Cracked Hooves - Drought?

[Kat]

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.

[Charlie Horse]

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.

[Kat]

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!

[Nanno]

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.