Ever wondered what's actually happening inside an overgrown hoof? And can you fix it once the damage is done?

Our guest this week looked into just that. Dr Laura Deeming did her PhD with Massey University and AgResearch on dairy goat hoof health. Many dairy goats are not hoof trimmed until their first lactation, which, at that point, feet can already be very overgrown.

One of her key questions was whether starting trimming earlier would help lifetime foot health. Laura worked with equine vets to X-ray the internal structures of overgrown hooves pre- and post-trimming. She found the joint angles and bone rotation inside the lower hoof were significantly affected by hoof overgrowth. Research in the dairy cattle world has shown that bones actually start to remodel within the hoof, resulting in bony growths and distortion, which is why you end up with chronically lame animals if you do not trim frequently enough. 

As part of her PhD, Laura also developed a 5-point gait scoring system to help identify lameness earlier so that these long-term issues wouldn't occur. 

Initially, using the systems in place at the time, 81% of animals came back "normal". When she re-scored them using her scoring system that included an "uneven gait" category, only 36% were classified as "normal". 

This allowed animals to be identified before they were severely lame or overgrown and long-term issues were caused, and it also proves that a more detailed scoring system improves the precision of measurement.

Mark and Laura also discuss the role of hoof colour, white line separation, foot baths, and the genetic component to hoof conformation.

A great listen for any foot-health nerds out there! 

You can read Laura's thesis here:

https://mro.massey.ac.nz/items/d72eb0f2-8fa1-4516-9a1a-273a822b4d8e

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