[littlebrownpam]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum but it looks like it will be really useful to us.  We are living in Portugal on a farm and keeping sheep, goats, chickens, geese and hopefully next year pigs.
My sheep's hooves are very overgrown and I could use some advice.  I am going to get the vet in next week as well  for some hands on advice but am impatient to resolve this now I have realised the error I've made in leaving them so long.
I have just had a try to trim them after researching on how to do this.  I get the theory behind it and what they should look like.  However when I have just had a go the hoof started bleeding very quickly so I stopped.
I was taking off very small amounts at a time as I was aware of stopping when it started to look pink.  I hardly took off any hoof and it started bleeding, why is this?  Does the quick grown down as the hoof grows?
I would estimate they need up to half a centimeter taking off.
I am starting to think maybe I need to take a very small amount regularly to get them back to how they should be?  Some of the hoof is solid but there are large holes to the outside edge as well where it has overgrown.
Thankfully there is no sign of hoof rot.
I treated with Stockholm tar afterwards.
Any advice on starting to trim overgrown sheep hooves would be really appreciated!  Plus maybe what is best to treat them with as I go?
Thanks!