Marten Fur Issue

This marten was hanging dead in the trap upon arrival. Didn't notice anything unusual at the time except for a thin spot in the tail fur. I had it hanging outside for several days to let the fleas die. Tonight I brought it in to thaw. I brushed one and little to no fur came out in the brush and then this one:



What caused/is causing this? It had some fleas but it didn't seem excessive.

I have that happen on fox tails sometimes. It is like the tail gets frozen then thawed and falls apart. Cant tell if it because it was tainted or dehydrated. Curious what others have to say as well.

I would be leaning towards mites being infested, either skin mites or fur mites.

Ones that I have washed have had up to 1000 fur mites collected and you could not have noticed any problem with the pelt.
They are 0.1 to 05 mm in size so the eye does not pick them up- well at least my eyesight,
they are still being ID through DNa what species they could be

I have never seen that on a marten but have on one fox.The tail was apparently dead from the joint closest to the base. It fell apart completely when I pulled it. The skin inside the tail was flaky and falling apart. The joint closest to the body was black

Something it had going on before you caught it. I forgot one in the freezer for over a year and had no hair, loss just tough to skin around the face due to it drying out.

I saw one last year from this area that was much worse. It's whole belly was nearly hairless. Sure looked like mite infestation, to my un-trained eye.

I’ve had foxes with broken tails that were the same. Seems like the tail froze and the skin died

Small birds like whiskeyjacks been pecking at it.When you skin it you will see little holes where they been pecking.I see it around the hips on that one.Check there when you skin it.

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I skinned it and the leather side looks great. No damage of any kind. Do mites bite people? They could be the issue. I also thought about gray jays, but dismissed it as I have never seen it happen before. There are no holes either. Why would they peck at it?

After the initial brush, no more hair seems to be coming out.

They try to get at the meat but because it is frozen they just leave tiny little pinholes in the skin and a bunch of loose fur.They work the tails quite a bit for some reason.
If you didnt see any tiny holes in the skin then it is likely some sort of parasite.

That makes sense Boco.

Do mites die just the same as fleas by freezing?

I haven't had luck freezing out fleas. Even in a chest freezer set at -5 f. for 2 weeks.

I have seen thousands of hair mites come to the ends of the guard hairs when thawing wolverines. So bad I bagged the critter along with several good shots of Raid.

I suspect they will bite bigly with an infestation like that

I have seen that on fox tails, but not Marten, and always at the end. Almost like they got frost bit at some point and the end died. The part that died would just disintegrate when you pulled the tail.

-TJ

I have seen this more times then I care to remember on fox at least a couple a year the tails just disintegrate when you pull the bone into a thousand little tiny pieces .I have asked but never gotten a solid answer of what causes it maybe if they hire a bio for this area again I will gove up one and have them get it tested to see what it is

I see it alot here too with our high fox population.
I determined it was the beginning of mange setting in before the tail is bare. The hair eventually falls off on a live one as it advances.

They don't bite me.

They only chew into your skin for refuge.
I would post pics, but that would be the YUK FACTOR, and against personal health maters regarding health confinduality law

I've seen similar on fox too but wrote it off to hungry country. The fox seemed to be on the verge of starvation. No body fat etc. The belly skin was super thin and fragile , the tail skin pretty much disintegrated.