Mange or molt?

[TubeDriver]

I have a regular young squirrel visitor who has some issues with her coat. Not sure if this is Mange or normal spring molt?

None of my other squirrels have this issue so I am not sure it is molt but on the other hand, I don't see irritated skin or crispy ears so common to Mange.

I am leaning towards Molt but wondered if anyone thinks otherwise? I could treat with Ivermectin?


She is a cutie. She appears somewhat ostracized by the other squirrels so she waits at my front door for a treat when all the other squirrels go to my side door/deck for treats. She is very bold with me and will come running over when I arrive home. She climbs a small tree/bush (6' tall) next to my front door and will then peer at me intently at eye height from a few feet away.:grin2

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o291/TubeDriver/A%20random%20squirrel%20pics%202016/image_zps6dpvpry0.jpeg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/TubeDriver/media/A%20random%20squirrel%20pics%202016/image_zps6dpvpry0.jpeg.html)

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o291/TubeDriver/A%20random%20squirrel%20pics%202016/image_zpscufj30df.jpeg (http://s123.photobucket.com/user/TubeDriver/media/A%20random%20squirrel%20pics%202016/image_zpscufj30df.jpeg.html)

[Nancy in New York]

Well she's definitely a cutie!
Strange how that pattern is going down her head and onto her
neck. Do you have squirrel boxes out for your wilds?
Looks to me that she is shedding her winter coat and what
you're seeing, (which looks like "kitten fur" :)) is actually her spring coat
coming in.
Remember Jeffrey's? His worked the opposite giving him
a mohawk for a few days. :rolf
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-4jdcWd6/0/S/i-4jdcWd6-S.jpg

[lennysmom]

I agree with Nancy - looks like molting to me. Angel's coat looks very similar right now with the patchy, rabbit looking fur in certain places and he is shedding everywhere.
Although, no one does a coat shedding cuter than Jeffrey!:Love_Icon

[TubeDriver]

Thanks Nancy and LM! I have a hunch that you are right, spring molt. I'll keep an eye on her just in case but I never want to use Ivermectin unless I absolutely have to!

[stepnstone]

Looks to me that she is shedding her winter coat and what
you're seeing, (which looks like "kitten fur" :)) is actually her spring coat
coming in.

................http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/yes/yes-i-fully-agree-smiley-emoticon.gif

[Lighten-Up]

I am so very new here to the squirrel board and to squirrels. I usually post questions, but I can relate to this post.

Because of raising babies for the first time ever, I have now taken an interest in the outdoor wilds. Just 4 weeks ago, as I scanned the yard, I noticed a very friendly bold one, she was willing to approach me, while the rest stayed away and quite frankly ignored me. She tended to be a loner and would come to me early in the morning for food handouts before the other squirrels were out foraging. If I go outside and speak, she will come running to me if she is around. She will often just wait outside in a position that she can see when I enter the yard. My husband will even come in from the yard and say, there is a friend looking for you out there. I have found that distinctively odd, and noted that Tube Driver seemed to have the same squirrel friend. I noticed that she had very odd markings on her fur around her neck and shoulders. I thought she had scars and I began calling her "wild-scar", for identification purposes. Honestly her markings look just like the ones Tube Driver showed in his photos. But then almost daily, I noticed that the "scars" changed shape and position. ?? How could scars heal and reform so quickly? I began to examine her more closely. I noted that there was no broken skin, no lesions, just odd fur that changes daily.

So I began scanning the internet, because I now care deeply for this little delightful creature. I thought she might have mange. I will offer here what I learned, and I welcome the informed thoughts of others for my own knowledge of how to help my little friend; who I have discovered is a mom of two little ones who appear to be about 6-8 weeks old, just a guess from me.

