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Ringworm

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Nicky

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Does anyone have any ringworm 'cures'? We have a cow who gets it over a large amount of her body. Had another one and sold her this fall. Both of them (not related) started with just a small patch and it gets bigger every year.
 
Nicky said:
Does anyone have any ringworm 'cures'? We have a cow who gets it over a large amount of her body. Had another one and sold her this fall. Both of them (not related) started with just a small patch and it gets bigger every year.

Feed Vit. A (30,000 IU's should work,) check into your mineral program, and maybe add some zinc. We had ringworm in our bulls--started feeding a chelated mineral with higher levels of Vit. A and no problems. Vit. A is the key...

Hope this helps...

TTB
 
Iodine on the ringworm will kill it, no matter what animal or kid the ringworm is on. Just be dang sure that you don't use the stronger "cow iodine" on the kid or his skin will peel right off!! We cured the whole Harding County wrestling team with the stuff one year and when we ran out of the people iodine, one of the ranch kids brought in the strong stuff. Cured them even faster, but the ringworm looked like you'd held a cigarette on it... except that it was bright orange.
 
Ringworm is the same fungus that causes athletes foot, several years ago we had several cows that had ringworm, I asked the vet what to do, his advice was bath them in 50/50 bleach water or an iodine bath, once a day for seven continuous days. that's NOT feasible there were too many. I asked around at the feed stores also, basically got the same advice. Instead of doin that, I did some research on ringworm, found it to be the same fungus as athletes foot, so I went and got some athlete's foot spray (several cans, the woman at the check out stand thought I was nuts) But anyway, we ran them in the chute, and I sprayed the spots where the ring worm was, sprayed it really heavy and got it good and wet. One treatment, they were gone in about a week. cheapest cure I've ever found 1.97 for a can of spray. Bleach and water, and the iodine is all fairly cheap stuff, but the bathing daily for 7 days I just could not see doin.
 
Nicky said:
Does anyone have any ringworm 'cures'? We have a cow who gets it over a large amount of her body. Had another one and sold her this fall. Both of them (not related) started with just a small patch and it gets bigger every year.

Sunlight......
 
You know I always thought the sunlight would do it until the first cow got it. We have alot of sunlight in the winter here so I don't think that always does it. :?

Our mineral has Vit A and plenty of zinc in it.

Pretty sure we tried Iodine on the first cow, cause that's what I had always used before.

Think I'll try the Jersey Lilly cure.

Keep the suggestions coming :) :p
 
As OT said, sunlight will do it. Even though you may have plenty of sunlight, its not intense enough in the winter to take care of ringworm.

An old-time, 1 shot sure is to run them through and grease the spots. Make sure the grease isn't lead based. It prevents oxygen from getting to the fungus and it dies out in about 3 days. Make sure you wear rubber gloves and don't touch your own skin. From experience, that crap is hard to get rid of (I scratched my belly under the belt line. Took 6 weeks of sprays and cremes :( )

Thanks for the idea, Jersey. Handling the grease was a pain. I'll give the athletes foot spray a shot this weekend. I've got several critters with ringworm after I laid out a musty barley straw bale.

Rod
 
Liberty Belle said:
Iodine on the ringworm will kill it, no matter what animal or kid the ringworm is on. Just be dang sure that you don't use the stronger "cow iodine" on the kid or his skin will peel right off!! We cured the whole Harding County wrestling team with the stuff one year and when we ran out of the people iodine, one of the ranch kids brought in the strong stuff. Cured them even faster, but the ringworm looked like you'd held a cigarette on it... except that it was bright orange.

Liberty Belle- I will vouch for it working...When I was in High school playing football I got a rash under my armpits from the shoulder pads--Doctors tried everything including a sunlamp- nothing worked...

Got so bad it would rub raw and bleed...

My Dad said he could cure it - put some cow iodine on it- I screamed and yelled and jumped around for about an hour flapping my arms like a butchered chicken--But it flat cured it and it never came back.....
 
Prevention~Getting their immune system up to parr so they can fight it off on their own is the best. We don't have the problem any more, but we sure used to.

