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David · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Co. Clare

Hi there

I have 2 goats that have patches (roughly 6" square) that look a bit bare...the long hair is gone, just the downy undercoat is left. They don't seem at all bothered, and are not scratching...any ideas? I've had a good look and can't see any lice.

Also i'm thinking of worming them...our vet is great but doesn't know about goats...so she's not sure which wormer to use. Anyone use ivomectin? From what I've read it looks OK, and will take care of exo-parasites as well (maybe it'll cure the bare patches!)

Any help would be welcome

Cheers

David

admin · Site Admin Joined: 13 Dec 2006 Posts: 227

Hi , David , where are the patches ? Could they just be the result of rubbing on something ? ( How are they confined ? )
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wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

Can you see the skin clearly? Any sign of red marks or lines etc?
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steve · Joined: 23 Feb 2007 Posts: 17 Location: leitrim

Ivomec is very strong, there will be a withdrawl period on the milk /meat after use, follow this, be carefull injecting, ive gone right through the skin, and out again and injected myself before, it does kill everything, including earth worms with the crap, there are probobally more mild ways of dealing with this, dont write off garlic and moving to clean pasture,
Steve

bernie · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 22 Location: Tasmania

Hi David,

I would have to agee with Steve about the Ivomec/Ivermectin - it's a particularly harsh chemical cocktail.

In the past, when one or other of our goats has been scouring from worms I've used Panacur 25 - main constituent is fenbendazole, not sure what the brand/trade name would be in Ireland. With that there is a 24 hour witholding on milk and 14 day on meat.

Pasture rotation definitely helps; garlic is a great supplement for all the livestock and we are now trying out a supplement made from copper sulphate, sulphur, dolomite and seaweed meal. It's based on Pat Coleby's goat lick - from her book "Natural Goat and Alpaca Care". It's worth getting hold of if you can as it has a wealth of information in it specific to goats rather than sheep.

Bernie

Jack · Joined: 04 Mar 2007 Posts: 71 Location: North Otago

Gidday

When I was a young joker the only drenches we had were copper sulphate, (now that is bloody harsh), nicotine and another chemical called phenothizine which I haven't heard of for years even though it never was proven not to work or cause resistance.
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blowin · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:33 am Post subject:

Jack · Joined: 04 Mar 2007 Posts: 71 Location: North Otago

Gidday

You said you heard copper was death to sheep, well not enough is also death to sheep....cattle...and you too.

Like so many things, you must have something that if you get too much of it will kill you.
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Jack
QBE

David · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Co. Clare

OK, we solved the problem of the baldy goats...I think it was ringworm, based on google image searches.

Vet prescribed some anti-fungal that looked completely toxic, didn't much fancy that so we did some digging for more "natural" solutions.

Got on internet, found loads of people in the states swearing by apple cider vinegar for ringworm in animals... unlikely that a constituent of apple was helping -more likely to be the acidity of the vinegar. So on that basis, we rubbed the affected areas with cheap malt vinegar for a week. Goats smelled a bit like chips, but didn't seem to mind, and the skin problem has cleared up!

D

wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

Nasty stuff ring worm. Can effect humans too. Many years ago our cattle got it bad. Glad to hear that you got it sorted ok.

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