Moon Dancing
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Re:Anyone know what this is? - 2006/03/05 09:45
From your picture and my experience this is fungus in the damaged skin caused by either of the two mites. I had a male return from Washington with this from his toes, all the way up to his back. Also check the belly and around the mouth and above the tail.
Touch him all over to see if his skin feels like cardboard. This is a very painful condition and when severe it leaves scars very much like burn scars. The skin on my alpacas the back legs was cracked up to ˝ inch deep. If the tail on yours is crusted, soak the skin in antibiotic shampoos and gently brush until the debris encasement is removed. Mine lost the tip of his tail due to constriction (and the oxygen depravation from the high nitrate hay at the time). The hair may grow back but the fleece will not in the severe areas.
Our treatment was to treat, weekly for 4 weeks, for sarcopes and the other mite that starts with a “C”, the skin burrowing mites. Mites rarely show up on biopsies. We shampooed weekly and sprayed with a Clorhexadine solution afterwards. This got the crust off but did not treat the fungus. We tried nine months of treatments using shampoos and concoctions while he was at two farms. What cured him was I used Captan, a rose fungicide, (my new vets recommendation) two tablespoons to a gallon of water to spray the affected areas. Captan is available in Washington. It is a rose fungicide. Sulfur Lime, (I think it is called) also works, It is also a fungicide used for roses. Captan was removed from California’s market because it is a carcinogen. Desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures. I sprayed him twice and the healing was almost instant. Heavy oils can also arrest the fungus and treat and also soften the skin. You lose one fleece with the oils but oh well. (You also lose the fleece of the alpacas that get rubbed against).
Treatment is so painful be had to sling the alpaca to be able to control him enough to treat him. From holding the males head close to him and under his chin, while I shampooed, my stepfather got the fungus and (maybe the mites) under his chin and it climbed to his ears and mid cheek. This required major drug treatment for an extended period of time with drugs that are known to cause kidney damage. Fungus is bad news.
So treat aggressively, treat for mites and treat for fungus, wear gloves. Be gentle and good luck.
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