Fox with mange treated in wild with one pill in northern Ontario

A northern Ontario animal rescue worker who has been working with wildlife for decades is using a new method to help foxes with mange.

Young fox with mange given pill to treat its parasitic skin disease while staying in the wild. Aug. 23 (Jim Johnston)

Jim Johnston of Elliot Lake is an 80-year-old man with a long history and interest in wildlife.

He is one of the people responsible for Ontario's Bear Wise program and currently volunteers for Turtle Pond Wildlife Centre in Greater Sudbury.

Recently, a young fox suffering from a parasitic skin disease has been seen around his small northern town, which is situated between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie.

"So over the years, I had done about 19 foxes with mange. I've taken them into rescues and then, when they're treated and healed, we would have to bring them back to the area where they were captured and do the release," Johnston said.

"What we tried a couple years ago, was instead of trying to capture, transfer, treat and bring back and release, we started using a one-pill treatment for these microscopic parasites, which is called sarcoptic mange and it's the same disease as scabies in humans." 

The Bravecto pill they use is about the size of a "Tums tablet" and is the same medicine vets use to treat fleas and ticks in dogs.

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"So what happens is the little insects burrow into the fox's skin and become infected and then it gets extremely itchy and they start scratching they lose their fur," Johnston said about mange.

Young fox with mange near an Elliot Lake road. (Shari Foden)

"In the past, what we used to do, I would live-trap a sick fox and we would take it into the rescue and they would treat it with Ivermectin at that time."

The old process, he said, was quite costly and time-consuming.

"That was very onerous because every time you would capture one, you'd have to get somebody to drive it in from Elliot Lake to Sudbury and often it was later in the day, so we were putting people on the road many times coming home after dark, which I didn't want to do with my volunteers," Johnston said.

With the Bravecto pill, it is administered in the wild based on the estimated weight of the animal and after a week and a half, it will start to show improvement.

However, getting to the animal after a sighting can prove to be difficult.

LURING FOX WITH HOT DOGS

Johnston had been tracking the fox for several days after multiple calls and sightings.

Finally, early last week, he said the town bylaw officer spotted the fox at the local cemetery and was able to keep it there for the nine minutes it took for Johnston to drive across town.

Fox with mange at Elliot Lake cemetery given Bravecto pill in a hot dog to help treat its parasitic skin disease. Aug. 23 (Jim Johnston)

"I had my kit all ready with some wieners in it," he said.

"I had a little hot dog all cut up into tiny pieces and I just threw it out and even though its eyes were almost crusted shut, it was about 40 feet away and it saw the little tiny piece of hot dog and came running over and grabbed it."

Elliot Lake residents are concerned about a little fox with mange being seen around town. Aug. 23 (Shari Foden)

He gained its trust with several more pieces of hot dog before slipping the pill in one.

"I wanted to make sure that, you know, that it ingested the medications so it came running up and ate the hotdog and the pill," Johnston said.

"It's a lot easier, but it takes time to locate it and get there when the animal is available. And usually at that point in time, they're starting to fail a little bit, so they're hunting capability has declined so they are usually quite hungry."

Sightings of the fox are still being reported and it is still doing OK, he said adding they expect to see improvement over the next week.

HOW AVAILABLE IS BRAVECTO?

Bravecto is only available through a prescription from a veterinarian and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry only permits registered wildlife rehab centres to do this type of treatment.

"I had some people asking if they could start doing that, but there has to be some controls," Johnston said.

"The ministry doesn't easily offer everybody to do this type of thing because their main approach on most animals is to let nature take its course. But it's kind of hard sometimes when a lot of the problems with nature is caused by humans, not to try to help and intervene. So we try to do what we can."