Quinte Fishing

Not sure how many of you have been involved with the preparation of hides. With a little over 30 years involved with skinning and stretching coyote hides ,I've seen a few.....
I can tell you mange does not always start the same, it depends on the animal's habits of resting or laying down. You will often find the beginnings on the flank where the coyote can scratch with the hind legs. Those animals often still have a healthy tail.When I was younger I can recall hauling some out of the woods that I should have left..simply because I did not look close enough.You learn to look before getting them half skinned.
We have seen numerous 'no tail' coyotes in recent years. When you get your hands on them you will see other evidence of mange. This is not at all uncommon.
I can tell you this fellow is missing guard hair. I guess for those of you who do not prepare hides, you may not see it..but it's there.
When running enclosures were first started we often caught them live for the pens(with permit). Those that had any sign of mange were treated with heavy doses of Ivermectin both topically and orally for obvious reasons. The exact condition exists with foxes as well although a little less common.
I'm somewhat surprised that some might have thought the condition on this animal was from something else.

Tell you another mangy critter ive shot alot of over the years is woodchucks. not sure if you see very much of that up here where the winters are tougher but in souther NY you will see one out of every 10 manged up ......... maybe its because they spend all winter in hibernation but come spring ive seen whole colonys invected maybe its because they share burrows ......... and ironic enough a woodchuck is high on the dinner list of yotes, and fox maybe there is a bit of a connection, maybe not

Used to be you saw lots of woodchucks around, when I was growing up thats what we used to do to hone our shooting skills. Seems to be there arn't as many around as there used to be. High coyote population might have something to do with it, or maybe the fields are just cleaner, no rock piles or brush.

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Bruce Ogilvie

"Fish Hard, Hunt Hard, Live Hard"

http://www.muskiescanada.ca/

I honed my shooting on groundhogs as well. I had a hound who would be just shaking beside me waiting for me to shoot. The instant the gun went off he was gone and I swear he would beat the bullet to the groundhog. I used to be able see 30-50 a night on a walk around our farm 30 years ago but not anymore. It may be a combination of the coyote population when it exploded and a lot of us getting better shots.

I can never remember seeing a groundhog with mange though. But then I don't remember seeing coyotes with it back then either. (Rabies was another thing) It wasn't until the coyote numbers started getting really high the mange showed up (foxes as well) and the groundhog numbers dwindled. At the same time is when pet dogs started to get attacked in people's yards.

A bunch of us in the area went after the coyotes pretty hard then as a result and we certainly took a lot down. We took the good hides to the tannery and it helped pay for the hound's food. Obviously there wasn't much use for the mangy ones, but at least they didn't suffer any longer and probably helped reduce it.

Fortunately, I haven't seen a case, at least around here, in a few years now. But I'm also sure it could be different not too far down the road.

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HUNT, FISH and RIDE

I don't want to put up a post and sound like one of those know it all guys.....but here we go. I've hunted coyotes for a little over 20 yrs now, and shot many coyotes with mange. It almost always seems to start at the tail....then progress up the hips and belly. Like some of the other guys said.....in a couple of months he or she will definately look a lot worse! By next fall , could be pretty bald... and if you don't get him dispatched, might have a nasty demise next winter . If it is a cold one!

I'm still not convinced it is mange. It looks like all of us have a lot of experience with coyotes and no doubt there are different areas effected on different yotes, but I have been googling the heck out of mange since this thread started and I can't find any site saying first signs begin in the tail. The vast majority of the sites say baldness starts in the flank, belly, face or elbows. None of them said it started in the tail and most never even specifically mention the tail.

It still looks like it has been damaged by other means to me. Or maybe it is a combination of both. I know they will scratch the heck out of themselves and it may just be this one is biting his own tail off trying to get rid of the mites?

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HUNT, FISH and RIDE

It is obvious to me this yote has mange. It didnt realy stand out until i zoomed in on the unfortunate critter. If you zoom in on 2nd pic u can see the fur on lts right hind leg below belly line is very thin infact if you look closely it looks like scab on the skin half way between belly line and first joint in hind leg.
In the 3rd pic the fur on his face behind his right eye also apears thin and also behind his right shoulder up high near top of back looks like a very thin patch if not bald.
Also 5th pic u can see the thining fur around the eyes, top of head and left hind leg at first joint down and inside of lower right hind leg.
6th pic u can see thin patch behind left front shoulder up high on back and bald patch on inside of front leg.
7th pic the thin fur on rear end with bald patches on either side of tail and mid way on left hind leg.
Just my opinion on what i see when zoomed in on pics.

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Family, Friends, Fish'n & Hunt'n! ;)

I didn't think this would turn into such a debate. here are the original pics(higher restitution). The first ones were re-sized to fit the page nicely, and these ones not so much.

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Yeah, yeah, ok. You guys told me so... Still, it is the first tail I have seen go like that, and I have seen a bunch with mange over the years.

Geez Hutchy, you like stirring the pot or what! lol

Dave

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HUNT, FISH and RIDE