newborn with skin issues - she's gone

[peachick]

I hesitate going public with this. (because often people on forums prefer finding fault over offering support... most of you know what I mean)
But I have expired all of my resources. Even the Vet is turning to Cornell university for answers. We are doing a biopsy today
I figured Id post this for you all.. It is quite interesting, and none of my goat breeder friends have ever heard of, nor seen anything like this.

I acquired a day old black baby goat born 11/17. When I got her the tissue around her mouth and chin was hard and she had a lot of white ick stuck to her coat and on her legs. I dismissed it as the colostrum that the breeder gave her.... thinking that getting it into her was a struggle and it made a mess all over her. But She also had thin hair around her eyes, and her ears were thick, and the inside was crusty.

Now she is 12 days old. We have tried everything, to clear it up with no luck. We have ruled out every possible cause we can think of. She has been on several different medications, supplements, baths, sprays, and ointments.

The hard tissue around her mouth has now pealed off leaving bald white skin underneath, she has more hair loss around her eyes and one eye is now cloudy. Her ears dont feel thick and heavy anymore but they are still crusty, The white ick that is stuck to her skin is dry and flakey, as well as having hair loss in the heavier areas.... The crustyness on her skin resembles a baby with cradle cap.

She does not itch. She does not have a fevor. She does not have wounds, scabs, blisters, or any oozing. She eats like a fool and is growing and gaining weight. Pooh and pee is normal. Activity level is slow. She just has this nasty crusty skin... and now, a cloudy eye Vet will be here today to get some skin samples to send off to Cornel.... think I'll be sending the breeder the bill.

I will keep you guys posted on this.


DSC_0032 by S!GNATURE, on Flickr


DSC_0018 by S!GNATURE, on Flickr

 

[Ms. Research]

So sorry to hear about Black Betty. Such a sweetie. Hope you get some clue on what it is. Will keep looking to see any updates. Hopefully someone can give you a clue on what's really going on and a simple resolution can be found. Hopefully just a external issue, not internal.

K

 

[20kidsonhill]

rain rot has been bad in virginia this year, my guess would be some kind of fungus. half my herd had crusty ears a couple months ago. Although they were all adults.

do you know the kids history?



We had a doe years ago that had some kind of weird skin fungus thing going on, very thick and very crusty, and when she kidded both her kids got it, with in days. We were unable to clear it up, and because we were afraid it would spread to the rest of the herd we had all of them put down. It pretty much covered the adult does belly and creases in her legs between her belly and her legs. and then was spreading from there. None of the other goats in the herd ever got it. It looked like the worst case of ringworm you ever saw.

 

[ksalvagno]

Have you tried Camelid Skin Mix? I would buy the stuff from Light Livestock Supply since that also includes an antifungal. There is a recipe online but isn't quite the same.

I wonder if she is having problems absorbing nutrients or something. I hope you can figure it out. Good luck with her.

 

[Roll farms]

Have you seen the dam lately? I'm thinking this had to be something that started in utero if she was 'born this way'...
Has the breeder got any idea / input / etc?

I have absolutely no idea of anything helpful to add, but I want to thank you for sharing....experiences like this that we can all learn from are exactly how we grow.
Please do keep us posted and I sure hope the vet / Cornell / you get her straightened out.

 

[peachick]

I saw the dam when I picked up the baby. She was young but appeared healthy... I didnt examine her though.

I also think that this babys condition is congenital, and not something she came in contact with like mange or ringworm. At 1 day old she was too young to be covered in a bacterial or viral skin infection. I am hoping it is caused by a copper or zink deficiency from the dam... even thyroid perhaps. And that this is something that can be turned around.

The fungal issue in Virginia... well this baby did come from VA and i know the goat yard was in pretty bad shape.... I am spraying (soaking) the baby daily with an anti microbial treatment (for the past 2-3 days)

I have the baby in the house with another myotonic baby of the same age. Developmentally the white baby is WAY ahead of this black girl. The black girl is much less animated, although I do occasionally see her act frisky... but not near as much as I should. I have not seen any crustyness depeloping on the white baby. and I have been very careful to wash my hands after handling the black baby. They have had no contact with my other goats.

