Odd bald spot in coat??? help

[azgrower]

Hi,

I have a spring calf here, steer, angus, and in a matter of a couple days he has developed a "bald" spot on the side of his neck. It almost looks like a really close shave, but no one has shaved him. It's about the size of a credit card. It doesn't seem like he rubbed up against something, just because it's completely bald, no patchy. I'm starting to think maybe it's some kind of parasite or disease. No evidence of any ring worm shape/color yet. Any ideas?

 

[showsteerdlux]

Could be lice. A good deworming could help things. Just to be safe I would maybe still put some fungus fighter on there in case its ringworm coming.

 

[Diamond]

sounds like lice

 

[renegade]

That happened to a steer of my friends. It wound up being biting lice.

 

[knabe]

does the lice affect horses too?

my horse had bumps and my neighbor said to just worm her and the cattle and it would clear it up.

 

[Simmymom1]

This is so odd because my daughter's show steer has the same thing, except he has about 4 patches of missing hair.  We also thought it was lice so we did the pour on stuff about a week ago, and it is says to do it again in 2 weeks.  We just wormed him about a month ago so I don't think that is an issue.  It does not look like the hair is wanting to grow back, I too am wondering if I should buy an anti fungal type of medicine to put on it??  He seems to be irritated, I wonder if the pour on lice stuff is strong enough or should I have used a powder??  Sometimes I wish animals could talk and tell us what the problem is.    (cow)

 

[showsteerdlux]

Id try fungus fighter from sullivans.

 

[renegade]

Yes horses get lice too. The horses would get it sometimes with all the trees in missouri and we would use idodine shampoo and coconut conditioner on the horses and it would kill them.

One of my steers was really infested and i didnt know it until about three weeks after i got him home cause the first week i let him settle, the second and third i was working on leading him and once he let me get close to him without freaking i started petting him and he was really itchy and about the same time he started loseing patches of hair (and he fell at the same time poor guy) so i looked him over and didnt see but maybe 2 on the face but the shoulders back were pretty bad. I went and bought cylence, you dont have to mix it or anything, just measure and pour. After about a week the lice were dead and then two weeks later i put it on again to kill the ones that had hatched from the nits (thats what the package said to do). I has worked really well. I started putting the baby oil from walmart on him (buy the kind that says it has aloe and vitamin E) and after about 4 weeks the patches he had rubbed off are looking A LOT better ( he doesnt look diseases any more). I could only put it on once a day cause i was at school so if you do it twice a day it may work a little quicker. I researched it and it said that it happens in colder weather cause its cooler and they have longer hair. It said high energy feeds and grooming help get rid of the lice and that vitiamin e and the minerals and stuff in soybeans and veggie oil help hair grow. I have vitamin e in the baby oil and soybean in my feed and a little veggie oil on the top so maybe thats why it has been growing back so fast

What was weird is that the calf that has been with him since i brought them home (came from diffrent places but came home on the same day) has never had one single bug on him but i have treated him at the same time as the other calf.  The package said that up to 48 hours calves can get this "skin condition" where they are irratable and stuff but i never had that problem.

 

[azgrower]

Well heres an update,

I inspected it further and it seems to be more of a fungal thing. There were white spots in his hair, but they werent moving, and seemed to be flaky and all different sizes. So I went and got some fungicide, rubbed that on him and in the hair around it, we'll see how it goes. Show is in 3 months, so no worries, I just hope it's not lice and have to hunt them down.

Renegade,

Were the lice visibly moving, what size were they?

 

[showsteerdlux]

Don't worry about chasing the lice down. Just deworm him anyways because it wont hurt anything IMO. Just watch withdrawal dates.

 

[renegade]

I dont think they were moving alot they just stuck like strait up but it was easy for me to see them on him cause hes super white