Missing hair mystery solved?

Our vet finally came out today to look at my hairless wonder heifer. Her spots were healing up but she was getting more of them. She had about a dozen areas where she had no hair.
DL, you can probably give me the technical term but here's what he said: It was caused by a bacteria. Her hair was so thick that it would get wet damp & not dry properly. Hot spots basically formed w/ the bacteria causing the hair to come out in clumps. He recommended we give her 20 cc's of penicillin for 4-5 days. Make sure she is dry completely & keep under fans if possible. No more ointment, balm or anything that will prevent the skin from drying out. Hopefully we can get a jump on this & get her fixed back up!

Red O0

I wondered if they were hotspots or not.  We had them a few years ago when one of our calves was sleeping in a stall with straw in it.  The vet said if it stays wet which it wasn't in a barn just under a lean to type of stall then it would do that.  We would put dry straw down and it would get wet, not from the calf peeing on it but from the moisture in the ground wicking up in it.  It caused the spots and we just put some antibiotic cream on it and gave it a shot of penicillin.  All the hair came back and it was fine.

Glad you found out w hat it was!

brahmergirl said:

I wondered if they were hotspots or not.  We had them a few years ago when one of our calves was sleeping in a stall with straw in it.  The vet said if it stays wet which it wasn't in a barn just under a lean to type of stall then it would do that.  We would put dry straw down and it would get wet, not from the calf peeing on it but from the moisture in the ground wicking up in it.  It caused the spots and we just put some antibiotic cream on it and gave it a shot of penicillin.  All the hair came back and it was fine.

Glad you found out w hat it was!

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It has been so wet here over the last month. The snow blew in which didn't help. We're going to add extra bedding tonight. Also not let her out at night so she doesn't lie down in the snow. It's melting here, so everything is a muddy mess.
Thanks,
Red

Glad you got it figured out - it can sometimes drive you crazy trying to figure out the little stuff.