Splayed Toes

[rachels.haven]

I took a picture of the front feet of one of my (very urine scalded) yearling bucks' feet. He was a March 2025 kid. In your opinion is he too splayed/down at the pasterns to be very usable? I'm about to trim feet, take off the excess nail, and try to grind his toes level and together and then he will REALLY splay out and rock back for a while. He's a lamancha from an older line with outstanding udders, very, very little orchard. He is also calmer and has not been a crazy unhandlable unhinged machine during rut. I have not used him yet.

Again, these are front legs and he is not yet a year.

Rear ones might be worse, but he wasn't cooperating.

His dam got an "A" in feet as a five year old, and "G" in front and rear legs. His sire's dam got an "A" on feet as a 2 year old and a "+" as a four year old (also feet) but "e" in front and rear legs.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wish I had words of wisdom but I've never dealt with it to that degree. Occasionally if I'm way behind on trims I'll have one that starts a bit of splay but after a good trimming they resolve.

If he has other outstanding qualities, I "might" consider breeding him to a doe with outstanding feet/pasterns. Hard decision on your part.

 

[rachels.haven]

Thanks for what you can offer.
I definitely picked him for the udder and old style qualities his dam and sire's dam offers and did not realize what "good" and "average" meant on feet and legs. I think there's a way to trim the does so the feet hang in there for a while, but it's not the same as normal feet and bucks are heavier and bigger. He's so young and light to be breaking down but I guess bucks don't have to be long lived.

He's one up until this last round I've been trying to stay consistent with on trimming (easy to handle and all). I trim his feet with his toes together and flatten the surface with a file so touching ground and walking means toes at a normal spacing, but he then rocks back to them like it's not the nails that are keeping them apart and he's just built that way. He looks better when I leave him long like this, but better is not great. Part of me is hoping this is just a phase and he'll grow into his feet. IDK if that's a thing.



I've been mulling on this because I've currently got a late pregnant 3 year old doe by another old style buck I used a long time ago down and walking on her rear pasterns trimmed about a month ago, and not due for a trim yet, feet breaking down, motivating me to let this buck go even though he's got the disposition I want, the build I want, the udders backing him I want, and the color I like as an added perk because I don't want any more of this. (I've been able to keep her from splaying, but nothing for her pasterns, and everyone else's pasterns are great).

If in doubt, since he's a buck and able to pass on his genes far and wide very quickly, he should probably be let go and not use him.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Totally forgot about this:

My teenage neighbor shows market wethers. They never had goats until last year when she got into FFA. She called me one day to give her some advice on clipping one of her goats so next door I went. I was looking at the goat on the stand, and I noticed that he was standing tucked under in the back and looked down in his rear pasterns. I pointed that out to her. She pointed it out to the breeder of the goat and also her FFA leader. Both of them looked at the goat and said 'yep' there's something going on here. There was a little splay too - not a lot - but it was there.

Their choice of action was to bring in a chiropractor. I went and watched him work and tried to pick his brain a little. His explanation is when they're rocked back from being down in the pasterns the toes are free to splay out. He 'adjusted' the goats back in several places - did some pulling and tugging on his legs and to my astonishment the goat actually stood better and set up nicer after he did his work. They had him out several times and dang if it didn't help.

Not sure I'd ever go that route unless it was for the show ring and I don't show anymore. But it made me think more about how all the parts work together. A foot problem might not be "just" a foot problem.

 

[Ridgetop]

Trim every week. Check on his diet - is this a conformation thing or is he lacking some minerals?

The problem is that without good feet, the rest of the animal falls apart. In horses they say "no hoof, no horse" and it applies to all other animals too since they need to be good on their feet to be able to move, graze, and with bucks mount the does. With does having bad feet and pasterns will make it hard to carry kids.

 

[farmerjan]

Have seen what a good chiropractor can do for a cow... one of a small purebred herd, had been shown... and used to flush... She had some back problems and it helped her tremendously... Also, they used to have the chiropractor come out and do some adjustment, and then when they flushed her, she produced way more eggs and more fertility in them .... so might be something to that... maybe use him on a few select ones that have perfect/almost going in the opposite direction of type... feet and legs... if it is a spinal/structure thing, and some chiropractic care could alter it... then maybe you can breed some of the "correct structure" into the next generation.????