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08-22-2020, 01:22 PM
Looking for advice, comments.... My lead goat turned 5 this year, and as he has aged he has developed what I see as a splayed toe/weak pastern issue in his right foot. That foot also seems to have a bit of an inward "pigeon toe" twist.
It gets worse when he is tired and hiking downhill on steeper trails. I have tried all sorts of variations of corrective trimming to bring the toes together - nothing works, in fact it seems better when it is trimmed flat. I've tried to take the front of that toe down as much as possible too. He does grow toe faster on all 4 feet.
This is becoming enough of a problem now that I am pretty sure I have to retire him from packing
which makes me horribly sad. He is an awesome lead goat, he will follow me to Hades and back and never quit. He keeps us all moving on the trail. He's also huge at over 41" at the withers and 260+ lbs. Fortunately, this issue doesn't affect him in his normal daily "goat life" - he plays, runs, jumps etc. But, a recent strenuous trip left him limping a bit and that foot action was not cool to see on the way out - pastern flexing down, toes splaying out wide...
I'm hoping that maybe I'm just overreacting but I acknowledge that's probably not likely. What do y'all think? Is he done?
Here is a pic - it is his right foot (which appears on the left) in this photo:
I also made a short video of him walking here:
It gets worse when he is tired and hiking downhill on steeper trails. I have tried all sorts of variations of corrective trimming to bring the toes together - nothing works, in fact it seems better when it is trimmed flat. I've tried to take the front of that toe down as much as possible too. He does grow toe faster on all 4 feet.
This is becoming enough of a problem now that I am pretty sure I have to retire him from packing
which makes me horribly sad. He is an awesome lead goat, he will follow me to Hades and back and never quit. He keeps us all moving on the trail. He's also huge at over 41" at the withers and 260+ lbs. Fortunately, this issue doesn't affect him in his normal daily "goat life" - he plays, runs, jumps etc. But, a recent strenuous trip left him limping a bit and that foot action was not cool to see on the way out - pastern flexing down, toes splaying out wide... I'm hoping that maybe I'm just overreacting but I acknowledge that's probably not likely. What do y'all think? Is he done?
Here is a pic - it is his right foot (which appears on the left) in this photo:
I also made a short video of him walking here: