Ok, so here goes. lol. I work on a dairy farm being a calf caretaker and whatever else I need to help my bosses with.. Every once in a while we'll have trouble with some calves getting scours (diarrhea) and when I move them out of the calving pen I'll push with the front of my thighs and not with my hands*. Well, therein lies the problem. I have all these round red marks on my legs, just where I get the "mess" on my pants, starts just above my knees and ends just a little more then half up my thighs. None anywhere else. They used to have little white patchy areas in the red areas, but have healed that much. Now all they are, are different sized red marks that don't hurt or anything. They aren't raised but just are really ugly and I hate seeing them. Don't itch or anything, it's just they aren't going away and I've had them for a couple of months now.. Went to the doc  (idiot) for something else, and had him look at it and he said for me to use Cortisone and I did, and it didn't work completely.. So my question is does anyone know of a wash or lotion that I can get to take the ringworm scars(?) away. Maybe something to make my skin more acidic or somthing, so my skin doesn't carry that germ or whatever? I work everyday, so I can't give my skin rest or anything. I don't like the fact that I can pass it someone else even by indirect contact.. That happened but not as bad as me and she's better now. The marks haven't spread or anything and I was washing my clothes a lot back then too. I also haven't had scouring calves that I've had to push out like that for a while either. So it hasn't been reintroduced in a long time. Also if it helps, scours is a bacterial infection.. I've already looked at the apothecary section and I don't think the healing dusting powder would do the trick, because my skin there is usually dry, and like I said I really don't have as much of a problem of scouring calves anymore, so it's not getting reintroduced.. I'm sorry if this is inappropriate but it makes me feel like I have an STD or something, and I'm really sort of going crazy over it. I don't think I left anything out. If anyone could help me on this, I would be very grateful

mara

*I have to push them like that, because I need to guide where they go with my hands. Also it's very easy to spread scours to every other calf I take care of.

Might I also suggest you get one of them water proof aprens. This way your legs don't get wet and you can also disinfect it to help from passing on scours. This way you'll heal and be protected and help stop passing it on in the furture.

Thank you guys so much!

The apron is something that I didn't even think about. My legs don't get wet anymore, it was when I was having to push them with my legs that the infected manure would soak through to my skin.. I tried cortisone which is for athlete's foot, but it didn't work. It made it not itch but the marks, and I bet spreadability is still there. A little background info is, the calves are born in the hospital barn, which is where the sick and dry cows go. The actual commercial milking barn that belongs to my bosses is next door but a 1/4 mile down or so. Right after the calves are born they're put into a seperate pen than the cows, where at the next milking I feed colostrum. When I get time and outside huts to move them into, that's when I move them outside using my legs to push them and my hands around their sides or heads to keep them going in the right direction. I'm facing their butts and they walk in front of me.

I'm just worried about the "why" it hasn't gone away. I would have thought that my body would've kicked it by now.. I keep my pants clean and like I said before, I haven't had to deal with that for a while. Maybe I just didn't use the cortisone enough. Should have bought more tubes or something.

Anyways, Thank you guys!

You could try tea tree oil also Head and Shoulders shampoo lathered up and placed on the area for a few minutes each day is helpful to clear up the skin. It takes a little while, don't get discouraged. The apron idea is excellent!

Maryn, cortisone is sometimes used to control itching, but I don't think it would get rid of ringworm fungus.    I think AliceJ is correct,  you should use Lotrimin or something else that is intended for fungus.

Lamasil....it does take a while no matter what you use, Apron sounds great....Good Luck and hang in there....Lav

It has to be the antifungal type treatment. If you read the label it will also say it will treat ringworm.

Tea tree would work fairly too I believe since it has strong proerties in healing.

I don't believe that in dealing with body fluids of any type with the animals you do nt have preventative things like the aprons already. Imagine how much has been spread amoung the animals by the humans. (and how much crud you guys have gottent from them in return, besides the fungal infection. Now imagine if you, or one of the guys, accidentally got that someplace else!   )

The cortisone that I was using was anti-fungal. I'll try lamisil then.

