Ringworm

By Pat Coleby
Taken from Autumn 2000 QANB Newsletter

This is fairly common in smooth-haired goats, but would be less likely in fleece ones. It is a skin disease caused by a fungus, not a worm. The name originated because the fungus works in concentric rings and looks like a coiled worm. A wash of copper sulphate and cider cinegar, two tablespoons of each in 250mls of water, rubbed well into the lesions usually effects a cure straight away. If not repeat till it does. Ringworm is only contagious when animals are deficient in copper. Cider vinegar rubbed well in, several times will also effect a cure, and might be used if the ringworm was too near an eye to use the copper. Scabby Mouth(orf) which is a notifiable disease in the UK is similar. When I told the vet in charge of a herd I work with in Northern Uk, he wrote to say, "You have cured a notifiable, incurable disease in under 24 hours. You've won me!"