I have a question from a family who bought two doelings from me last summer. One of them is having some trouble. Please read this conversation between us, and if you can think of anything I haven't, please respond. I"m sending them the link to this thread, so we'll all be able to see your responses. I've removed their personal info, but I hope you can still follow the conversation. Many thanks!
Hello Patty. We bought 2 female goats in the spring. Have a question. One of them seems 2 b shedding excessively. Temps here have been in the 30s. Could it be due 2 temps or is it something more. Thanks in advance. Chris
Hi Chris,
No, I don't believe it's the weather. It could be a deficiency of some kind. If so, I'd suspect copper before anything else. Please tell me a bit more. Is the shedding in certain places more than others? Are there any bald patches? Does the tip of her tail have hair on it, or not? If the tip of her tail is loosing hair, you may see that her tail has a look of a fish's tail fin, a split in it, and her tail tip will show. Is the hair that is covering her soft and smooth? Has her coat color lightened noticeably? Answers to those questions would be helpful.
It could also be a mite or lice problem. If you can, get a good look at her in the sunlight. Part the hair on the neck/withers/shoulder area, and look for about 10 seconds. See if you can see anything crawling. Try a few different places.
Does she have a lot of dandfuff or dry, flaky skin?
Get back to me with those answers, and maybe even a photo if you could, and if I don't come up with any real ideas after that, I'll submit this to a forum I'm part of and we can see if we get any good answers.
Are things going well, other than that issue? I hope you're enjoying the girls.
Best wishes,
Patty
Chris:
Patty thanks for getting back 2 me. My wife is home 2 day and is going 2 take a look and get back to me. The girls are working out great. They are loved n love being with our kids. They like 2 break out of the gated pen area and come up 2 our front door and wait for the kids to come out n play. They have been a great addition. Talk to u soon and I will forward what the better half has to say
Chris:
Its mostly on the hind legs, some bald patches, but mostly just thinning. Tails still has hair. I didn't see anything moving on skin. Yes to flaky, dandruff skin. Seem healthy otherwise
The only thing I can think of right now is a deficiency of some mineral or another. If you alreadt have a loose mineral made for goats available for them all the time, that's great. Keep it up. If not, start with that. I use Mana Pro goat minerals. I've been really happy with that. Another thing I'd suggest is to try feeding them about a fourth cup a day of black oil sunflower seeds. It should improve their skin condition at the very least.
I'm still suspicious that there might be an issue with a mite of some type that she's itching, and going bald from. Do you see her itching/rubbing the areas?
I'm going to copy and paste this to the forum I told you about so we can see if we get some more answers. I'll send you a link to the post so you can see it too. At least I think this will work.
Replies
Mites are invisible to the naked eye. It's lice that you can see.
Phebe said:
She is due to kid Wednesday, and she is extremely big. She doesn't get up and exercise like the others. She eats, drinks, and lays down. I'm thinking this is the biggest factor in her "sores" none of the other goats have this. I checked for visible mites, but could not see any.
Its cold here, and the goats don't want to leave the barn with snow on the ground.
I appreciate the replies!
Phoebe
The pictures didn't come up clear enough for me to add any input... but a lotion like Nustock wouldn't hurt, and if I remember correctly, it's not terribly pricey either. I used it on my doe that I mentioned already in this thread, and saw improvement, but not complete healing until I had dosed with Eprinex in addition to the salve.
Wow! Not sure about that one. I do have this lotion that is amazing with a lot of things skin related though. It's called Nustock. It really works on mites, and helps heal the skin and regrow the hair. We had a couple of does who got ear mites last fall. I used the Nustock, and got it inside and outside the ears. You reapply it every three days. For me it took about three applications and then the mites were gone, and the irritated skin was healing. New hair grew in on the spots where it had been scabby pretty fast. If nobody else knows of anything it is, you could try that. I hope she's soon as good as new. :)
Here is another picture just closer up.
image.jpg
image.jpg
Thank you, Rachel. I appreciate your confirming my suspicions on that. Hopefully they'll have success at getting her back in good shape too. :)
I second the mite issue. I have a doe that got bald on her legs and nose, with very bad skin. No visible crawlies... (but she's also light like this gal, and I wondered if that was part of the issue) No one else in my herd seems to have gotten them, or get them. I treated her with Eprinex. and her fur came back. Her flaky skin hasn't gone away so much, so I suspect that there are some minerals I need to figure out that contributed. I think that the low minerals might have made her susceptible to the mites, and explain why the other goats don't seem to have any issues.
For comparison, here's a picture of the same doe last fall, with her adorable little owner. :)
Just in case anyone else if having trouble seeing the photo:
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next