Rub it in, baby!

While there are many aspects of goating that I find tedious and arduous, our recent battles with skin problems have been the worst. My frustration with this issue far surpasses my dislike of frozen water bowls, never-ending excrement and constantly wrangling those escape artists back inside the fence. It was around Christmas that we first noticed Elliot frequently kicking and biting at himself, creating bald patches and scabby open sores and shaking off snowfall-like piles of dry skin. In January our vet treated him with steroids, antibiotics and a strong anti-parasite medication, as lice and mites are generally the cause of caprine skin problems. Elliot's symptoms continued, however, and then Emerson started as well. Next I treated them both with Ivermectin - a medication designed for cattle but popularly used "off-label" for goats. (By the way, I now own enough Ivermectin to treat 299 1/2 cows - the smallest bottle available was the 300-dose size - and am willing to share!) This seemed to help Emerson, or else he cleared up on his own, but Ellie is still a mess of itching. To complicate things, they are both losing the hair around their eyes (a common sign of parasites but also mineral deficiency) and no matter how many times I clean under the tails I cannot clear up the "butt fungus." Emily and I have scrubbed out their house several times, applied countless tubes of antibiotic ointment to oozing sores,and added the recommended supplements to their diet. Nothing helps.

This week I asked the vet to return and do skin scrapings - while I restrained a terrified goat, she scratched Ellie in multiple sites with a scalpel to obtain skin and tissue samples. Horrible, but at least we would finally identify whatever microscopic parasite was the cause of Elliot's torment. Or so I thought.

All the skin scrapings were completely negative. No mites, no lice, no parasites at all. Could it be some weird allergy? To what?? Autoimmune disease? Anxiety disorder? The dreaded Meningeal Worm (diagnosed only by spinal tap under anesthesia - so not happening...) Again we treated with antibiotics (for the secondary infection) and steroids, but I am unsure what the next step will be.

One of my friends is recovering from ankle surgery. Last week she sat on my couch, absently rubbing cocoa butter lotion on her foot, as she is prescribed to do twice a day to speed the healing process somehow. My mind wandered to Elliot's dried and cracking skin (oh, I forgot to mention the vet also shaved off much of his matted hair) and I wondered - could this work on Ellie? So if you come to visit and find me in the driveway rubbing cocoa butter lotion into a goat's hind end, I'm not crazy, really.

Well, no more crazy than I already was, at least...