Flakey & Dry Skin - Flaky & Dry Skin

[tinkerbell]

My Heifer has very flakey and dry skin. Does anyone know how to control or cure this?!

Im planning on showing her this season, however she doesnt look too attractive atm!!

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Hello Tinkerbell,

first thing to check is for any visible external parasites, lice are very common and usually easiest to see along the back line - moving with legs in a mongst the flakey bits. They will often be more or less all over the animal. Mange mites are not so common but are more likely to cause definite patches with the rest of the skin being normal.

It may be none of these scary things and just the coat changing at this time of year.

If you are going to worm her have a word with your vet about products that would kill both worms and external parasites - ivermectin, doramectin etc. If you only have one or two cattle your vet may be able to dispense small amounts of such things so you don't have to buy much more than you can use.

Duncan

[tinkerbell]

Heya Duncan,

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply I have been very busy sorting out my small growing herd of dexters and preparing for shows!

She did not have any visible external parasites or lice. I called teh vet up to look at her as i seen that another one of heifers has flakey skin too! The vet took scrapings and hair to looked under the microscope, she saw no signs of anything so we treated them all for mange, which seemed to the problem.

The 'mange' has cleared up now and she went into the show ring Monday and i think she turned out really well with no signs of flakey skin!!

Mnay Thanks