Scours is kind of like the flu, every calf will get it when it's with other calves. Only when we can get it out the same day does it usually not get sick. It depends on what the cow is like. Some cows carry things in their blood, and pass it on to the calf. I get some calves that get a 12 or 24 hour version, treat them once to make sure they're ok, and the next day you'd never think that you had to treat him. On the other hand I just had one that was drinking great one morning, got sicker throughout the day and was dead the next morning. My boss supervised me in doing everything that could be done for that calf and it still died.That's never happened before, so my boss and I decided to research who it's cow was, and she was one of the sickest cows. Sometimes stuff doesn't work out no matter how hard you treat them.

As for preventative things we have gloves, and I don't usually get the mess on me, unless I'm moving sick calves out to the separate huts. I don't think anyone else is going through that though, because I'm the only one that deals with the age group that comes down with scours. once they hit a month old, it's really rare, and usually something else when a calf is sick (which is rare in itself). Once they're outside in the individual huts, they never come down with it. We do our best, we have this special disinfectant that we use on our skin that strips it pretty much off. Then for the milk bottles we use commercial bottle cleanser for dairy equipment, not dawn or cascade.

We have had two cases of naval ill in the almost seven months that I've worked there, when they're are other farms around here, that are going through rough times with that even when they do the prevention measures. That's easy to prevent but it doesn't show up for atleast a month. That's also one of the worst things that can happen to a calf. No matter what you do you're going to have drama with some medical aspect of raising calves, every farmer that I've ever interned or worked for has. You just can make the problem as small as you can make it, ya know?

Wow, I do too many long responses. Sorry for all the history, lol.

Thanks for all the help. I'll have to get some of those disposable aprons.

Mara

I *think* (not sure) that Lamisil is prescription only, but  Lotrimin is an OTC cream.   Maybe you should go back to the doctor?

AliceJ, i'm trying to heal the scars, I guess.  I've never had ringworm before, and no one in my family has either. They haven't been itchy for a long while now. I just didn't think that it scarred? But they are just red marks. Seeing as how I don't wear shorts, it won't be a problem to keep 'em out of the sun, lol. As for the apron, it needs to be flexible enough to do what I need to do regarding the calves. Sometimes I need to climb into the huts (if one was sick when I put it out). I'm thinking of just trying to find the disposable ones. I just need a cover for the upper leg of my pants. The only permanent aprons that are coming to mind that are for the dairy area, are thick things, but I might be wrong about using the one-use aprons. I'll have to find out more on them. Time and water are things I have a lot of, at the moment. I'll try the Vit E.

Rainbells, I don't have insurance, and I just had to take out a loan for a new vehicle. I have no money for anything, let alone a doctor visit. It's not life threatening or anything, just ugly, lol.

Thanks for your help.

I hear ya, Maryn, I don't have insurance either.  It's awful what we have to go through when we get sick.   I work all the time, just like you, and can't afford to go see a doctor when I need one.  Disgusting state of affairs!  

Maybe one of the fade creams for age marks would help a little, also?  I don't know how much that stuff costs, though.

I had ringworm recently.  The pharmacist recommended Lotrimin but the cream didn't work.
Then I tried Tinactin spray and it worked after a couple of months.  The label said not to use it if the condition didn't go away in a month.  After a month it had decreased by about half so I kept using it and now you can hardly see it.
It's curious that it doesn't  itch though because mine itched like crazy!

Combine 1 tsp Goldenseal with 1/2 tsp. Myrhh. Add to 1 pint of boiling water. Remove from flame and mix well. When cooled, use the liquid to wash affected area in the morning and evening.

Good luck.

Thanks LordBurdock, but I don't even have the scars anymore, and I haven't had to move out the sick ones for a while. I will definetly save that combo for the future though, lol.

mara