Nail/hoof care

E

egoldstein

Guest
I'll admit up front that when it comes to equine care my knowledge and experience are fairly limited. I have at times done routine rasping of hooves when I've been tasked with caring for equines, but I've never done a full trim of hoof or frog, so I don't feel I have much to add. What I did was oriented toward keeping the hooves in decent shape, but the primary motivator was desensitization so that it'd be an easier task for the farrier. The only two tools I used with any frequency were/are a hoof pick to dislodge crap, ice, and other materials and a rasp to take off some of the material off the base of the hoof.


For dogs however, I have a bit more experience. I've used scissor type, guillotine type, and grinder type trimmers; of which I generally prefer sanding/grinding. I tend to use a rotary tool (Dremel-type) with sanding heads and have used some embedded diamond heads. Long haired dogs take extra care with a rotary tool to avoid catching hair on the spinning drum, so reconsider or take precautions if you're dealing with anything but short hair.

One of the things I don't like about scissor/guillotine cutters are the edges they leave needing a pass with a nail file or emory board to smooth out; while a dremel can produce a nice edge, it produces a lot of dust and can heat the nail up due to friction if you stay on one nail too long; I usually take 2 or 3 passes over each nail, going over all 4 feet each pass to reduce the chances of causing discomfort due to heating.

Beyond tools, it's important to keep in mind the form of the canine nail. There's the hard nail surface, but underneath is the soft quick, bloodvessels, and nerves, so you have to take care when cutting nails to avoid getting into the quick and causing pain. The longer the nail grows, the further the quick extends into it, so you will have to trim less more often to allow the quick to recede back to where it should be. I tend to keep nails so that when I hear them clicking against flooring I know it's time for a trim.

Here's a nice graphic showing the relationship of quick and nail.
nail_quick.jpg


What tips do you have for hoof/nail care? Any particular tools or methods you've found that make the task easier for all involved?
 
In the past I have only used a guillotine and scissor style clipper. I like the guillotine out of the two. I havent used a rotary tool yet. Just haven't looked into them is all. I didnt know that the quick recedes with frequent cutting. Thats a helpful bit of info.
 
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