Nutritional Skin Diseases in Goats
January 2018
TLDR Some goats get rare skin diseases from not enough vitamin E, selenium, or zinc, but they're usually still healthy.
This chapter discussed various fungal skin diseases in goats, highlighting that vitamin E- and selenium-responsive dermatosis was rare and showed no breed, sex, or age predilections. Affected animals developed periocular alopecia, generalized scaling, multifocal greasy crusts, and a dry to waxy, dull, brittle hair coat that was easily epilated. Patchy hypotrichosis could also be present, but the condition was not pruritic, and the animals were usually otherwise healthy. The characteristic dermatitis could be due to true zinc deficiency or an idiopathic zinc-responsive condition, with causes including zinc-deficient diets, excessive calcium, iron, phytates, and other chelating agents in the diet, or drinking water with excessive iron. Zinc-responsive dermatoses were uncommon to rare and also showed no breed, sex, or age predilections, with symptoms progressing from symmetrical erythema and scaling to crusting and alopecia.
