- My name is Nate Ranallo and I do hoof trimming. I am going to show you how to remove stones and screws from cow legs. I mainly shear cows.
I usually trim 40 to 50 cows a day. So you’re talking 160 to 200 feet, depending on that day and how many cows the farmer has to shear that day.
The tray we put the cow in is basically to keep her in one place so she doesn’t move around. Help us lift the leg safely and handle it so that it doesn’t move it. It can still move, but it just gives us a safer working environment to work with our grinders and knives. We’re dealing with very sharp instruments, so we want this leg to remain still while working with it.
So, in front of us is a cow stepping on a propeller. At this point, I’m not too sure how deep this screw is embedded. So this is what I had to investigate. Does it hurt here? Is it a long screw through the hoof capsule into the dermis, or is it just a cosmetic problem?
As for the basic anatomy of a cow’s hoof, you’ve seen the outer structure that everyone sees. It’s the hoof capsule, the hard part they step on. But right below it is a layer called the dermis on the sole of the foot. That’s what creates the soles of the feet, the soles of the feet. What I want to do is reshape the foot and bring the angle of the foot back to normal. This is what makes them comfortable. So just like with humans, if we wear uncomfortable flat shoes, you can feel it on your feet. Almost immediately, you can feel this discomfort. The same goes for cows.
So, when I find something like this, the first thing I do is try to clean up the trash around it. Here I use a hoof knife. What I do is try to grab that screw and see if it’s full, how well it fits into the leg, and if I can actually get it out with the hook of my hoof knife.
So for now I’m going to use pliers to get this screw out. The reason I did this was because it was too ingrown to be removed with a hoof knife. I don’t want to put pressure down because at this point I’m not sure if it’s pierced. You can see it about three quarters of an inch to the left of this screw. It’s a pretty big screw. If it goes all the way, it will definitely cause damage. From what’s left, I don’t think so. The only question is whether there is more to this leg that we will learn along the way.
What I use for hoof trimming is actually a 4.5″ angle grinder with a specially designed cutting head that scrapes the hooves off while trimming. So what I’ve done here is just toned down this hoof to create the natural hoof angle she needs. Obviously, you cannot work as well with a grinder as with a knife. So for anything that requires a lot of skill, or where you have to be very careful when touching things, I would use a knife because I can be more precise with it. As for creating a uniform sole, I do better with this grinder than with a knife.
One of the most common questions I get is: “Will this process harm the cow?” Trimming our hooves is like trimming our nails. There was no pain in the nails or in the hooves. What makes sense is the internal structure of the hoof, which we try to avoid when trimming. The composition of a cow’s hoof is very similar to a human nail, consisting of keratin. The only difference is that they walk on top of them. The outer hooves don’t feel anything, so I can clean them very safely without causing any discomfort. I’m concerned about the internal structure of the foot that the screws can stick through. That’s where it gets sensitive. When I get to these points, I have more doubts about the use of my knife.
That black dot you see is a sure sign of a metal puncture. In fact, what you see, anyway, I believe that the steel of the screw itself is oxidized. Very often you will see a nail or screw pass like this. You will have a nice perfect circle around where the puncture was. So I will keep tracking this black spot until it disappears or reaches the dermis. If it gets into this dermis, I know there’s a good chance it’s an infection that we’ll have to deal with. However, I will keep working, slowly removing the layers to make sure there are no issues.
Basically, I know that this hoof layer is about half an inch thick, so I can use it to gauge how deep I’m going and how far I have to go. And the texture changes. It will become softer. So when I get close to that derma I can tell. But, fortunately for the girl, the screw did not reach the dermis. So it just gets stuck in the soles of her shoes.
So, taking this cow leg, I see that there is a hole. I can feel some rocks in the hole as I work with the hoof knife. What happens is that when the cows come out onto the concrete from outside, those rocks get stuck in the soles of the shoes. Over time, they can actually continue to work and pierce. That leg of hers was showing signs of discomfort. So when I found all these rocks here, I wondered what was going on.
There’s no really good way to extract the rock other than just digging it out with my hoof knife. This is what I did here. Before I start working on them, I scrape them off trying to get as many of these rocks out as possible.
You may think that larger stones can be a big problem, but in fact, smaller stones can get stuck in the foot. You may have a larger stone embedded in the surface of the sole, but a large stone is difficult to push through the sole itself. It is these smaller stones that have the ability to find small cracks in the white and lower part and be able to pierce the dermis.
You have to understand that a cow weighs 1200 to 1000 pounds, let’s say 1000 to 1600 pounds. So you’re looking for 250 to 400 pounds per foot. So if you have some rocks with little rocks inside and they step on the concrete, you can see it penetrate and go right into the sole of the shoe. The consistency of a cow’s hoof is like the hard rubber tires of a car. To insert these stones, a lot of weight is not required. Then, over time, the constant pressure on them will drive them deeper and deeper into the sole.
The spray I use is called chlorhexidine. It’s a preservative. I use it not only for rinsing my feet and removing debris from them, but also for disinfection, because it has penetrated the dermis and I start to get infected. Problems here can arise not only because of the stones. What happened was that these stones caused a small area around us to separate due to the cow’s natural reaction to trying to release the soles in an attempt to solve the problem. So the loose layers of horns also need to be removed, those little jagged edges. This is what I am trying to clean up. But the idea is to remove as much of it as safely as possible so that you don’t accumulate trash and stuff in there and infect the area later.
The sander that I use for most of my footwork. In this case, I also used it to prepare the other paw for painting the rubber blocks.
The purpose of the rubber block is to lift the injured paw off the ground and prevent it from walking on it. I would regularly use salicylic acid body wrap. It works by killing any potential germs, especially those that cause finger dermatitis. This is a disease that cows can contract. If an infection sets in, it actually keeps that area open and prevents the hard outer layer of the dermis from developing, so it stays open. So what salicylic acid does is it kills bacteria and helps get rid of any dead skin and whatever else is in there.
This time the cut went well. We were able to remove all the stones from him and lift him up so that she can heal him without any problems.
In their natural environment, they actually molt. They do not need to be trimmed from people because the hooves have already reached their natural moisture level. As it starts to dry, it flakes off and falls off the foot. On the farm, they do not have a natural molting process. This way the hoof on the underside of the hoof stays moist and doesn’t fall off. That’s why we crop them to reproduce the natural angle they should be.
Now, when it comes to injuries and such, they also heal on their own over time, but it takes longer to do so. Thus, through a process that usually takes two to three months, we can be cured from a week to 10 days. By trimming them, we almost immediately provide comfort. That’s why we do it.
Post time: Dec-05-2022