# Hit blood while trimming hooves



## BlueMoonSpot (May 11, 2012)

I was trimming my doeling's hooves today and cut too far.  I hit a bit of blood on her toe. It wasn't gushing, but it took a few minutes to stop. I applied blood stop powder and Betadine. The vet said to bandage it up for the day...that was an adventure. =P

I tried putting a bit of diluted Betadine on a piece of gauze and Vetraping it onto her hoof, but she kept kicking out and sending the sterile gauze into the dirt. =P I finally got a moist piece of gauze (without the Betadine) put a tiny bit of blood stop powder on it (her hoof had started bleeding a tiny bit again from all the fussing) and wrapped it onto her hoof. She's now walking around quite happily, no limp or anything. I did my best to wrap it snugly but not tight. She looks really cute with her little green "sock". ^_^

The heat is in my favor today because she'll be more likely to lie around or graze rather than play on the rocks like she usually does.

Did I do it right?


----------



## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

You did just fine.... I did the same not long ago with Angel...only thing was, she wasn't happy about me holding her rear leg so her hoof was upside down while the blood stop worked it's magic, I vet wrapped her hoof and put her in a stall for an hour til I was sure it stopped.


----------



## BlueMoonSpot (May 11, 2012)

OK. =) Just making sure that I'm not causing problems and then making them worse for my goats! =D

I talked to someone at the vet clinic because I wasn't sure about putting a wet bandage on the hoof, so I'm going to go back out in a bit and change it to a dry one and make sure it isn't bleeding.

I'm a little nervous to trim hooves now! The doeling's mom needs her trimmed badly...this is what I get for procrastinating on hoof trimming. So, if I trim just a bit this week and trim again in, say two weeks, will the blood vessels have receded a bit so I can trim farther without hitting them?


----------



## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Thats the way to do it////trim the part that is actually folded under first, your safe with dointg that part then just trim a little away so that the hoof walls look flat. Do it again a week later til the hoof is squared up and looking normal. Similar to trimming a dogs nails...just a little at a time.


----------



## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

I did exactly the same thing and felt horrible.


----------



## BlueMoonSpot (May 11, 2012)

Yeah. I feel pretty stupid. =P

My doe's hooves are folded around like that, so I guess I'll start there. Thanks for the advice!


----------



## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

It happens. You did fine.
We usually dip it in some sort of sterile wash or spray with FightBac. I use some corn starch if the bleeding won't stop. I have never bandaged one. Can't imagine them keeping it on.


----------



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I think this happens to us all once in a while. I cut a doeling too short a month or so ago, she jerked her foot just as I was cutting. It bled like crazy! I had to change her hoof pack 2x! I just put some cooking flour on it <all I had>, an absorbant first aid pad, and duct taped it up, and it quit bleeding after that. She was a little ouchy on it the next day, but after that she was just fine.


----------



## BlueMoonSpot (May 11, 2012)

In a way I'm sort of glad that it happened with this goat because now I know how far is too far to cut, and how to deal with it. I don't think my older doe would stand still as long as the doeling did. She's such a trooper. =)

Oh, and I changed the bandage a few hours ago to put a dry one on and it looked really good. No bleeding. Now I'm condident that she's got the best setup possible on her foot...I was a bit concerned that the first bandage was too tight.

@luvmyherd: It's hot today, so my goats aren't jumping around like they usually do, but the vetrap has held on pretty well. =) Thankfully she hasn't tried chewing it off yet.


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

:hug:


----------



## BlueMoonSpot (May 11, 2012)

Well, Stella decided this evening that she was ready to take her bandage off herself, haha. Anyways, her foot is fine now, no limp, heat, or anything indicating lasting damage or infection. There's not even a sign that it was ever bleeding, just a shorter toe on one side.

Now I have to find that bandage tomorrow morning before she or the horse find it and eat it...if either of them haven't already. =D


----------



## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

I know this is an older thread but I had my first tramatic experience with trimming hooves last night and had to share. I've had a couple little drops of blood every know and then, nothing to bad...but last night, I don't know what happened; if she pulled away, I misjudged it and took a bigger chunk off than intended, I slipped, or a combination of all. But it was bad, it came shooting straight out in a thin stream, hitting me in the face! Then it started pulsing with i'm assuming her heartbeat! I was stunned for a moment then put a wad of paper towels on it and vet wrapped it, I didn't know what else to do. I kept checking on her all night, and it seemed to have stopped. She of course, acted like it didn't bother her and continued eating like normal. This morning I took the vet wrap off and there was a little drop or two, I sprayed it with blue kote and she favors it a lot but I think it's ok.... anything else I should try and do for it?


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

What you did was fine.


----------



## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

ksalvagno said:


> What you did was fine.


 That's good to hear. I think I was the one more traumatized at that point, lesson learned.


----------

