# Trimming cattle feet?



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Yes, there is a very popular cow hoof trimming channel, I have watched him dig out a huge abscess. Pus galore!


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

Yeah.... looking at the videos he had available, just based on the title and screenshot, it doesn't seem like most of them are for the squeamish.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

We hire a guy to trim annually. He rarely nicks one. Like one every several years.


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## Zimalia22 (Jun 15, 2021)

Dairy cattle are trimmed regularly.
Beef cattle are typically out on large pastures. The ones on small pastures need trimmed occassionally. 
I used to know a guy, that's what he did for a living. He pulled his chute behind his truck, and once in, he trimmed them up.

My own cattle never needed it. They, like my horses, traveled several miles in to water, and back out again.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Any hooved animal needs hoof care periodically.
Goats & sheep need added to that list too.
🐴...


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## Caledonian (Nov 27, 2016)

The Hoof GP, is based in south west Scotland.

His videos aren't for the faint hearted but they are addictive. I've often wished horses could be done so easily.

I was discussing horses versus cows' feet with a friend who farms Highland cattle and he suggested having a look at his site.

If I remember correctly he travels around the farms every few months similar to a farrier/trimmer. It's interesting to see how he deals with holes, cracks, balance and abscesses.

ETA: he does dairy as well as beef cattle, just not as often.

A non-graphic video:


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

My farrier used to do llamas, he said they were the worst. They would promptly lay down and tuck their legs underneath themselves, once they do that, he would quit and come back another day lol.


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## secuono (Jul 6, 2011)

waresbear said:


> My farrier used to do llamas, he said they were the worst. They would promptly lay down and tuck their legs underneath themselves, once they do that, he would quit and come back another day lol.


I had alpacas, so lighter & more pleasant to deal with. But I taught them to let me lift their feet to trim & hand shear as they stood.
Just got a calf & he's going to know to lift feet like horses, too.


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## ksbowman (Oct 30, 2018)

The only ones I had had trimmed had a genetic problem and the toes would grow out and cross. Then they would get sore and be lame. Our local vet came out and trimmed them and they felt better very quickly. I did have a cow get and abscess in a hook and it shed the whole outer s hoof. She wouldn't hardly stand. The vet told me it would shed when he treated her but, said not to worry it would grow back fairly fast. It did and when she was no longer lame she went to the sale barn.


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## ChieTheRider (May 3, 2017)

It's crazy how resilient those cows seem to be in comparison to horses...Watching him chop on those hooves is crazy! One cow had a bit of her coffin bone literally fall out of her hoof in one video, but he patched her up and expected her to do alright! The hoof grew back and she didn't seem lame at all. But I guess they can take the weight off one claw an put it on the other, horses only have one chance at it.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

Our trimmer used a table. He took some off with nipper, if needed, and finished with a grinder. I never saw blood. 

The one ranch is 30,000 acres. The other 18,000. Rocky hills, but especially the bulls need annual trimming.


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## Cordillera Cowboy (Jun 6, 2014)

My great grandfather grew tobacco in Southwestern Virginia. Every year he would drive a team of oxen to the big tobacco warehouses in Danville to sell his crop. The oxen were shod. My dad told me of often finding ox shoes along the road.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

Cordillera Cowboy said:


> My great grandfather grew tobacco in Southwestern Virginia. Every year he would drive a team of oxen to the big tobacco warehouses in Danville to sell his crop. The oxen were shod. My dad told me of often finding ox shoes along the road.


First time I found an ox shoe I thought it was just a half, or piece, of a horse shoe. Funny looking until I learned what it was.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

Wow, I learned something new today! That's super cool! I looked up some pictures and I see what you mean @boots about thinking it was just half a shoe.


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

I’ve found oxen shoes at work! They make me smile. I found one right in what used to be our old pond about a month ago.

We don’t trim our cattle unless something is desperate and it would occasionally get nippers taken to it in the chute, but very rare. One small bunch of our cattle run in a softer area, so that’s where you might see a problem.

My uncle has a small herd and they don’t see mountains, and he trims them yearly. He has a special chute. I personally trim Mama Pepper, who is awful about it. I tried to train her like a horse, and she wasn’t the nicest heifer and spent a lot of time trying to kick me. You can imagine how that then transferred to milking and I gave up the idea.

I laid her down to trim her the first couple times, but now if she needs it I go out while she’s napping and work on the upper two feet, then wait till I catch her laying on the other side.


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