I say distemper or mange

Mange

lol

female that had pups maybe??i'd like to see it in another month or 2.

I've seen ones that look wet with mange before

"Mangier"

Not as bad as Hobbies, but still worse than yours!

Seeing these pics it makes me think, what do I do with a critter that has mange or rabies and I catch it in a trap? I haven't trapped for long to know but I have seen a lot of rabies last year on the property. I had enough game cams stolen so I just thought it wasn't worth it trying to put them out this year. So I don't know if rabies is still an issue. Anyway...do I dispatch it and build The biggest bonfire ever seen on it or do I simply let the Game commission know? I'm not worried about the trap if the animal is infected lol.

This is what it means when people say we should let mother nature control populations. Hard to look at those animals and imagine what they where living with.

I dig a hole right next to the catch circle. I use my boot covered feet to open the jaws, shovel the critter in the hole and cover. I use the shovel to pick the trap up and it goes right into a bucket of dip when back to the shop. The dip is 50/50.

My picture of the fox is in the fire pit. I burned her for about 5 minutes, then buried her. I carried her out with a shovel and buried her in a big Field by my house.

I have some video. You get a good idea of what they are living with.

I don't like watching it because it makes me itchy.

Overall physical condition seems OK, underfur looks sound... Could be a genetic condition known as "Samson". This occurs in red fox and the symptom is missing the long bushy guard hairs - makes them look just like the fox in the OP's pic.

I had some like that too that I thought they were mangy, but they weren't. I found out about this after killing 4 of them in the yard at night thinking they were mangy. Killed 7 overall in a 5 week period, three normals and four Samsons.

The Samsons weren't sick at all. It was baffling, after killing them, other than being a little bit shot, they looked great; plenty fat, good muscle tone, good skin, healthy behavior (digging moles in the yard, hard to get a shot at). Except for being slick looking from missing the guard hairs, they were fine.

Amazing vids Hobbie!!

Yup trapping is far kinder than mother nature.