeeze treal hard.
DMc