Mange Madness

We sometimes have foxes who visit our backyard, but this time we thought something was amiss. Foxes are normally very shy and bolt instantly when human are near. This time the pair of foxes we saw were lethargic and didn’t seem to mind when I came around the corner with my camera snapping away like an idiot. The first one just stared back as if to say “Yeah?” I took a few photos of the first one and then they joined each other on our back deck repeatedly scratching their already tattered tufts of fur. Eventually they left, but we were concerned about the odd behavior. One thing that we thought was that they might have rabies, but I always thought of rabies being more aggressive and foaming at the mouth. They just looked tired to us. After a quick google search we found out it was most likely mange, or Sarcoptic Mange to be precise. It’s a small parasitic mite that burrows under the skin and causes inflamed skin and itching to such an extent that they can’t sleep. This fits what we saw in our backyard pair. We reached out to a local group called Wild Bunch Wildlife Rehabilitation that handles this sort of thing. We were concerned that feeding our wild foxes food would keep them coming back, but they informed us foxes are very skittish and once they feel better they will resume being skittish. We are pleased to say that we have seen our foxes in much better shape after we completed the treatments. You can see more information and details on the treatment at Fox Wood Wildlife Rescue. We used a hard boiled egg to deliver the medicine. As for the after pictures, you’ll have to wait until next time.