Pack Goat Central

Two questions - 1) Is it OK to pack a goat with a crack in his hoof wall?  (I'm assuming not)  2) Drought can cause a cracked hoof, yes?

I'm in western WA and we have been having the longest drought ever.  I've never had any trouble with cracking in hooves in 5+ years.  My oldest, Sammy in particular has THE best hooves and I was horrified to find during his hoof trim that he has a crack on the outside of his left rear toe, near the front. A "C" shape crack and the cracked part of the hoof kind of bulges out near the bottom of the hoof. I was afraid to trim this with the nippers in fear the pressure of the blade would cause it to crack further. 

And good god, I also discovered one of my other goats - who I'd just trimmed 10 days ago - also has a hoof crack in the shape of a "T" - on the inside of his left rear toe. Goes about halfway up his hoof before the top of the T, so I'd guess 1/2" long on the vertical part.

I then slathered "Wunder Hoof" over all of my goats' feet and ordered some Biotin.  Their coats are absolutely gorgeous and shiny tho, so I'm doubting it is nutritional - I also haven't changed feed and they get just about every supplement known to man lol. I trim every 4-6 weeks.

I've never had trouble with a goat that has a crack in the hoof. They have a spare toe anyhow. I have a goat that grows his hooves out 3x as fast as any of the others so I sometimes get behind on his trims. I just trim as usual, and any cracks are just ignored. He never limps or acts sore so I doubt it matters unless you're planning some kind of epic long hike on lava rock or something.

Oh wow, good to know! Yes, neither of my boys is acting sore and we did a 2 day trip last M/T. Pretty soft/good trails on that trip. OK, so we're not done for the summer yippee!

I don't think drought would cause cracked hooves. Goats are desert animals and if anything, dryness is good for hooves and lessens cracking. I see a lot more cracked hooves in a wet year than a dry one. However, the climate does determine which forages come up in your pasture, when they emerge, if/when they bloom and go to seed, etc. All of these things have an impact on diet and could consequently affect hoof quality.

Like Charlie Horse, I've rarely seen a crack make a goat lame. It would have to be a very deep one or one that ran all the way up into the coronet band.