One of my favorite animals in my gardens and woods are my foxes. I do not feed them or the deer (and deer are NOT welcome in my garden.) But I admire and watch for my foxes. They bring me joy.

Every year we have new litters of fox kits. One vixen in particular, will show me her kits. from a distance. I do not approach, but sometimes early in the morning, there she is with the babies. This vixen in particular is one of my favorites. She keeps down the rodent population. IU saw her today for the first time in a while. She has a patch of mange on her right shoulder in the front. She looks otherwise healthy. No scabs around her eyes and other mange symptoms. (CLICK HERE.)

Mange will spread by direct contact. So if a fox gets too close who has mange, or you have a dog who chases foxes, it’s pretty easy for your dog to get mange. You can treat your dogs under veterinary care, but ironically you can’t really treat the source, like a fox with mange. Mange is caused by a mite. (I forgot to mention that.) Essentially our domestic animal vets are not allowed to treat foxes and wildlife. And most wildlife refuges etc will tell you when you call they don’t really treat foxes.

But while it should be common sense in Pennsylvania to be able to treat our local wildlife for a very treatable thing, Pennsylvania as in the state, doesn’t seem to want vets to treat wildlife even if they wanted to. I think they should be able to within reason. Maybe not every vet, but maybe a selection of vets or say an SPCA or animal welfare league or humane society.

Mange can be fatal to an animal if it goes untreated for a long time. Here is something I found about mange in red foxes:

So Bravecto which is kind of expensive is a very effective drug. People also use ivermectin, although I am told an incorrect dosage can harm a fox.

Now I am sure all remember ivermectin. That was the drug that the crazies were sure cured COVID-19 which it does not. So I think in part we can thank stupid human tricks for not being able to now treat foxes for mange.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has an entire page devoted to foxes as beautiful wildlife. (CLICK HERE.)

Mange is nasty – Penn Vet has written a big thing about it too. (CLICK HERE.)

So Pennsylvania, maybe doing something decent here and help us treat foxes as a source of mange when we see it. Don’t perpetuate stupid human tricks to the point that an otherwise healthy animal can spread this and lose it’s life eventually. That is not the cycle of life, I think that is cruelty.

That’s it, that’s my plea.