Caught a large female coyote yesterday and thought she was kinda rough looking, but it looked more like she's been beat up while in the trap. Decided to skin her, if for nothing else to get my hands in "skinnin shape. She had a couple worn spots with short hair on her back and her tail wasn't very full. But what got me wondering was her skin was very thick all the way up to the head, especially the tail. I mean like 3 or 4 times thicker than normal skin. I've been told a number of times by people who have skinned a mangy dog out of curiosity, that the skin was very thick on them, maybe the reason they seem to survive so long. I've skinned a couple thousand yotes in my life and have never seen this. My question is, has anyone ever encountered coyotes that have recovered from mange (we had it bad for a few years, but it seems to be running it's course here). Thanks for any insight on this.

Every once in awhile when your grading a pile of them you will grab one that is way, way heavier than the rest.

So you look inside to see if it's been fleshed.

Yep, a good job of fleshing.


Just extra heavy leather.



I always guessed some kind of hybrid, I dont remember any of them showing current, or noticeable signs of mange.

Some coyote when they get older get that way ,, or when they live thru mange get strange leather ,,, imo only thing a guy can do clean them out.
At least it helps next year crop

The skunks that get what looks like Psoriasis have a very thick skin in that area it's tough as rubber at times. You would think animals have skin issues like other mammals do.

Only way I’ve seen them recover is with Ivermectin. Probably skinned thick hide ones but didn’t put2 and 2 together. Interesting

you wont convince me mange is survivable without ivomec or something similar

Eating on dead livestock they get enough medication.
Recovered areas of domestic dogs get hair coming back that is all short and curly after an infection is cured .
The areas where the mites have buried the skins is quite different which would explain your skinned animal.

north of 50 there are two types of mange. one is found primarily only in dogs. demodectic mange. its caused by an allergic reaction to their own skin mites. it is incurable and is treated with anti allergy medication . that mange is not lethal.

coyotes and dogs both can get an entirely different mange from contact with other infected canines that is lethal. sarcoptic mange. caused by the sarcoptic mange mite. there is more misinformation floating around about mange than any other disease or infestation. mange mites only live on the host for example. unlike bacteria and virus they can not live on dirt or grass for any length of time. they have a very limited temperature range they can survive in.

medications like antibiotics are useless for both types of mange. treatment of sarcoptic mange requires an antiparasitic. the same monthly pill your vet gives you to prevent heartworm fleas and ticks in your bird dog will protect it from sarcoptic mange. it wont do a thing for demodectic mange. that requires an additional treatment if your dog suffers from it. usually an anti allergy shot every 3 months.

Sarcoptic mange is not always fatal to animals.The fur council had a wolf pelt in their fur kit that had been collared by MNR a couple years before it was caught by the trapper.When it was collared it had sarcoptic mange and the MNR took pics before it was collared and released.It was not treated with anything.
When the collar was turned in to mnr by the trapper,they provided the pics of the infected animal to the council,and both the pics and tanned pelt were used for educational purposes.

boco, how often do you think an animal survives infestation? how do you think that wolf rid itself of the mites?

Here is some info from Texas health science,among others.
"Immune response to sarcoptic mange is complex.There is evidence of a protective effect to re-infection in some animals,but not in others.(not species but individual animals).Whether or not a host can invoke hypersensitivity responses largely determined the pathogenesis and thus the clinical course of the infection."
That said,sarcoptic mange is by far the worst parasitic infection out there and will kill a lot of animals,but not all.Keeping animals managed at healthy levels is the best way to keep it in check on the landscape.

Another Interesting thing is that some coyote pups will be born with it and others won't show any signs of it .
I'm also of the mindset that if I have caught a coyote that shows any sign of having scarcoptic mange it gets dumped in a deep coulee no matter how small it maybe it's not worth the risk to me after seeing what a good friend of mine went through because of one coyote that was infected.

A couple years back I had a big bear on a bait that was in terrible shape from sarcoptic mange. It was basically bald from mid-ribs back. Two bear hitting that bait had it. By the time I quit hunting about 5 weeks after first seeing photos of them, the biggest and worse looking bruin had started to heal up. It went from bald the middle of August to having a "5 o'clock shadow" around mid September, to short bristly hair on the formerly bald areas by the end of September. Until then I thought sarcoptic mange was always fatal to the animals that got it. I mounted a big bear for a customer 20+ years ago (shot only 2-3 miles from my 2017 bait station) that had that short (1/4 inch'ish) bristly hair all over the back 2/3 of it's body. It was like hog bristles. I now believe this bear was recovering from mange as well.

isn't mange species specific?

k9 mange mites cant survive on a human and scabies cant survive on a coyote for example?

I caught a coyote last season that was in tough shape but did not had the mange. I did caught one that had it and dump it. I did skin out the rough one. years ago I did get the mange from skinning a coyote and one of my coydogs at the time got it too but there other one did not.and they where brothers . I got ride of it on that one and myself. in about 3 days.

I have no idea. The two bear I had photos of were "diagnosed" by the state's main bear biologist, who I'd sent photos to. He said he had found numerous mangy bear in the winter when working with GPS collared bears tracked to their dens. He had some Rx of some sort that he always gave them to clear it up.....via syringe. I can't remember what Rx it was, although he did name it.

20 some years ago mange was real bad here. Me and a buddy bought injectable ivermectin and proceeded to trap every coyote we could. We pelted the good ones and gave the mangy ones a half cc under the skin of their neck and released them. We re-caught several that were healing up and re-released them. I cant say for sure our effort sped up the natural cycle, but in 2 years time the mangy ones we were catching had been reduced considerably.

I've pealed and put up several "Sampson" Red's, that I'm convinced were caused by Mange, and were bald all summer, can't say I noticed any thicker skin tendencies.

I'll let everyone know how it turns out after fleshing and boarding.