On a site called SquirrelNutrition a man named William Sells says this: Squirrels can also have a condition called "Dermatophytosis," ( not to be confused with ringworm that carries the same name,) or a skin fungus. The way you can tell this condition from Mange is the absence of irritation, crusting or rash. There is hair loss, but that is all. Dermatophytosis is caused by a fungus that attacks the shaft of the hair where it emerges from the skin. Since it attacks the hair and causes it to become brittle, the hair breaks off at the skin line and falls off leaving a bald area, but no obvious skin irritation. This condition is common in late Winter and early Spring. The treatment is nutritional support. It's usually not fatal and the squirrel will recover from it over time. Feeding squirrels chunks of raw coconut and raw coconut oil can help, because the Lauric Acid and Capric Acid in the raw coconut oil is anti-fungal. In captivity, I spray a strong solution of Colloidal Silver and apply Raw Coconut Oil topically to this condition also. [And in the comments section he said this: Feeding avocado is another natural way to improve a squirrel's nutrition status and hair/skin conditions. ]

I know nothing about this man or his site, so I am not validating his claims. What he said, seemed to make sense with what I saw, so I have started to feed my outdoor wild (renamed Wild-Mom no longer Wild-Scar) I've started to feed her avocado, coconut chunks and she would not eat coconut oil, so I have put coconut oil in it's solid form in the grooves of walnuts and pecans and she eats the whole thing.

I do not know how to tell if what my girl has is this skin fungus, or molt, but I figure the food I am feeding her will not hurt her at all if I am wrong.

I welcome comments to my thoughts, for my sake and well as Tube Driver.
Lighten-Up

[Mel1959]

Thank you, for taking such a deep interest and care of your wild-mom. And thank you for the educational information. There's always something new to learn if you just keep yourself alert to it. I think there are probably a lot of ailments that we see in our wild furry friends that we don't have the answers to. What he says makes perfect sense and what he (and you) are offering nutritionally makes sense as well. I have a dwarf gray squirrel that has never had a very full or shiny coat. I recently started giving him avocado daily and I think I can see a difference. His coat is definitely smoother and shinier. I had forgotten about the coconut oil, so will start using that as well. I think our wild friends are no different than people in many regards. Even some people that eat a nutritionally sound diet can be lacking in a specific component that can cause a condition to manifest itself. Why should squirrels be different? Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge. Keep us posted if you notice a difference in your furry friend. And :Welcome to TSB.

[TubeDriver]

Hi Lighten-up! Great point you raised and one that I had forgotten to consider! I think one of the really interesting points you make is that your "wild-scars" and my little "Patches" (I just named her as I typed this but I think it suits her perfectly) have much of the same behavior. My Patches seems a bit of an outsider and one could imagine that her diet is not as good since she stays away from the heavily traveled, prime feeding areas. Poor nutrition can predispose one for illness including Dermatophytosis and Mange. So regardless of the cause, helping these little ones with some Henries blocks and making sure they get some treats might make all the difference until they get larger and stronger. At some point, Mange becomes pretty easy to diagnose but in the early stages it is more difficult to discriminate from other things like Molt.

I am going to make sure that Patches gets some Henries Blocks and not just almonds and pecan treats!



I am so very new here to the squirrel board and to squirrels. I usually post questions, but I can relate to this post.

Because of raising babies for the first time ever, I have now taken an interest in the outdoor wilds. Just 4 weeks ago, as I scanned the yard, I noticed a very friendly bold one, she was willing to approach me, while the rest stayed away and quite frankly ignored me. She tended to be a loner and would come to me early in the morning for food handouts before the other squirrels were out foraging. If I go outside and speak, she will come running to me if she is around. She will often just wait outside in a position that she can see when I enter the yard. My husband will even come in from the yard and say, there is a friend looking for you out there. I have found that distinctively odd, and noted that Tube Driver seemed to have the same squirrel friend. I noticed that she had very odd markings on her fur around her neck and shoulders. I thought she had scars and I began calling her "wild-scar", for identification purposes. Honestly her markings look just like the ones Tube Driver showed in his photos. But then almost daily, I noticed that the "scars" changed shape and position. ?? How could scars heal and reform so quickly? I began to examine her more closely. I noted that there was no broken skin, no lesions, just odd fur that changes daily.

So I began scanning the internet, because I now care deeply for this little delightful creature. I thought she might have mange. I will offer here what I learned, and I welcome the informed thoughts of others for my own knowledge of how to help my little friend; who I have discovered is a mom of two little ones who appear to be about 6-8 weeks old, just a guess from me.

