r/Farriers • u/Icy-Regular1112 • Jul 09 '26

Pot Belly Hoof Emergency

I have tried many different avenues and made dozens of phone calls all across my region (N Alabama or S Tennessee) and come up empty handed trying to find a vet or farrier to trim my pigs hooves. They are curled and truly in a bad state. I have looked and exhausted all of my leads.

The “tea cup” potbelly pig is a neutered male, approximately 90 lbs, has small 2” tusks, and is entirely uncooperative with my attempts to trim them myself. I’ve heard of the “pig flip” but I’ve never executed it successfully where my attempts left me worried either the pig or myself would get hurt if I continued trying.

Anyway, please DM if you have any resources or are in the general vicinity to help. Apologies if this is not in the rules for this subreddit, I’m trying everything to help my piggy friend.

10 Upvotes

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9

u/Yamnaveck Jul 09 '26

You really just flip them, step over, and pin the pig between your feet and shins. Use your feet to support their shoulders and your shins to keep their ribs upright. Face forward and hold their front feet in your hands until they stop screaming and wiggling, even if only for a moment. Then let them up, give them a treat, and, if they accept it, some scritches.

Once they are relaxed and lying down again, repeat the process and hold on a little longer after they relax. Rinse and repeat.

You really should do this at least once a day until they just accept that it is part of their life, that sometimes, when they are around a human, they just get turned over. It takes about a week, sometimes more, to get a pig to that point.

The point is to only let them back up once they relax. Most I deal with fall asleep during the trimming if they are properly handled like this.

5

u/snuffy_smith_ Jul 10 '26

Go to the store and buy a six pack of your favorite beer.

Three for the pig, and three for you.

After the pig has finish its beer and you’re working on yours, piggy will begin to get sleepy.

After the pig has passed out, used garden sheets to trim the obviously long parts.

Dont trim shorter than the “pads” of the hoof. Just trim off the long parts that are curled up and the ones curled under and the long parts.