Leaving to meet the vet in 15 minutes... wish me luck

 

[daisychick]

I am NO EXPERT, but I will put out a long shot. Could it be a Thyroid issue or iodine type issue?? I know dogs are a different species....but my dog had a thyroid issue and started getting hard crusty skin and peeling skin and was slow moving etc.... Once we got her on thyroid medication it cleared up. Just a thought. I have no idea if this is something that can give goats skin problems.

Check out this link I found, maybe it will help. Towards the middle of the page.
http://kinne.net/hairloss.htm

 

[cmjust0]

I have no clue about the skin thing, but if I had to guess, I'd guess it to be the result of some kind of deficiency in the dam during pregnancy.. What caught my attention here was the cloudy eye, and only because I think it's unrelated.. If it wasn't, I'd think it would be *both* eyes since, like you said, this condition doesn't seem to be anything she caught..

Check to make sure you can see all her top and bottom eyelashes in the cloudy eye.. They can develop a condition called "entropion" which is where edge of one (or both) of their eyelids are turned inward.. It's not super common, but not all that rare either. I've had two cases of it over the years. I know mama can sometimes cause it if she cleans the baby vigorously, so I'd imagine a human scrubbing and washing a baby could probably cause it as well. It's worth a shot to look for, anyway.

If that's not it, I'd go for some kind of opthalmic antibiotic (terramycin eye ointment, for instance, if you can find it) and probably a systemic antibiotic like BioMycin as well..

Good luck with this one. Wish I had more to add, but I've never seen anything like what you're describing.

 

[peachick]

just home from the vet.
Whew... im emotionally exausted

First question from her was.... "is this a PURE mini silky goat" ... yes.
Then she asked..... "How inbred is she"... probably extremely inbred. Since this baby came from one of the original breeders.

She took 2 skin samples from baby to send to Cornell.... results back in 2-3 days.
She did a skin scraping, and saw no 'bugs'.
She looked at the cell formation of the skin and hair and said they were abnormal.
Specifically the hair itself..... there is pigment in the hair at the tip, but as it gets closer to the skin there was less and less pigment, and a weak root on the hair folicle ...... that explains why i pulled out a chunck of hair while trying to give an injection a few days ago.

Tissue on the babys face and ears are pealing off. she looks soooo bad. Vet thinks that this baby MIGHT develop OK but will probably either turn white or go bald.

OMG I feel so bad for this little thing she is really breaking my heart.

I have teramycin for the eye, vet said it could be from the same conditoin (abnormal cells) or just an irrated eye due to the flakey skin.

Im a little too upset to go into more detail. but I thought Id at least give this update.

I gotta calm down before calling the breeder.

Thanks guys

 

[SmallFarmGirl]

just home from the vet.
Whew... im emotionally exausted

First question from her was.... "is this a PURE mini silky goat" ... yes.
Then she asked..... "How inbred is she"... probably extremely inbred. Since this baby came from one of the original breeders.

She took 2 skin samples from baby to send to Cornell.... results back in 2-3 days.
She did a skin scraping, and saw no 'bugs'.
She looked at the cell formation of the skin and hair and said they were abnormal.
Specifically the hair itself..... there is pigment in the hair at the tip, but as it gets closer to the skin there was less and less pigment, and a weak root on the hair folicle ...... that explains why i pulled out a chunck of hair while trying to give an injection a few days ago.

Tissue on the babys face and ears are pealing off. she looks soooo bad. Vet thinks that this baby MIGHT develop OK but will probably either turn white or go bald.

OMG I feel so bad for this little thing she is really breaking my heart.

I have teramycin for the eye, vet said it could be from the same conditoin (abnormal cells) or just an irrated eye due to the flakey skin.

Im a little too upset to go into more detail. but I thought Id at least give this update.


Thanks guys I gotta calm down before calling the breeder.

Ohh.. I know how tough that is I hope betty gets better and gets a fresh new sparkling black coat again !!

I am getting a goat named Betty Boop !! They'll need to meet each other some day !!!