Hair Loss

Posting for a friend. Her goat is losing her hair in huge clumps. She is eating, happy goat but has lost about 30% of her coat. They called a vet and they have wormed her and are using an anti fungal on her skin does anyone have any idea what it could be or treatments? I was wondering if it could be mineral or cooper issue? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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  • If she is eating alfalfa, just switch her to a grass hay.

    Jennifer K said:

    What would be the best zinc treatment for this issue and how much? Thank you!
  • What would be the best zinc treatment for this issue and how much? Thank you!
  • Yeah, that sounds more like zinc deficiency. Is she eating a diet of mostly alfalfa?

  • Yes exactly - She developed large bald patches (across ~30% of her body) in about a day, with no skin damage to suggest it had been pulled out or rubbed off. Elsewhere the hair has gotten very thin, but not bare.

    On a positive note what's left seems to have slowed/stopped coming out. Before when we pet her we were getting big handfuls of hair, now it's just the occasional hair. 

    We are keeping a close eye on the bare patches for any signs of regrowth.

    Thanks again for your help.

  • Since there is another similar thread, I just thought I should clarify ... When I read that she was losing hair in large clumps, I assumed that meant there were large patches of bare skin. Is that the case?

  • Hello,

    I'm the one with the poor little doe losing hair. Thank you all for the responses and information. Miss Mabel just turned 1 a few weeks ago, so this is the first time she's gone through a Spring shed. She is still lively and eating as usual, but blowing her coat like some dog breeds do - the speed of it in particular is what really shocked us. She lost huge patches in <24 hours. Up until then, her coat was gorgeous, thick and soft, no roughness etc.   While she rubs against things, she doesn't appear to do it more than the others, who are fine. There were skin flakes coming off with the coat, but once gone the skin appears to be in good condition: smooth, soft, no visible scratches or irritation.

    Mineral deficiency (copper/zinc) sound the most likely and we are working on that this week. I've ordered the Nu-Stock too, and will use that as soon as it arrives. After watching her closely the past few days, I've noticed she doesn't seem to like the free choice minerals, (at least compared to how much the others do). That also suggests deficiencies to me. They are fed second-cut hay, no alfalfa, but calcium or iron are possibilities in our well water.

    We will keep working on it, and investigating the potential causes. Thank you for all of your help, I will let you know how she's doing.

  • I'm so sorry to hear that your friend was waiting to get approved. I have someone who helps me with the group by approving new members so that I just have to respond to questions. But if I knew someone had an urgent issue, I could easily approve her. Please don't hesitate to let me know in the future if someone needs access right away.

    I'm sorry I didn't mention the possibility of external parasites. I assumed the vet would have tested for that, as you need a skin scraping for mites diagnosis. NuStock is good stuff. My daughter used it on her dog, but I'm not sure about all of the ingredients, if a doe is milking. I think you said that this one is dry, but just for anyone who might be reading this in the future.

  • Hi Julia,

    Thank you so very much for this information as well.  My friend is still waiting for her membership to the group to be approved but she is keeping an eye on this thread.  She will find this so very useful.  Thank you for the tip on the neem as well, I have used that on our pigs but never thought of using it on the goats.  So that is great that you have had good success with that. Again thank you so much.

    Sally

    Julia M Willams said:

    Hi Sally, I had the same type of thing happen this winter here's my experience with it...

    My doe -3 year old mini alpine- was losing hair on her nose and around her eyes. I gave her a copper bolus (I give her one every 3 to 5 months) it helped a little but then she started losing big patches like crazy in December.

    It was about 20 degrees out with snow, Her skin was dry and flakey so I figured it could be either zinc deficiency or mange. None of my other does were losing hair and I was really worried about her in the cold, so I began searching for remedies online. I found a product called Pierce's All Purpose Nu-Stock.  I ordered some and applied it to the bare patches; within days she started growing new hair. She grew her whole coat back in 2 weeks, which is now thick and glossy. I highly recommend this product. :)

    P.S I've also used Organic Neem oil which helped with her dry skin and itching. Neem has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, so if your friend's doe has mites or mange it might help. I hope this is helpful.

  • Hi Sally, I had the same type of thing happen this winter here's my experience with it...

    My doe -3 year old mini alpine- was losing hair on her nose and around her eyes. I gave her a copper bolus (I give her one every 3 to 5 months) it helped a little but then she started losing big patches like crazy in December.

    It was about 20 degrees out with snow, Her skin was dry and flakey so I figured it could be either zinc deficiency or mange. None of my other does were losing hair and I was really worried about her in the cold, so I began searching for remedies online. I found a product called Pierce's All Purpose Nu-Stock.  I ordered some and applied it to the bare patches; within days she started growing new hair. She grew her whole coat back in 2 weeks, which is now thick and glossy. I highly recommend this product. :)

    P.S I've also used Organic Neem oil which helped with her dry skin and itching. Neem has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, so if your friend's doe has mites or mange it might help. I hope this is helpful.

  • Vets are like human doctors -- most know nothing about nutrition. It's very sad. I know the professors at the Illinois vet school pretty well because I've been going there for about 15 years, and they don't know much about nutrition. They're into things like surgery and disease, which are obviously important, but it's frustrating that they know so little about nutrition. I had to figure out most of this myself by reading research in animal science journals, as well as Nutrient Requirements in Small Ruminants. I will give credit to a resident who diagnosed my bucks with zinc deficiency. It is kind of frustrating though that I thought I had that problem a few weeks earlier and a vet professor told me no, because my does were fine. Argh! Milking does need that calcium in alfalfa; bucks and dry does do not. It should be obvious that bucks and does have different nutritional needs. So, kudos to wherever that resident went to vet school.

    Most mixed minerals have a 2 to 1 calcium to phosphorus ratio, so that would actually just make a zinc deficiency worse in a dry doe that was eating alfalfa. She needs LESS calcium. Eliminating the alfalfa is the easiest way to fix it. My bucks go through this almost every winter because I can't get very good grass hay in my area. I do feed them Standlee Timothy hay pellets, but they also need some long-stemmed hay to keep their rumen working. I ran out of pellets a couple of weeks ago and really should have bought more, but I figured we were so close to spring that it would be okay. When we did our buck spa day this weekend, I noticed one of them had foam at the corners of his mouth, and he had lost a big patch of hair on his shoulders under his mane. I didn't notice that until I was checking his body condition.

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