Trimming long hooves

    On Sunday we darted and tranquilized one of our biggest does, Eva, and trimmed her hooves. When we bought her last fall, her hooves were very long. Over the winter they grew longer still and started to curl. We couldn't dart her sooner because she was pregnant and the tranquilizer, combined with the stress of being darted, would inhibit her pregnancy. Rapid hoof growth isn't common and can be caused by a few different factors. A diet with too high of protein percentages, a pasture with soft dirt that doesn't allow hooves to be filed down, or ingesting to much corn at one feeding. *Believe it or not when a deer eats too much corn at one time it disrupts the PH balance in their rumen (deer stomachs are almost identical to cow stomachs) and this causes their hooves to grow abnormally fast.

We have to tranquilize our deer if we need to give shots or 'work' on them because, although they are very calm, they don't take kindly to being poked with needles! The dart gun looks a lot like a .22 rifle and propels the dart with air pressure. The tranquilizer is a mixture of two medications, Xylazine and Telazol. This relaxes the animal's muscles and puts them into sleep. However the tranquilizer is only good for about three weeks after it has been mixed. Our mixture was getting old and had lost some of its potency, the doe didn't really want to go out so we gave her another 1cc. Usually 1.5cc (or ML) of fresh mixed tranquilizer puts the deer out in 15-20 minutes or so.

Once she is knocked out we protect her eyes from dirt by sliding a camo head net (used for turkey hunting) over her head. The flies were terrible that day so we coated her with fly spray and got to work. First we evaluated her hooves checking for any unseen injuries. Deer hooves have a rubbery sole with a thick keratin covering or sheath. When over growth occurs the keratin covering is the part that lengthens, similar to your finger nails. We just want to cut the overgrown keratin off and not damage the sole if we can help it.

Taking the loppers we cut most of the keratin off.

Then we trim the corners off so that they don't splinter.

In this picture you can see where the sole meets the keratin sheath very well.

After trimming the hoof up we rasp the edges off.

 While the guys work on her hooves I gave her 3cc of Vitamin B Complex under the skin (or SQ) to help with stress and sprayed Blu-Kote on the spot were the dart hit her. Blu-Kote is an aerosol antiseptic protective wound dressing.

 Once she finished receiving her "mani-pedi" I gave her a shot of Tolazine in the muscle (or IM) to reverse the tranquilizer. When using Tolazine to reverse the Xylazine/Telazol mix you should always use a 2 to 1 ratio with the Tolazine being double the amount of the tranquilizer. An example would be 3cc of Tolazine to 1.5cc Xylazine/Telazol.

 We switched the head net for a towel to cover her eyes after her reversal shot. This way it will protect her eyes until she comes around, then she can shake it off. Poor Eva was a little slow coming out of her nappy but she is doing very well now.

Eva's little buck fawn looked on, waiting for her to wake up so that he could have some dinner. :)

*This is one of the many articles that I have read on rapid hoof growth- http://www.buckmanager.com/2008/10/10/foundering-long-hooves-on-white-tailed-deer/