Mange? Rubbing? Stress? Pregnancy? Sister? Hair loss!

glidergurl03 · #1 03/28/06, 02:41 AM

Yesterday, Harriett, one of my Nigerians, was fine. Starting to blow her undercoat, so little white fuzzballs all over her...No biggy, all the goats are starting to do it. Now today, I look at her, and she's BALD! Well, not completely, but most of her hair on her neck is gone. I lice powdered her immediately, her and her sister who are together right now. They're both still pregnant...And I noticed Lila (Harrietts sister) was pulling fur off her. And, her skin is flakey. So is it just from the dry weather and dry skin? Possibly mange? Lice? Stress from being out of the barn (She was in the barn w/ the other goats who have babies because it was the only pen she couldn't get out of, but my mom bought a llama and so put Harriett back out in the outside pen)? Stress from being preggers? Hormones? Anyone have any insight? Time to powder everyone? I wanted to wait til everyone had babies weaned off, but I guess I'll have to do it now. Any advice on how to powder the sheep before shearing? Maybe a bath would help Harriett? It's still rather cold here at night, and not REAL warm during the day (40s).

glidergurl03 · #2 03/28/06, 02:52 AM

Also read that a vitamin deffincy can also be the cause...Is there vitamins I can add to the water or? Besides mineral blocks.

moosemaniac · #3 03/28/06, 07:13 AM

Mine were doing that too. I started to powder them with a lice treatment. It seems to have done the trick. A lot of dry skin came off with the hair, but they're filling back in nicely.

Ruth

glidergurl03 · #4 03/28/06, 07:36 AM

*whew* How often did you do the lice treatment? Just once or once a week or ? I hope that's all it is...I did her sister...Is it safe for lactating mommas? I don't wanna hurt my babies.

Laura Workman · #5 03/28/06, 09:51 AM

Just so you know, if your girls are lactating heavily, they may be a little slow to grow coat back in. I had one who shed, then refused to grow ANY replacement coat until I quit milking her. She was feeding triplets on the "kids eat during the day, separate at night, milk in the morning" schedule. Once I stopped milking in the morning, her coat started to come back in.

moosemaniac · #6 03/28/06, 10:47 AM

I powdered my girls daily for a couple of days. I waited until after I milked and there wasn't any problem at all.

Ruth