Treating Annie's Hooves

Goats on our farm present us with an on-going problem each year, particularly in the summer - hoof rot.  You can see it coming on as they tend to begin limping and then, a day or two later, won't even place any weight on the foot.  You can also smell it.  It is an infection and it smells pretty doggone bad.  Goats have cloven hooves that must be kept trimmed.  Even when trimmed, a bacteria (or two) will get between the hooves and before you know it, foot rot has set in.  The bacteria lives in the soil and the animals pick it up in the pasture.  Foot rot is even contagious.

So we treat their feet.  It is not a pleasant job as it is hot in the barn, but it must be done.  We coax the goat into the stanchion and close the head gate.  We'll put some ration for the goats to eat on as this distracts them.  The stanchion isolates the goat and just makes things more manageable during the treatment. 

We've tried commercial products like Hoof 'n Heel, but have recently switched to purchasing Copper Sulfate crystals.  We mix 1 cup of water to a teaspoon of copper sulfate.  We then give the affected goat a foot bath.  The easiest way we've found is to pour the copper sulfate solution into a tall plastic cup.  We have a bunch of these that we caught at parades.  They are the perfect size for it.  Then we hold the goat's leg up and dunk the entire hoof into the copper sulfate solution so that the hoof is submerged.

We'll hold the foot in the solution for as long as we can.  Then we move on to the next hoof and repeat.  Finally, when we are done, we pour the remaining solution over the hooves.  We release the goat, but following treatment, we leave them in the barn overnight where the ground is dry.

It is pretty amazing how copper sulfate works.  When the goat comes in, sometimes they are putting no weight at all on the foot.  The following morning after treatment, they are walking around like nothing ever happened.  The only problem is that once your animals contract hoof rot, it seems you find yourself treating over and over and over again.