On a site called SquirrelNutrition a man named William Sells says this: Squirrels can also have a condition called "Dermatophytosis," ( not to be confused with ringworm that carries the same name,) or a skin fungus. The way you can tell this condition from Mange is the absence of irritation, crusting or rash. There is hair loss, but that is all. Dermatophytosis is caused by a fungus that attacks the shaft of the hair where it emerges from the skin. Since it attacks the hair and causes it to become brittle, the hair breaks off at the skin line and falls off leaving a bald area, but no obvious skin irritation. This condition is common in late Winter and early Spring. The treatment is nutritional support. It's usually not fatal and the squirrel will recover from it over time. Feeding squirrels chunks of raw coconut and raw coconut oil can help, because the Lauric Acid and Capric Acid in the raw coconut oil is anti-fungal. In captivity, I spray a strong solution of Colloidal Silver and apply Raw Coconut Oil topically to this condition also. [And in the comments section he said this: Feeding avocado is another natural way to improve a squirrel's nutrition status and hair/skin conditions. ]

I know nothing about this man or his site, so I am not validating his claims. What he said, seemed to make sense with what I saw, so I have started to feed my outdoor wild (renamed Wild-Mom no longer Wild-Scar) I've started to feed her avocado, coconut chunks and she would not eat coconut oil, so I have put coconut oil in it's solid form in the grooves of walnuts and pecans and she eats the whole thing.

I do not know how to tell if what my girl has is this skin fungus, or molt, but I figure the food I am feeding her will not hurt her at all if I am wrong.

I welcome comments to my thoughts, for my sake and well as Tube Driver.
Lighten-Up

[Lighten-Up]

Thank you Mel1959 for your words. And yes, I will let you know if I see an improvement in Wild-Mom as the weeks go by. I am very curious to see how it goes. She comes daily to see me, so I have a lot that I can offer her.

Thank you Tube Driver for your thoughts as well. I was wondering if your Patches (perfect name) and my Wild-Mom are so bold and friendly because they know intuitively that they need nutritional support and just have a gut feeling that we can supply it? Just something that I was pondering after I wrote that last long post.

So here is my question- I was actually going to ask it a week ago and never got to posting it. Just what is good to feed a wild squirrel, especially a nursing mom like mine who appears to have nutritional issues? Knowing how I raised my little girls, I tried to feed her veggies and Henry's block, but she refused. Since she is not in my care like my little ones were, I was feeling powerless to force my diet on her, so honestly I did not know what to do, but forge ahead a friendship with her with "treats". Any good info for wild ones would be appreciated, because please understand, nutrition is very important to me. I would not have done all I did in researching how to help Wild-Mom if I did not care about her long-term health. How do you get a wild one to eat block? And what else would be good to give her?

Thanks!
Lighten-Up

[TubeDriver]

I give my wilds unsalted almonds and pecans (they like the almonds much better). These treats have protein, fat and some carbs and are among the healthiest of the "nuts", much, much better than peanuts. Because wilds have so much natural foods to choose from, I do not believe that MBD is an issue (as it most certainly is for an indoor, NR squirrel). I think that for wilds, it just gives them a high calorie treat that supplements all the other wild foods they eat.

Lots of my squirrels will turn their nose up at Henries Wild Bites but if they get sick or weak enough, they will eat them. So, when they ignore blocks, I take that as a good sign that they are doing alright. When they eat the HWBs, I figure they REALLY need the additional nutrients and calories!

A few of my wilds do eat Henries blocks and seem to enjoy them but many do not.


Thank you Mel1959 for your words. And yes, I will let you know if I see an improvement in Wild-Mom as the weeks go by. I am very curious to see how it goes. She comes daily to see me, so I have a lot that I can offer her.

Thank you Tube Driver for your thoughts as well. I was wondering if your Patches (perfect name) and my Wild-Mom are so bold and friendly because they know intuitively that they need nutritional support and just have a gut feeling that we can supply it? Just something that I was pondering after I wrote that last long post.

So here is my question- I was actually going to ask it a week ago and never got to posting it. Just what is good to feed a wild squirrel, especially a nursing mom like mine who appears to have nutritional issues? Knowing how I raised my little girls, I tried to feed her veggies and Henry's block, but she refused. Since she is not in my care like my little ones were, I was feeling powerless to force my diet on her, so honestly I did not know what to do, but forge ahead a friendship with her with "treats". Any good info for wild ones would be appreciated, because please understand, nutrition is very important to me. I would not have done all I did in researching how to help Wild-Mom if I did not care about her long-term health. How do you get a wild one to eat block? And what else would be good to give her?

