I have recovered some severely infested fox and coyotes over the years when I made a living working fox and coyote for the pen runners. Some require a follow up injection after a couple of weeks when held in captivity but all did re establish hair growth within a few weeks after the first administration of the drug.

Bob, I'm interested. Did the heavy scabbing on the face and partial blindness disappear also?

I dont know of any parasitic treatment drug that will restore true blindness. However, that would depend upon whether the partial blindness was a direct result of the parasitic tissue inflamation, some direct trauma to the eye itself or a birth abnormality. In time if the restricted vision was a direct result from the sarcopic mange mite inflamation, then the vision should be restored as a result of the tissue regeneration of the skin and the subsequent subsiding of the inflamation.

I dont know how you would determine successful sight restoration on a wild fox or coyote under penned conditions.Brain compensentation for partial vision loss or impairment is a remarkable phenomenon in itself even in humans.

All scaling and scabbing will eventually release from the traumatized tissue areas as a result of new tissue regeneration and subsequent hair growth. Post drug adminstration mange recovery is truly remarkable if you have ever had an opportunity to observe the process over a period of weeks as I have seen.

The average individual will never have the experience to witness such a transformation so it would be difficult for them to perceive the recovery process without seeing it over a time lapsed period. Its amazing to observe the tissue reconstruction transformation process in mammals. I should have taken interval photos every couple of weeks to document the healing process.

Bob Wendt and I have done alot of recovery therapy over those years with contained animals to salvage an investment.He can tell you of his experiences as well I am sure if you contacted him.

I never made a practice of rehabbing extreme cases of mange, only those that were less then 10-15% infestated. However, I did work with a few extreme cases over the years just to see what the results would be as a personal case study experience. It just takes too long for the turn around process to take place to rehab an animal for sale from such an advanced condition. It can be done if adequate time for recovery is allowed.

Thank you ever so much for your time to thoroughly explain everything, Bob. I will be detailing everything you said to my favorite rehabber. ( She just does canines and raptors ) If she gets in any mangy canines, I believe she has the facilities to experiment without contaminating any other animals. I will keep you informed of any new info and thanks again.

Quarantineing of an infected animal and taking precautions as a handler to prevent parasitic transfer is something that needs consideration and a little education of the life cycle of this parasite and its behavior.That being said the sky is the limit with treatment potentials.

From my experience all mange infested animals that I treated responded to treatment noticibly within 2 weeks of the initial treatment.So I am not sure about the percentages that you initially stated from that other vet. Sounds like it may be a textbook diagnosis or taught statistics and not one from field doses of ivermectin of 30 years into wild canines.

I can only speak of my own experiences through those years and of another well known market trapper that is a veternarian also.

I would have sprayed that lady's back yard with insecticide. After that fox died all those ticks, lice, and what ever it had on its outside they would be looking for a new host.