Unwanted Spots

We had an outbreak of ringworm in the main herd.

A few spots started to show up early in the summer and many of the cows began to lose hair in circular patterns scattered around their body but really noticeable on their necks and faces (typically because they scratched on a branch, log or edge of barn where a cow that was infected had just scratched).

WebMd states it clearly

Ringworm isn’t a worm. It’s a skin infection that’s caused by moldlike fungi that live on the dead tissues of your skin, hair, and nails. You can get it in any of these places — and on your scalp.

When you get it between your toes, it’s what people call athlete’s foot. If it spreads to your groin, it’s known as jock itch.

Luckily, ringworm is one of those issues that tend to clear up by itself during the summertime. Ringworm does not like the sun and the herd should clear up without intervention but it takes time. But we do not like to wait as long as nature takes with the issue so we spritz spots with anti-fungal sprays when we get close enough to the critters to do so.

Black cattle show the problem easily since they lose their hair in the patches of infection and the herd looks polka-dotted.

A simple over the counter spray, just like the stuff for humans, works perfectly fine on bovines. The white spots hang around for a month or more until new hair grows back in where it had fallen out during the infection stage. Hopefully within a short time we will no longer have bi-colored cattle.