[sparkysmudge]

Hi, I've been visiting the site and reading the forums a long time but not posted before, so hello everyone, I've got a small flock of Borerays

I noticed one of my rams is sparing his front left foot a bit so I got him in and had a look.  There was a bit of compacted grass/mud between the outer wall and the sole (marked yellow in the attached pic) that I flicked out.  But there's a bit on the other side (marked purple) that I'm not sure about.

I thought it was compacted mud, but when I gently picked at it, it was quite rubbery and not like compacted mud/grass at all. It didn't seem to be attached to the outer wall and not properly attached to the sole but stuck to that a bit more. You can't really see in the photo, but it seemed like there were ridges/folds in it running from the outer side of the hoof towards the other side. The rubberiness reminded me of a thick bit of skin or horse hoof clippings that have been out in the wet and my dog seems to like (Labradors eh?  )

So what could it be? My thoughts are it's hoof "horn" that's grown weirdly and needs a little trimming, or it's a load of extra skin, like growth over an injury or like a verruca.  I thought before I poke at it any more I'd ask in case it's something obvious

A side note, I don't do routine hoof trimming and would rather avoid a discussion about the pros/cons of that

[shep53]

Sorry no one got back to you , think of the yellow and purple marked as finger nails so give them a trim trying not to cut the soft pad  and to not leave any holes for mud to get stuck in , a wash and scrub will get rid of any compacted debris so you can see what needs trimmed  . Check you tube if your not sure how to trim

[sparkysmudge]

Hey, thanks for the reply.  A wash and scrub is a good idea, thanks.  He's walking ok on it again so maybe I already picked out whatever it was. I'll have a go at catching him again so I can take a look (for some reason he's much less keen on being caught the 2nd or 3rd time in a short period of time  )