Angus with missing hair

[sawyer]

I have about 50 head of black angus cows. I have never had a problem like this before in recent years. This year about a week and a half ago I noticed a few cows with some bare spots in their hair on their shoulders. I didn't think much about it except maybe it was from eating in the feeder wagons. Now there's about 10 cows or so that have bare spots on their shoulders about 8 to 10 inches across. I've seen them rubbing on the fence a lot more recently and there's a lot of fur stuck on the barbs. I think it might be lice but I'm not sure. What do you guys think it could be?

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

Tagging some people that may be able to help!
@Bossroo @WildRoseBeef @GLENMAR
Hope your cows get better soon!

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

And Welcome to BYH!!

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings @sawyer from the front range in Colorado Welcome to BYH! Sorry your cows are having hair loss issues. That doesn't look good. Have you been able to get up close and look along the hair loss edge area to see if there are eggs or lice there? A couple other folks that might could help you are @jhm47 or @greybeard Hope you figure it out and get it taken care of.

 

[cjc]

It could be a bug but I have faced this problem before in my herd as well as our horse. We live in British Columbia so we have a lot of rain. If the cows are constantly wet and not able to dry off, lots of rain, snow, constant cold temperatures they can actually start losing patches of hair like this. I currently have this problem in with our bull. The weather has been drying up lately and it has been improving. With a horse we of course just provide them with a water proof blanket and problem solved, cows of course not so easy. I have no idea if this could be your problem but I have a similar issue and that is what mine is @WildRoseBeef will likely have a more thorough answer for you good luck.

 

[Goatgirl47]

This may help.

 

[sawyer]

It could be a bug but I have faced this problem before in my herd as well as our horse. We live in British Columbia so we have a lot of rain. If the cows are constantly wet and not able to dry off, lots of rain, snow, constant cold temperatures they can actually start losing patches of hair like this. I currently have this problem in with our bull. The weather has been drying up lately and it has been improving. With a horse we of course just provide them with a water proof blanket and problem solved, cows of course not so easy. I have no idea if this could be your problem but I have a similar issue and that is what mine is @WildRoseBeef will likely have a more thorough answer for you good luck.

 

[sawyer]

This makes a lot of sense. This winter was very unusual up here in northern Wisconsin. A lot of rain and wet snows and warmer weather. We didn't get below zero until almost end of December for only a day or so. Now it's been single digits during the day. I haven't seen any eggs or lice but they are scratching a lot. Maybe that's from the warmer weather earlier and now the cold and they're scratching the rotted hair off??

 

[cjc]

Yes it could very well be itchy as most funguses are because that is what the "rain rot" is. This may be an obvious but do you see poop on the fences? Cows scratch from worms but I am not sure what your cows face in your area. Our cows get very itchy when they have worms but that's mainly in their rears, which is why you will see poop on the fences. We have never treated this hair loss issue when we know its from the rain....it has always corrected itself once spring shows.

 

[sawyer]

Yes there are a few that have some hair missing around the base of their tail and hips. And there is poop on the fences