Goat skin disease

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I have a 4 year old doe who has been constantly itching her body severely and parts of her body hair is gone. I put ointment on her scratching wounds but with no success. I will appreciate your advice.

-- Gowsia Hyder (hyder@dominox.com), March 21, 2002

Answers

Hi, Have you treated her for lice or mites? She could possibly have skin mites. They burrow in their skin and make them itch, results can be hair loss. There are several pour on medications you can use to get rid of this. Ivomec injected under the skin also works.

-- Barbara (vozarbi@sensible-net.com), March 21, 2002.

It is very common for goats to have mites and/or lice. There are two kinds - biting and sucking. You can use Ivomec injectable which worms the goat as well as killing the sucking type of bug. We use a powder called Co-Ral for the other types of bug. You apply the powder to the back along the backbone, starting at the tail, and ruffling the hair back with your other (gloved) hand as you shake the powder on. Proceed up the backbone to the top of the head, but don't get the powder in the goat's eyes. The powder is supposed to sift on down the sides of the goat by itself, but I've been known to apply it along the sides if there is a real problem, such as you seem to have. It would be a good idea to give two treatments one week to ten days apart so as to kill the bugs from eggs that will hatch after the first treatment. Also, it is a good idea to add this to your goat care regime, as it happens sometimes yearly.

-- Dianne Wood (woodgoat@pacifier.com), March 21, 2002.

Don't forget to treat the environment as well, or she'll just get re- infected. Spray anywhere you think she's been using as a "scratching post", and anywhere she's bedded down regularly. If you can move her to a different yard or pen or paddock or field or whatever for a while, that would be prudent as well.

Then watch her carefully. She may very well get re-infected anyway, but if you keep on top of it you'll get the situation under control.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), March 21, 2002.


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