Leave it be.Nothing wrong with that fox.They look rough like that when they are shedding their winter coat.

With a completely bare tail like that I'd put money on sarcoptic mange. Even a really scraggly looking, shedding animal will still have a good amount of guard hair. There is something wrong with an animal with large bald patches of skin.

Leave it be.Nothing wrong with that fox.They look rough like that when they are shedding their winter coat.

1 cc of 1% ivermectin would clear that right up if it is mange. Normally an subcutaneous (under skin on the neck) injection or it can be given orally. I have cured bad mange in dogs.

Is this a trapping forum or a crazy cat lady forum?
Kill it if it bothers you that much. FCOL

who's payin that much???

Even if an animal has mange it can still survive.MNR had pics of a tagged wolf that had mange.It was caught by a trapper the following winter and had a beautiful coat.The council had the pelt tanned for demonstration,with the pics of the same wolf with the mange the year before,on display beside the pelt.

It is a sign of poorly managed population,and will thin out the overpopulation,resulting in a longterm decline.This is natures way.Overpopulated animals are generally weak from poor nutrition,thus having suppressed immune systems,and they are not able to cope with a disease breakout.Mange will kill weak animals but stronger healthy populations that are managed can cope.
Mange is but one of the tools nature has to bring populations back into balance,albeit in a dramatic way.
I have only seen mange on my trapline twice in a fox and once in a wolf.Much more common in wolf is lice,which is also not fatal,unless the animals are in a weakened condition from overpopulation.
I still say the fox in the pic is just shedding,scratching and chewing to get rid of the loose hair.
If you have an overpopulation of fox and it is mange you would be doing it good to euthanize it.
However,there is no reason to kill an animal because it is shedding its winter pelage.

....mange has killed 95% of the red fox in our area. Coyote and wolf have done better they are bigger and tougher than fox. best thing to do for all wildlife in the area is to kill or cure that fox (live trap and medicine) before it spreads to others. that's not sheading with that fox its has mange and is going to suffer a cruel death if left alone.

Thanks for the responses. I might try the ivermectin thing, great idea. I was just concerned it might be somehow contaminating a population, Or rolling around in a field where kids play and that could create a problem for them.

Thanks!

A study I read indicated that a red fox infested with Sarcoptes Scabiei mites will be dead in an average of four months if not treated. Secondary infections develop after they scratch and bite themselves open. Have you ever smelled a fox infested with mange and infected with secondary bacterial infection? The eggs and fecal debris left behind continue to cause pruritus which in turn causes more self mutilation and the cycle continues almost always resulting in death.

I believe that.
Any chance of a link or a title?

I didn’t really look at the tail.

....an your an expert on mange after only seeing it twice in fox? that fox in the photo has mange! look at its tail fox will never lose that much hair on the tail even when shedding. most mange will be noticed first on the tail. I went from catching 300 to 400 fox a year to just catching 2 or 3 a year.

I live in an area with a high red fox population. I see mange in about 10%-15% of the fox I catch. Mostly it is in the beginning stages affecting the tail, crotch and/or rear legs. I almost always put them up if the mange is not too advanced.

I get a kick out of the folks who recommend building a bonfire and incinerating them or burying them which is hard to do when winter has the ground froze as hard as concrete. I have put up many mangy fox with no issues at all. The relatively few I catch with advanced mange are discarded in an out-of-the-way place on the trap line. I don't think the mites survive very long in freezing conditions once the host is dead.

The percent of mangy fox I catch has been steady over the last 10-15 years so, while I believe it is almost always fatal, I don't think it spreads as easily as some think and it has certainly not caused any population crash in my area.