Please help...i think 3 or 4 of my wilds have mange...

[precious]

hi...i do not have pics right now but a few days ago i saw one of my wilds with what looked like a vest of no fur....he has no fur at all on his upper body except on his head and his little arms....he wont come to me yet but he takes the walnuts i throw to him....at first i had no idea what it was until i did some reading..the next day to my horror isaw another wild i named cutie with what looks to be the start of mange under her arms....i see her every morning and she comes when i call her ....i cant hand feed her just yet but she comes veryy close....i am so worried....what can i do....the next few days here are suppose to be bitter cold...i named the wild with the bad mange hope.....will she survive the cold? is it possible for this to go away on its own....these suirrels mean the world to me.....morning and dusk rain shine or snow they can count on me to feed them and talk to them..lol..since i started feeding 4 years ago i went from one suirrel in my yard that trusted me to now about 30 of them....i love them so much i cant stand the thought of losing any of them...please help

[precious]

i have not been on in a while but im back....i read that i might be able to treat hope and cutie......any advice will help.....can they survive the next cold month if i cant treat them....

[CritterMom]

Are you certain it is mange? Can you put up a pic?

Wild squirrels that will take food from you can be treated with ivermectin. Do you have any feed/livestock type stores around - Agway, Tractor Supply, any riding/tack shops? They will all sell ivermectin in a tube for horses - it is one of the worming meds that horse people use all the time. Price is usually less than $10 a tube.

Get it home and open it - it will look kind of like a giant syringe. If the stuff inside is a clear or tinted GEL, you are all set. This is what I have seen for all ivermectin for the last few years. It is usually apple flavored.

If you open it and it is a CREAM, you need to get a little plastic container large enough to hold the contents of the tube and squirt it all out into the container - ALL of it, and then stir it up well. The cream, which I don't think they make anymore, would separate and you needed to stir it so it had an equal amount of the meds mixed evenly through it. The gel is much nicer because you don't have to mess with it.

Get yourself some pecan halves and a toothpick. Use the toothpic to get a little bit of the ivermectin THE SIZE ON A GRAIN OF UNCOOKED RICE and put that into the ridges of the pecan. Give 1 dose per squirrel 7 days apart for 3 doses. Do not redose early. Do not let one squirrel get two doses. Ivermectin is very strong and overdoses are fatal.

Now promise me a couple things. If you have questions about ANY of this after you read it THOROUGHLY, please ask first, and again and again if you need to - we would rather answer a hundred questions than deal with a problem that comes from NOT asking. Also, go LOOK at a grain of uncooked rice. They are very small. This stuff works really well with mange but you MUST do it correctly.

If you cannot find any or have no livestock places around you, let me know by PM.

[precious]

hi crittermom
thanks so much for the help. i am going out now to try and get some pics....i looked for them this morning but didnt see them....probably too cold..

[kzrvsr]

I have a question...you helped me last year with my little one and mange. This year, it seems to be coming back again.

Are they prone to get it if they've had it once? Just wondering what causes it.

Thanks,
Kim

[farrelli]

Mange trends to most effect sqs who are compromised in some way, such as poor nutrition. I don't think having it once predisposes to later problems. Right now is molting season though, so weird hair patterns are pretty normal. If you see exposed skin, especially if it's red, then it's more likely mange.