Thanks!
Lighten-Up

[Lighten-Up]

TubeDriver,
Are Henry's Wild Bites much different than the block I have been giving my babies? Because what I offered Wild-Mom was simply the High-Protein block for my little ones.

Thank you for your post. Note that I do not give peanuts. I give English Walnuts, Pecan, Almonds, Filberts, and an occasional Black Walnut. Also coconut chunks and avocado.

[Mel1959]

Wild bites seem to have more peanuts and more aroma. I give the hi protein to my indoor squirrels and the wild bites to my yard squirrels. The yard squirrels turn their noses up at all the other healthy stuff I put out there, like sweet potatoe, avocado, lettuce and even corn on the cob! Wild pickins are good in Florida!! Since they eat the wild bites I supplement them with peanuts, almonds and pecans.

[SammysMom]

This thread really caught my eye. I too have a "Patches" type girl who is the only one who comes and asks for food at my slider while the others eat at the feeders. She will take a picky block if I am on the way to the building in the morning and that is all I have at hand. Reading this, I think she will be getting block regularly from now until her fur looks better...:thumbsup

[Mel1959]

Another thing I thought of,Lighten-up, in regards to the Henry's blocks. I contacted Leigh at Henry's and asked about the different blocks, and she offered to include a sample of them in my order. Maybe that would help you to figure out which ones wild-mom or your other yard squirrels will eat. :grin2 You can also try making your own boo balls, there's recipes listed under Squirrel Nutrition. They might eat them and you can use a variety of ingredients tailored to their likings.

[Lighten-Up]

This thread really caught my eye. I too have a "Patches" type girl who is the only one who comes and asks for food at my slider while the others eat at the feeders. She will take a picky block if I am on the way to the building in the morning and that is all I have at hand. Reading this, I think she will be getting block regularly from now until her fur looks better...:thumbsup

So now my curiosity is really peaked about this.

Why do these "Patches" types approach humans and actually come and ask for food?

There are three people sharing their experience with this, is it coincidence? Are there more?

The other day, I saw Wild-Mom outside my sliding door, looking for food, so I opened it to step outside and give her food, and she stepped inside!? The behavior is so peculiar that it has my interest, and that was what I clued into on TubeDrivers first post about this.

[TubeDriver]

I don't know but it could be that they are really having a tough time getting enough food to eat and are more likely to risk getting close to a person if food is a possability? Or perhaps they have been on their own for so long (away from the other squirrels) that they have not learned to be afraid of us? It is very unusual behavior but there does seem to be a possible pattern here?



So now my curiosity is really peaked about this.

Why do these "Patches" types approach humans and actually come and ask for food?

There are three people sharing their experience with this, is it coincidence? Are there more?

The other day, I saw Wild-Mom outside my sliding door, looking for food, so I opened it to step outside and give her food, and she stepped inside!? The behavior is so peculiar that it has my interest, and that was what I clued into on TubeDrivers first post about this.

[Lighten-Up]

I don't know but it could be that they are really having a tough time getting enough food to eat and are more likely to risk getting close to a person if food is a possability? Or perhaps they have been on their own for so long (away from the other squirrels) that they have not learned to be afraid of us? It is very unusual behavior but there does seem to be a possible pattern here?

Yes, it is the "Possible Pattern" that seems to be emerging that has my interest.

[Lighten-Up]

UPDATE on "Wild-Mom" who has the "Patches" fur issue.

The day after my last post, I was concerned when I saw that she had pink skin on the back of her neck. Up till now, her fur was gone in places, but there was no pink skin, she was always gray. I was instantly concerned that the might have mange, not the skin fungus, and I wondered if my giving her avocado and coconut was hurting not helping. However, I could not see how this could hurt her, so I continued. And the next day the pink skin was not visible and I have not seen that again.

She has come to my back door every morning for the past two weeks, and I give her avocado, and right after that I give her a few walnuts and pecans with coconut oil on them. She usually comes back during the day and then I give her a coconut meat chunk, and more nuts without coconut oil.

So here is the update: A few days ago I noticed that her fur is actually looking much nicer. It is getting more difficult at first glance to tell her apart from the other normal squirrels. She still has a little of the patches markings, but it has been greatly reduced. I'll post again in another couple of weeks if I continue to see the improvement. So far it appears to me that the combination of avocado, coconut oil, coconut meat and daily love seem to be having a positive affect on "Wild-Mom's" fur. :-)