About a week ago, one of our two 9-month-old Oberhasli wethers, Tom, exhibited a raw sore on the top of his head. Now, seeing a bit of red on the head of young goats who butt heads together is not a new thing. But the placement of these sore spots is further back than usual, so it made the ranch manager bring it to our attention. By the time we got to see it, Tom's head had a circular raw bald spot on his poll, well behind the usual injury spot around his disbudding scars. Thinking this was simply an odd wound, we patted it with disinfectant wound powder and went on with our lives.
A week later, we see his brother Huck, who has been showing an occasional runny nose without fever in the chilly (for California--lows just above freezing) and rainy weather we have been having, now has something going on on the same part of his head. Though I have not seen them playing head-butt recently, I don't see all, so it could be a physical injury. Yet Tom's "wound" has not re-opened, as I would expect if they had been going at it, but looks like a crusty scab (no photos yet). Tom and Huck share the same enclosure and feeders with 8 other kids (2 wethers, 6 does) of 3 different dairy goat breeds (Nubian, La Mancha, Saanen). None of their pen-mates exhibit anything like this.
The ranch manager is suggesting that they have ringworm. It doesn't look like cases of ringworm I have seen before, so I'm dubious. On the other hand, I'm a relative newbie to raising goats. Could it be the fungus known as ringworm? What else might it be?
Huckleberry's head, January 24, 2009. New trouble is behind the (admittedly large) v-shaped disbudding scar. (Click for a larger image.)
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