Weird skin lesion

[cowkeeper]

Healthy yearling heifer, just noticed two circular marks on vulva skin. They are side by side and about the size of a dime, completely round, not raised, smooth dark gray (same color as the skin) with a puncture in the center. They look nothing like ringworm. South-eastern Ontario.

 

[Nesikep]

Spider bite or something?

 

[cowkeeper]

Each circle has only one central puncture (assuming it's a puncture), a small black dot. The circle looks so round and flat it looks like a plastic disk. Never seen anything like this. Whatever it is, there is two of them side by side.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Mysterious space alien tick bites maybe? :cowboy:
That is where I will often find ticks on the horses. Can you post us a picture?

 

[cowkeeper]

Yes, I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

 

[cowkeeper]

Today they're not shiny, and now have a raised outer ring.

 

[dun]

Today they're not shiny, and now have a raised outer ring.

 

[branguscowgirl]

My guess is tick bites or ring worm. Those spots very much resemble the tick bites on humans that carry Lymes disease. Google it and take a look. Black Cattle don't really turn red like humans do. The vet can do a blood test and treat with antibiotics.

 

[Nesikep]

it's gotta be a bite of some sort by the looks of it.. especially since he says there's a puncture mark near the middle

 

[branguscowgirl]

Yep, I would bet that it's tick bites....
If you can, I would sure keep them all sprayed good. Cattle contract a lot of different diseases from ticks. Anaplasmosis and Lymes are tops here.

 

[cowkeeper]

Think you are right, we do have lyme bearing ticks in this area. Vet says 'no confirmed cases or evidence of lyme in cattle' but is going to give me long-acting tetracycline. Thanks you'all

 

[Quigly]

Lyme disease would be a long shot. Other animals, primarily dogs, usually don't get the target lesion seen in people. Not sure that there is enough known of Lyme in cattle to say they do or don't develop one, but this looks more like a hair loss/epithelial skin cell lesion then a change of skin color. You could argue that maybe it is still anaplasmosis, but if your only evidence that it has a tick borne parasitic blood disease (anaplasmosis) is based on the fact that it looks similar to lesions seen in a tick borne bacterial infection (Lyme) in an entirely different species, then you can stretch your imagination farther than I can.

Treat it like ringworm and come back and curse me if it starts to get sore joints.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Quigly, I am not saying that the heifer has Lymes disease (or Anaplasmosis.) It simply looks like Tick bites to me. I am just pointing out that ticks carry these diseases. (The OP may or may not be aware of this.)
I would agree with you on ring worm as I have previously suggested. However, the OP has said that there was a "puncture" in the center of the bulls eye. What is your theory on that?

 

[cowkeeper]

Quigly, it's on the vulva skin (no hair to be lost). My vet said ticks cannot penetrate the thick hide of cattle! I had to tell him he was wrong. I've pulled them off faces, navels and the thin skin of the vulva as well as under the chin and dewlap. I haven't had ringworm here for at least 5 years and having had livestock for 45 years, I can say "this is not ringworm". The central dark dot would indicate a bite and they were so perfectly round as to look unnatural. We have a lot of ticks here, and Lyme infection is now common in the area.