# Well i will not do that again



## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

I have a sweet weather that is three. He has light colored feet. i just can not keep him from going lame. I thought i had him sound last fall but he is lame again. I think i will need to cull him. i have another kid in training that can take his place.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

That is too bad but can understand needing to cull.


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## CaramelKittey (Oct 31, 2019)

Have you given him selenium? That should help him. He may be selenium deficient and that is one of the causes of lameness. I’m sorry you have had so much trouble with him. It truly is heartbreaking.


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## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

I feed Selenium to my girls every day in there mineral. I have to because of where i live. we have little salt in our ground.
the selenium in the Mineral is so high that i have to get a prescription from the vet for it.


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## CaramelKittey (Oct 31, 2019)

fivemoremiles said:


> I feed Selenium to my girls every day in there mineral. I have to because of where i live. we have little salt in our ground.
> the selenium in the Mineral is so high that i have to get a prescription from the vet for it.


Wow! I'm sorry there is nothing that can fix your goat. I'm sure he lived a happy life.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

How sad, I am sorry you are having issues with him.


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## DaGoatandPugLady (Nov 19, 2018)

fivemoremiles said:


> I have a sweet weather that is three. He has light colored feet. i just can not keep him from going lame. I thought i had him sound last fall but he is lame again. I think i will need to cull him. i have another kid in training that can take his place.


I am so sorry to hear about this 

I am newer to goats, only had my wethers for a year and a half. Can you explain to me what it means about him having light colored feet and him going lame?


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## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

DaGoatandPugLady said:


> Can you explain to me what it means about him having light colored feet and him going lame?


Light colored hoofs are softer not as hard as black. this means the lighter color the hoofs are the less protection they give the goat. light colored hoofs also grow differently they need more trimming and do not wear the same as black.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Huh... I have not seen this with my goats although I have several with white/pink feet. I have no more problems with the pink ones than the black. Our awesome packgoat, Finn, has both pink and black toes. The outside toes on his front feet are pink and the inside toes are black. All four toes on his hind feet are black. His black hind feet are narrower and need more care, but this is a conformational fault. There is no difference in "toughness" at all between his pink and black toes. If there were, I would have to notice it when trimming. Several of my goats have multi-colored pink and black striped toes, and there is no difference at all in thickness and texture between the pink and black sections.

I "trimmed" hooves on a three-year-old Toggenburg wether last year whose hooves had never been touched. All four were solid pink and they were the nicest, toughest hooves I've ever had the pleasure to work on. They actually didn't need almost any trimming--just a little tidying up around the edges--and the bits I snipped off were some of the hardest hoof material I've ever encountered. I had to sharpen my tools after working on that dude!

I have to ask... is your pink-hooved goat Saanen or part Saanen? I've noticed that many Saanens have terrible hooves, as opposed to Toggenburgs that generally have outstanding hooves. All Saanens have pink hooves and I believe all Toggs have pink as well, yet the quality difference is striking! It can't be due to the color. It has to be some other genetic component such as weak/thin walls or hoof shape.

I used to have a couple of Alpine does who were twin sisters. One had all pink feet and the other had all black. Both had somewhat low hoof quality, but the one with pink hooves was worse. However, if you looked at her feet you could see that her conformation was worse. Her feet splayed out to the side, causing unequal stress on the hoof walls that made the outside walls of each toe flare and split. The other doe's hooves were just as thin-walled as her sister's, but her toes were held tighter together so the hooves wore evenly which helped keep the hoof walls intact. It had nothing to do with color and everything to do with individual conformation.


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## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

my goat is a Nubian he has very thick soft walls you may be correct it may be genetic. i have a 14 year old weather that i have trimmed about once a year he has white feet too. his wear down and don't need trimming that often.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Yep, I'd say it's individual genetic difference and not hoof color you're dealing with. The thing with light-colored hooves is that they definitely "shout" their problems a lot more than dark-colored ones, but this is an optical thing. Farriers have been trying to dispel the "delicate white hoof myth" in the horse world for ages with only partial success. My two horses both got tender, bruised feet during an abnormally wet spell last summer. You couldn't see the bruising on the bay, but my white horse's pink feet still have visible purple spots growing down. You'd think she'd had the worse bruising but both were about the same. She normally has very tough, healthy feet and I ride her unshod on gravel roads and rocky trails without problems. The bay actually has the tenderer feet of the two and won't canter on hard surfaces. 

Small cracks that you can't see on dark hooves pop out loud and clear on pink ones. Every little hairline crack and rough spot fills with dirt and makes a nice contrast. If my horses are standing in dirt and neither has had their hooves trimmed in a while, the chips in the pink hooves look deep and jagged while the dark hooves don't look too bad. Move both horses onto the snow and the dark hooves look terrible and the pink ones look ok.

When it comes to both goats and horses, the best possible thing for their hooves (aside from good starting conformation) is regular exercise on abrasive surfaces. When I walk my goats on gravel or asphalt roads, their feet get so tough I could barely trim them if I needed to (which I don't). Exercise forces blood into the hooves and encourages healthy, fast hoof growth while the friction creates thick, tough, elastic walls and soles. 

It's too bad about your Nubian. In general I've found Nubians to have very nice, tough, low-maintenance feet. It's my pure Alpines that more often have thin, brittle hoof walls, splayed toes, and toes that are too narrow. My Alpine/Nubian crosses tend to favor the Nubian in their hooves, which has been an excellent thing for my herd's hoof conformation. It has greatly reduced the amount of trimming I have to do and has reduced the number of hoof problems I've had to deal with. However, there are always exceptions found in every breed.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Yep :up:


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