Jersey Lilly's idea sounds the most workable after they have gotten it. I had never thought of that when we had the problem.
 
It's not a very big can of spray, ......blame it on the woman in me, and the hairspray I've used for the past 20+ years. ya put yer hand cupped over their eye, and git after it. but more ringworm was on their shoulders than on their heads.
 
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
blame it on the woman in me, and the hairspray I've used for the past 20+ years. ya put yer hand cupped over their eye, and git after it.

:lol: Maybe I'll get my wife to handle around the eyes. I was thinking of cupping the eyes, but had visions of a calf yanking his head away at the last minute. So not only would I be shipping some earless calves, they'd be blind too :lol:

What a year.

Rod
 
Come to think of it, I haven't seen any ringworm around here in a long while, but when it would show up in the feeder calves that were in the yard or in the barn, I would pour a bit of used motor oil on a burlap sack and nail it to a fence post. The cattle would rub on it and it seemed to clear up the ringworm.

Just coincidence? I dunno, but it seemed to work.
 
Maple Leaf Angus said:
Come to think of it, I haven't seen any ringworm around here in a long while, but when it would show up in the feeder calves that were in the yard or in the barn, I would pour a bit of used motor oil on a burlap sack and nail it to a fence post. The cattle would rub on it and it seemed to clear up the ringworm.

Just coincidence? I dunno, but it seemed to work.
That same thing worked for me. It must be a vitamin deficiency because some years its there and then you never see it for a long time.
 
In my case, it was a case of stupidity. Ringworm can come from musty bales. Barley straw thats baled damp seems to be the worst. I baled some barley straw tough a couple years ago, and the first bale I tossed into the herd, I noticed ringworm on the cows almost immediately. So I marked that stack as unusable until I had a chance to dispose of them.

This year, I rolled into the stack without even thinking about, hoping to use up some of last years bales. After I dropped the bale into the pen, the strings snapped and the bale pretty much exploded and a cloud of white powder hit the air. I knew right away what I'd done, but 7 or 8 calves had barreled right into it. I scooped up what I could with the tractor, but the damage was done. Within a few days, the calves started showing ringworm.

Thanks for the burlap sack idea. I never thought of that. Motor oil is also supposed to coat and kill.

Rod
 
Cattle
Trichophyton verrucosum is the usual cause of ringworm in cattle, but T mentagrophytes , T equinum , Microsporum gypseum , M nanum , M canis , and others have been isolated from some cases. Dermatophytosis is most commonly recognized in calves, in which nonpruritic periocular lesions are most characteristic, although generalized skin disease may develop. Cows and heifers are reported to develop lesions on the chest and limbs most often, and bulls in the dewlap and intermaxillary skin. Lesions are characteristically discrete, scaling patches of hair loss with gray-white crust formation, but some become thickly crusted with suppuration. Ringworm as a herd health problem is more common in the winter and is more commonly recognized in temperate climates and in English rather than zebu breeds of cattle.
Many topical treatments have been reported to be successful in cattle, but because spontaneous recovery is common, claims of efficacy are difficult to substantiate. However, valuable individual animals should still be treated because this may well limit the progression of existing lesions and spread to others in the herd. Thick crusts should be removed gently with a brush, and the material burned or disinfected with hypochlorite solution. Treatment options depend on the limitations on the use of some agents in animals meant for slaughter. Agents reported to be of use include washes or sprays of 4% lime sulfur, 0.5% sodium hypochlorite (1:10 household bleach), 0.5% chlorhexidine, 1% povidone-iodine, captan (1:300), natamycin, and enilconazole. Individual lesions can be treated with miconazole or clotrimazole lotions. An attenuated fungal vaccine is in use in some European countries; it prevents development of severe clinical lesions and also has greatly reduced the incidence of zoonotic disease in animal care workers. Unfortunately, vaccinated animals shed fungal spores for a time after vaccination. No live vaccine is available in North America.

Iodine has always worked - just make sure that if you have a quarter size spot you paint a half dollor size spot - - strong Cattle iodine can be cut and a whole area can be washed
 

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