Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:24 am**

Hi I brought my cattle in four weeks ago, after they were paddeling about in mud and rain through nearly all of January.
anyway after they have been in for about 2 weeks I noticed small patches of greyish dry skin. A farmer friend confirmed ringworm. the cvattle are housed in a good airey pole barn and well bedded up keeping them dry. has any one got any cheap remadies to treat the above, What a start to the new year with all the bad wet weather and now this hope someone has some good ideas.
Nigel

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:48 am**

A cheap remedy in the short term may not be the answer. Depending on the history of the cattle and the shed the rervoir of infection could be with either. The important thing is to use something really effective soon before too many ringworm spores get into the wood in your shed. Currently I am prescribing Mycophyt which is a spray on antifungal antibiotic. You may need to treat the wood as well if there is significant amount of wood in the pens. Creosote would do the wood but not the cattle.
Make a good job of the treatment now and you may have a lot less bother next year.

Duncan

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:53 am**

Hi Duncan I was told a cheap remady is cresote and old engine oil brushed on the effected areas. the building a new but has been built using telgraph poles that are allready creosoted.

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:03 am**

Hi Duncan I was told a cheap remady is cresote and old engine oil brushed on the effected areas. the building a new but has been built using telgraph poles that are allready creosoted.

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:49 am**

Creosote is not allowed to be used now by the general public due to it's carcinogenic properties. Licence to use was revoked 2003 and all stores of it had to be disposed of by 2004.
I don't worry too much about ringworm, unless the animal is not thriving. I have not had much success with sprays and washes. I wait for it to go away, it usually does in the summer, the fungus doesn't like sunshine. That is the cheapest option!
We used to be able to use an antifungal agent in the feed called "Fulcin" which really worked. I understand it is licensed for horses [and humans] but not for cattle. EU regs again. If you have a "Dexter pony" your vet might let you have some but he can't prescribe Fulcin for cattle!
Never use fulcin on pregnant females or those you are going to eat!
The main thing is to be careful that you don't catch it yourself so avoid direct contact with the lesions.
Make sure your cattle are receiving a nutritionally sound diet -feed blocks such as Crystalyx are useful for this - they will ensure your cattle are getting the correct minerals and vitamins and help their immune systems to fight disease.

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:56 pm**

Speak to your vet, who can solve your problem. We sprayed our buildings in 2003 and have had no further ringworm cases.

Alison Kirk
Boram Dexters

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:57 pm**

Our problem is that our tenants have a large quantity of cattle, some of which are currently housed next to ours and plastered in ringworm. Having tactfully, or possibly tactlessly mentioned their problem in the autumn there isn't much else we can do about that side of it!

Now unsurprisingly ours are getting patches of ringworm and it is a problem because they run out every day in the field next to our horses and the one young horse is very fond of them, so we are going to have to do something about it!!!

Stephanie

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:25 pm**

Saffy - As tenants I'm sure they should seriously look at the welfare of their animals. The ringworm I think may disappear during the hot summer weather on its own, but we're still in February and their animals are contaminating the buildings and will be getting worse if the condition is not treated.

We're tenants and have a duty of care to keep our stock in good health (which we do in any case). I'm sure our landlords would be unhappy if we were not doing something about ringworm or any other disease.

Your tenant could purchase some in-feed powder from his vet & then after turnout use a spray to cleanse the building, so that it is all clear next year. The spray we used, from what I can remember, wasn't too expensive, but well worth using.

I know some farmers don't bother to treat ringworm, that's okay and their own choice if they own the farm, but as tenants and with other people's livestock in close vicinity, they have a duty of care to ensure any diseases are treated and the correct course of action.

Hope this helps.

Alison Kirk

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:53 pm**

Thanks Alison I have spoken to them previously and they promised to put zinc in the feed a couple of months ago but I would have preffered a remedy, so they consider they have gone the extra mile.

I am not totally happy with the way they keep and handle their stock but they just and only just keep within limits, it has come very, very close once or twice.

In the days when tenants were queuing up to take on a chunk of land it was easier to be firm as if they didn't like it, changing to better tenants was an option. At the moment around here, it is probably not. So I am treading carefully but I have options as thier tenancy comes up next month. I would rather not take it all back in hand if I can avoid it.

Thanks for the advice I will look in to it.

Stephanie

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:38 pm**

Hi I wonder if anyone can advise as the steers and our bull calf we have been outwintering (so no buildings to clean) this year have all had ringworm and the only advice we have received is don't worry it will go away when the sun shines. No other animals in the neighbouring field just lots of mud.
By the way what's the stuff called you spray the barn with as we will do that at turnout.

Edited By carole on 1202755396

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:00 pm**

hi,
we use a homeapathic remedy which on the whole we find very sucessfull. It can be added to their water or for smaller calves a10ml drench. It costs about £20 for 250ml bottle enough for 25 cattle. It is supplied by Blue Merle tel. 01538 703810 email info@bluemerle.co.uk I believe you can get a vaccine for it now but I don't know what the cost would be or how effective it is. The homeapathic remedy works for most ringworm cases but there are many strains and if you found it didnt work you would need to send a skin sample so they can make one up to suit yours -you could send a sample first of course but up to now we have found no need to do this.

Posted: **Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:02 am**

We've just let ours get it and then it clears up. They haven't ever had it twice, does that happen? We don't have much wood around. Our sheds are all brick, steel and concrete.

Posted: **Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:56 am**

Saffy - You need to ask your vet for VIRKON (from what I remember it wasn't too expensive) and it was painted on, not sprayed. We have successfully used powder in feed to treat young stock.

I think whether you treat or not depends on your circumstances .... some of our Dexters graze grassland surrounded by wooden fencing, and they are there to keep the grassland under control, which is grazed by polo pony brood mares, so we can't let ringworm go untreated.

It is probably more of a 'childhood' disease in cattle and once infected they become immune - I'm not 100% sure about that, but from Clive's comments it could be right.

Alison Kirk
Boram Dexters

Posted: **Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:41 pm**

A few years ago when we had it I used a homeopathic remedy in the water (which Duncan was highly critical of, I think you must have slipped that on when he was asleep, Monica) it went with the better weather and we are very seldom bothered with it now. It seems to me that it is a case of newcomers getting it, but having had it once it doesn't seem to return. So maybe immunity does play a part.

Ringworm, of course, shouldn't be confused with hair loss at this time of year caused by rubbing necks on feeders and the like.

As for tenants/having animals on tack, things have changed considerably from when the landowner could enforce rules. Now, in my recent experience, owners are pretty much held to ransome and expected to pick up all the bills for fence and field repairs and lucky to get paid. That's how we came to have our own sheep and cattle.

Posted: **Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:40 pm**

Hi - We had ringworm (or rather our cattle did!) a couple of winters ago, and we had them 'charmed'. It worked!! Within a week the heiffer who only had it slightly had new hair growth, whilst the other heiffer took a couple of weeks, but you could see the new growth within 10 days. We haven't had it since. Our vet said it would have gone even if we'd left it alone??!!