Any tips for progressing with picking up feet

[ziggywiggy]

Admittedly I had kind of a disappointing day with my older donkey. I brought him out to work with him, and usually part of the routine is brushing him down and picking out all 4 feet. Up until now he’s been tolerant of me picking up his feet and picking them out, usually it takes a couple of goes to get the backs all the way picked out and if he’s antsy I may go back to picking them up with a rope a couple of times first. Today I picked out his front feet fine and the backs he immediately was kicking out, completely irritated. When I switched to the rope he kept lifting his hoof annoyed and even then he kicked out a few times. Not towards me but straight back, not that it matters.

He is an older gent, late teens most likely, and I do wonder if maybe there’s some arthritis and he’s more creaky because of the cold? He’s always seemed a little slow to give me his backs, we kind of have to warm up to it. Should I chalk it up to just one grumpy day? He’s had his front feet completely trimmed and I was working on it so we could start doing his backs but we might be farther out than I thought.

[LCDR]

I have been there (still am), but not with a donkey. The end of the story is that we discovered my horse’s hocks look like Swiss cheese on radiographs. We now sedate her for her back shoes. I can only pick out the backs by allowing her to keep her toes resting on the ground and just rolling the hoof forward.

So rather than trying to progress with picking up your guy’s rear feet, maybe it is time to try a different hoof picking approach to minimize stress on his hocks.

I just offer this as a consideration. His hocks may be perfectly sound and not the problem at all.

[ziggywiggy]

I like the idea of the rolling the foot forward, maybe I’ll try that next. I think it will take some trust building since I’ll have to get kind of low to actually reach. He’s mostly a sweet old man and I really don’t want to cause him unnecessary discomfort.

[NancyM]

See if you can roll the foot forward with the toe on the ground by using a soft rope around the pastern. Just little tugs. Yes, it’s usually a soundness issue, it hurts to flex the hock enough to lift the hind leg. Once they figure out that you are NOT asking them to lift the foot, just rock it forward onto the toe, usually they are OK with that. And yes, you CAN trim the foot that way too, though it is harder on the farrier’s back to do so. It’s better than fighting with an equine who has a legitimate problem.

[fordtraktor]

My 30 yo pony can be like that a bit for the farrier. I give her bute before he comes and she does a lot better. It’s definitely arthritis in her case.

[suzyq]

When mine was bad treats helped a lot. But no arthritis here.

[Weezer]

If he’s old and being unusually grumpy, I would also suspect pain somewhere. My old TB was very difficult with her back feet until I put her on an arthritis supplement and started using back on track hock wraps regularly. After about a year of that, I stopped with the supplements and only had to use the hock wraps occasionally.

[TheHunterKid90]

How about an equioxx or bute trial? If he improves then perhaps it’s pain related. If it Dior’s my, it could still be pain but in good head that it hurts but it doesn’t hurt to try either.

[ziggywiggy]

The vets coming to do his teeth next week, I’ll definitely ask him if I can get and rx for bute and maybe Dormosedan gel so we can try to really get his back feet done.

[LCDR]

My hock problem horse gets sedated by my farrier. She is fine with the fronts. After finishing those, he administers sedation and does the backs. But even with pretty heavy IV sedation she still is a challenge if a leg is held up too long.

I wish we could just have her go without rear shoes, but her hooves really need the shoe support.