Both Cows Were Going Through It

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]On today's video, we have got a couple of white line issues to deal with. First up is this Jersey girl. She's got a problem right here. It's going to start here and work its way out the top.

[00:00:09]Welcome back to Nate the Hoof Guy.

[00:00:16]The most common place to find one of these is right here, and they almost always are going to track out the top.

[00:00:22]So, that's the path I'm expecting this one to take as well.

[00:00:30]Now, you'll notice as I trim this up that the claw on the left, that medial claw, I'm going to remove far less than I do the lateral, the claw on the right.

[00:00:37]And that's pretty typical. You tend to see more growth or less wear on that lateral claw. But it's also the one that takes the most weight, the most pressure throughout the step. And it's also the claw you see the most problems because of it.

[00:00:58]Working on these is generally pretty simple because you don't have a lot of hoof horn to remove because that mark is up near the top. So that therefore the amount of hoof horn needed to remove is just from there up.

[00:01:16]Why is this the most common location to find it? Because when a cow takes a step, this lateral claw or the claw on the right is the first claw to make ground contact. And when that claw makes contact, it's the heel part of that claw that makes contact first and takes the majority of that concussive force of that step.

[00:01:44]Knowing all that, you can see how if there's a flaw in that claw, with all of those factors taking place, it's the likely one to develop a problem.

[00:02:05]So with the addition of a block on that other claw, it changes how all of that weight is distributed and how that weight makes contact with the ground.

[00:02:13]Now when she takes a step, this medial claw or the one that the block is going to be on is going to take that concussive force of that step, allowing this claw to rest. Now the natural question is is well, if we put all the weight and all the pressure now on this medial claw, isn't that one going to develop a problem? And it could, which is why I use rubber blocks. Those are nice and soft. they take up some of that force. So now that we're amplifying it onto that medial claw, that one doesn't end up with a problem as well.

[00:02:49]You can see here it's not just the sole.

[00:02:51]We got a little bit of wall horn that needs to come away as well. I want to make sure we get anything that's loose taken away from there. That way I can get this flushed out and get it just how I want it.

[00:03:19]After spraying that down, I can see I got a small little area here left to go.

[00:03:22]Let's get that taken away. Then we can get this final prep done and give her a wrap.

[00:03:35]You can see how much more difficult it is to remove that wall horn. It's much harder. Full of tubules. It's what's give that gives that hoof nice structural support. Allows it to bear all that weight.

[00:03:50]And now for the salicylic acid wrap, which is the final step in this trim.

[00:03:59]And now with this Jersey girl all wrapped up, we can get this foot down and let her go and move on to cow number two.

[00:04:08]And once again with this one, we can see how it's broken out the top. Only this one is a little bit fresher.

[00:04:22]Once again, you'll see we're dealing with a similar location. Only this one, if you take a close look, you see there's a bunch of rocks all stacked up in that crack.

[00:04:44]So, you can see here there's a little bit of loose stuff on this medial claw as well. I want to make sure that I get all of that cleared away because I'm going to need to put a block there. And I want to make sure that my glue has a good surface to stick to.

[00:05:11]All these little rocks stacked up in there can really take the edge off a knife. Give it a little bit of a nick.

[00:05:16]That way it doesn't flow smoothly through that hoof horn. The hoof horn itself doesn't really dull a knife that much. It's these little rocks that cause the damage.

[00:05:38]Now, had this one not already released the pressure, these are the type you have to be careful of. You see how small that crack is? That means there's not a really a route for that pressure to come out the bottom. So, had it not released out the top yet, this would probably be pressurized inside there. However, we know that's not the case with this one.

[00:05:57]Now, with each one of these, I know that that mark in the sole is going to link up with what's up above here. So, I can connect the dots, right? I can start to remove hoof horn and work my way down to that. A lot of times, that's the easiest way to do that just because it's we're real tight inside there to that corium.

[00:06:12]So, here we've got some room to work.

[00:06:21]Now that I know what we're dealing with here, I know how much I have left to remove. I can get that block in place.

[00:06:25]So, I'm going to get that prepped, get the block in place, and then we'll head back and tackle what's left.

[00:06:37]If you've caught a glimpse or two of the pup coming through the frame, well, here she is. Pups tend to stay pretty close to the hoof trimming chute for all those tasty little snacks that we leave behind.

[00:06:56]One of the common questions I get all the time is why don't you spray off that entire foot and leg area before you even start trimming? And the reason I don't do that is because it gets everything soaking wet, the gloves wet, the foot wet, things like that. I don't want to have slippery, wet working conditions, especially when I'm dealing with knives and power tools. So, what I do is trim this and work at the localized level.

[00:07:18]Trimming that uh or spraying those areas away as I trim the cleaning the entire foot really has no practical purpose here because it's that that lesion is up underneath there and that's what I got to get to. So, I keep the spraying minimal to that localized area as I'm trimming. That way I don't get water and everything all over my chute, which is, like I said, powered by electricity.

[00:07:46]Now, you may have noticed that the last hook we worked on was all black and this one is almost all white. Why is that?

[00:07:53]Just has to do with the breed of the animal. The last cow was a Jersey. So, you're going to have a very dark colored hoof horn. Whereas this one, we're dealing with a red holen here. You're going to have almost always a white hoof. It's as simple as that. Dark hoof horn isn't any isn't any uh different really as far as strength or problems associated with each one. It has to do with more the moisture content of that hoof and the weight of the animal that's being applied to that hoof. Got those areas all connected now. So, we're going to get this foot wrapped up. And 423 is now done as well.