I went out coyote calling today and shot 2 coyotes and was excited to have them to mount.I walked up to them and they have mange.We have had coyotes here with mange it seems for the last 5 or 6 years,maybe longer.We are starting to see some nice thick furs again but I thought we were over that hump.Do any of you guys experience this problem outside of Kansas?
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It seems to happen everywhere, since most trapping has ended this allow the spread of MANGE and other things among wildlife. The idiot animal rightest just dont study or the would see EHD, Bluetongue, EPM. West Nile Virus. Etc. mange is the lest of the worries now.
Mange has sporadically been around for ever - it is caused by a mite (sarcoptes scabeii) and it transmissible to every mammal on earth (so wash your hands if you handle them). Supposedly (I heard this rumor years ago) some state game and parks commissions actually propagated a "super" mange that was supposed to control coyote populations. If you're a naked coyote in montana in a January blizzard you may be in trouble. Mange can also debilitate an animal to the point that other disease processes kick in. We see alot of mange in Nebraska too, but after a very cold winter of 2000-2001, we're not seeing much this year as most infected ones died last year.