Lice..

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shloh1981

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Wondering a few things about lice. Before we got our latest bull (black angus bull from my best friend's dad's herd we bought three years ago as a yearling) I never noticed any infestations of lice in our small herd (4-5 momma cows). Last year in the early spring the bull started showing signs of lice (big bare spots of skin on his neck, tailhead, etc.). My friend's dad told me that sometimes his cattle get lice on their faces but it usually clears up after a while. Last year when I noticed it on the bull I used Ivomectrin pour-on on him and it cleared up right away. None of the other animals including the cows and the younger bulls that I was running the bull with at the time have ever shown signs of lice. Today I noticed the same thing with the bull (now a big four year old) but still no sign on any of the rest of the herd. We are miles away from any other cows. My dad mentioned that he thought lice could be spread by birds but so far in my limited research on the web it seems like lice are specific to certain types of animals. Anybody else have similar issues where only one or two animals show signs of infestation? I also read that some animals can have some immunity towards lice. Maybe the lice live in my herd but at levels that don't show on the cows but come on the bull in the late winter/early spring. Any thoughts on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
I've seen it once and it was years ago. We have so many problems with flies that we treat the herd regularly in addition to twice a year worming.

Ring worm can cause bare spots such as you describe. It is pretty common in this area right now because of all the wet weather we've had.

Bag balm on bare spots helps - in addition to the pour on you used.
 
Some years we have a lice problem some years not. Nothing new, hay from this farm, etc., they just seem to appear. But, some years when I've thought we've had lice it was just the result of the cows really scratching with a gusot to get rid of the dead winter hair. Doesn;t hurt to pour them though.
 
I wormed and fly/lice sprayed going into this winter and didn't have a problem. Didn't do it last year & noticed alot head scratching and hair loss.

You should be able to spray & worm and take care of it.
 
I dont' know where you live, but my son's FFA chapter had show heifers losing hair. They treated for lice with little results. The vet stopped by and said it was a fungus from all the rain. They used some type of John Deere lubricant oil on them and stopped the hair loss. Strange fix, but it worked.
 
I've never looked for lice on a black animal, but you can usually see them crawling around on other colors, especially white faces - look around face and tail head.

A less toxic way to treat is diatomaceous earth or plain old wood ashes - we dump our fireplace ash in a pile near the corral for them to get to. They will rub in it and paw it up on their backs. This is for "normal" winter lice - they pretty much clear up anyway with warm sunny weather. Now a sickly dogie may get them real bad and they can kill a weak animal. That situation requires more serious chemicals - be sure to read labels!

As others have mentioned, fungus can cause similar symptoms - insecticides and/or vermicides won't help, but sun will.

Cattle can get mange too (an even smaller bug than lice) but I believe it is pretty rare.
 
I wouldn't thing it was ringworm, since the same animal is showing signs again. Ringworm "usually" only hits them once, then they are immune. But, it doesn't always "read the book" :banana:
When you treat one animal for lice, you should treat ALL the animals. If one has it, they all have it.
 

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