# hair loss on donkey



## gwithrow

I noticed recently that one of the donkeys has an area of hair loss on her side..it feels crusty under the hair in surrounding areas, and where the hair is completely off, it is first red and irritated looking then it seems to heal up and be just bald...today I applied triple antibiotic ointment on a newly raw looking place.....the other donkey has no signs of any of this....they are in the barn at night and can seek shelter if it rains...the area affected is at least the size of my hand..

what I would like info on is first of all, what in the heck is causing this? and then what are possible treatments? 

both donkeys are due to foal anytime..so I certainly want to clear up anything that might be contagious...neither donkey shows any signs of any illness..they have a great appetite...and no lethargy other than the end of pregnancy slowness...

they are eating good oat and grass hay, and a very very small amount of sweet feed at night...if that makes any difference...thanks


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## Jay27

My friend has a horse with a similar skin issue. She's been fighting it since last spring! No clue what it is other some kind of skin infection. She's sent scrapings and tried just about everything to clear it up, but it seems to operate on its own time-table. Some patches have healed, some have spread and new ones pop up from time to time. I am not saying your donkey has the same thing, but there are some things that you won't be able to fix. My friend switched to a tea-tree oil based ointment since the triple-antibiotic seemed to make it flare up. (and use contributes to antibiotic resistance - which we don't need).

ETA: Her horse is the only one in the herd with the skin issue and she is an equine nutritionalist, so it isn't an issue of inproper feeding


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## mayfair

It might be rain rot. If you do a search on rain rot, you'll come up with a variety of treatments. One you can do easily is diluted yellow listerine and baby oil (to soften the crusts) in a spray bottle.


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## gwithrow

I also have some yellow lotion, sulfer based I think(MTE?), for skin issues..I guess it could be rain rot, heaven knows we have had rain this year, but for the most part they don't stand out in the rain when they have the option of being under the sheltered area....thanks for the suggestion to use the tea tree oil, I have a bottle of Cut Heal, which has tea tree in it...I can certainly try that ...the healed areas look healthy, my main concern is whether or not this is transmissible especially to new babies...so I will continue to watch and hope for it to just go away....


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