Hi guys and gals so had a question for some of you that might have dealt with this issue caught a red fox today and didnt notice anything at the time but when i went to skin it this evening i felt the body and noticed it was very skinny and seemed like it was loaded with ticks and noticed it looked like it was slightly rubbed on the back of the neck. I can post pictures tomorrow but told the wife and she is worried now and i am curious with what precautions to do now going forward. Had it been a super obvious case of mange i would of noticed it but not sure with this one and how to handle it. Any info would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

If In doubt,,, take it and burn it.
As far as catching it yourself,,, it’s pretty rare,, just scrub yourself pretty good with a good ol bar of soap and a hot shower.

Foxkidd44 Thank you deffinitly will burn that sucker tomorrow i heard it was highly contaigeous but wasnt sure but the wife is a worry wart but wont be doing any more skinning in shorts and sneakers after this

The tick record for me is 50 on a red and 75 on a coyote.
I was first in county with lymes.
We did not have this pre-coyote.
I'm in Dis 2, your milage may vary.

Skin faster. Over water pan or cardboard.
You can bag and spray. Pyrethrin or raid.
Wear the light color nitryl gloves so you can see em.
My deep freezer, for a month, don't kill em.
Keep jar with fuel oil handy.
Get a fur comb and rake.

They will rub from ticks and fleas, and other.
Mange is from a mite and it'll stink.
The human form of mange is called scabies.

Now the experts can tell you I'm fos
and give you the proper answers lol.

The Sarcoptes mite species that causes mange on fox can bite people, but can't reproduce well on people. It can live up to 2 months. You can kill all of the Sarcoptes species with Ivomec.

Diane got some kind of Sarcoptes after laying on new hay in our back barn a few years ago. She started getting lots of itchy red bumps. I got a few bumps. We both took Ivomec orally and it was better the next day and gone in a couple of days.

Keith

I don’t see a lot of mange but when I do it is usually on the limbs of an animal. A very simple skin scraping onto a microscope slide can be excellent for setting the mind to ease. Not that everyone has access to these things but maybe your local vet would be willing to screen.
However I am not sure if they will continue to prey upon a dead host. Like I says I don’t see it very often in pets these days, especially with the emergence of “laner” products that treat mites off label

Smash are youns required to report mange
to the County extension office?

Usually an animal has to have a compromised immune system for any signs of mange to show. The mites are very common and usually not a big problem. Mites, on dogs, often make visible damage around the eyes and ears in the shorter hair there.

Keith

My suggestion is to toss it in a garbage bag and throw it away . wash out the pickup with bleach and water just in case .

A long time friend trapped a coyote with a silver dollar size patch of mange on it , he skinned and fleshed it while wearing a rubber apron that went down below his knees .

During the time he was fleshing it the hide dripped water on his apron that in turn ran down and soaked his blue jeans .

Yes you may,of guessed right Jim had a full blown case of mange he still doesn't have hair on his legs below his knees .

To me the risk isn't worth the reward for whatever it's worth .

Keith is right, mites are present almost on all animals, but only a few develop mange symptoms. If you are worried, treat all animals you catch as mite-infested.

There are tons of effective and safe chemicals against sarcoptic and Demodex mites in any pet shop (and just 20+years ago, there were none and mange was often deadly to pets). If the fur looks worth skinning, put the animal in a garbage bag and spray some on it and you are safe. Look for sprays with actve ingredients such as fipronil, piriproxifen, and d-cyphenothrin in various combinations.


I also keep skin drops with selamectin, they are for veterinary use but safe for humans, too. I have very thin skin and sometimes mites from my marten end up burrowing in the skin on my neck and waist and cause a rash (when I neglect the garbage bag step, I'm lazy). Many mite species are pretty host-specific and won't be able to reproduce in human skin if you are not immunocompromised, however they will burrow and live for a while and cause a rash or acne-like lesions when they eventually die. Selamectin kills them off very quickly.

That is all great information

Back in the 50's my dad would use MOORMAFUME DUST put out by Moorman feed company. It stunk to high heaven but my dad was a believer in it for anything that caused a hog to itch. It had lindane in it and they discontinued it in the early 80's. In the 90's I poisoned a group of hogs with liquid lindane and vet gave me atropine to shoot them up, they became seemingly lifeless and I thought I had killed the whole bunch, but in a couple of days they all came around and I didn't lose any. Definitely a learning experience, lol.

Around 10% of the red fox I catch have a slight case of mange. It almost always starts on the tail and advances to the back legs and forward from there. About 1% have advanced mange where the mites have affected 50% of the fox's body or more.

As mentioned above, sarcoptic mange mites are specie specific. That means they will not infect a host of a different specie. I have skinned dozens of red fox with mangy tails because fur buyers will generally not dock much for a damaged/missing tail.. I have never been infected or even bitten/burrowed into by a mange mite.

The badly infected fox are tossed along the trap line. The mange mites don't survive long on a dead host.

Fox with mange damage have a particular stink to them from the damage the mites do to their skin. It is easy to recognize once you know what it is.

If you feel the need to take some or all of the drastic measures mentioned above (bleaching/burning) and it will give you peace of mind, I suggest you do that. I also suggest that it is completely unnecessary.

I've caught coyote and fox with mange. If its bad enough they smell like death when you walk up to them. If I remove them from that sight they get brought to the brush pile and burned.

when the dead animal cools off the mites die. its not a big deal other than worthless skins

Some sources say so. Others say that both Demodex and Sarcoptes mites can survive for over two weeks at 10 celsius, as long as the environment is humid. My personal experience is, I got the mite rash more than once from animals that had been frozen in traps for several days. Fleas, ticks and dandruff mites are also alive, active and very eager to switch hosts when their frozen dead host is thawed and is ready for skinning. Hot dry environment actually kills them faster.

Yes, I’ve read those studies. The mites actually survive longer in cooler, more humid temperatures. Fortunately, around here, cooler temperatures, like below freezing, usually means low humidity, and that kills them pretty quick.

I have had a rash couple times skinning a fresh dead one where mange was just getting started. lasted about 3 days and was gone

I don’t believe so, If we are; I’ve never done it.
Speaking in terms of work and not trapping

First time I seen mange here, the Co Ag Ex agent clerk knew.
I always wondered "how" they knew.
She was a wealth of info on a lot of stuff.
There was another yearly inspection plant guy that was good too.