One of my dogs has a doggy friend she has known for quite a few years. Her dog had been scratching for a good month around his ears etc. The vet finally realised it was fox mange and she has been given tablets to take once a month for 3 months.

I started reading up on this to see if it was contagious - which apparently it is! Even to humans but it cant live long on humans and dies itself.

My concern is she is still walking her dog around a very busy area with other dogs. And even let my dog play with hers before she told me.

Should I be concerned? Should I stay away? My girl doesn't appear to be itching at all, not lost any fur etc so I am certain she hasn't picked this up...yet.

There are an awful lot of mangey foxes about and even if you keep your dog away from the dog it may well get it from a surburn fox, having said that why court trouble avoid this dog till it is clear of the little beasts.

That's true actually, thanks for that. I'm surprised we haven't had a lot of dogs get it to be honest, I'm wondering as mine is a water baby maybe it's harder for them to get it on wet skin/fur.

Sarcoptic mange is contagious, however, some topical treatments can prevent the mites from parasitising your pooches.

Can you name these treatments please it may be of help.

Sorry nova, unsure of the name. When I see her again I'll ask, depending of if I stear clear of that area, I suppose if the foxs have it though it's unlikely to go.

All I know is she was given 3 tablets that cost £20 each and the dog has to have one a month. Apparently this will also cause the dropped hair to kill anything around in the house too - sound pretty powerful!

I presume the topical treatments for prevention are from the vets?

Edit: oops, I've just realised the naming of the treatments was for the post above yous! It's been s long day :D

> Sarcoptic mange is contagious, however, some topical treatments can prevent the mites from parasitising your pooches.

Stronghold is one... so it might be an option if there's a lot of it about. We get it where I live, as we have millions of urban foxes.

Advocate is another one which is very similar to Stronghold.

> We get it where I live, as we have millions of urban foxes.

I thought I had called all the dogs in the other night.  As I was stood at the kitchen sink, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye (thought I had closed the door on one of the dogs.)

I opened the back door, and called come on in you - and saw a fox look at me before jumping the fence over to next door!

I think I saw a tip on here ages ago, that you can actually use Canasten - has anybody heard of that?

Ooop!  Quick edit.  It was for ringworm I think!

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I know I can get stronghold from the vets too so that's an idea. At the moment we have been going on different walks, think I will see my vet and pick some stronghold up before we return to that walk though.

Thanks :)

My daughter's boss has a Boston Terrier who was attacked by a fox in their garden. He had let him out into the garden just before bed time and heard him screaming. He rushed out to see what the problem was and a fox had hold of the dog by the back of the neck. Her boss had to whack the fox with a garden chair before it would let the dog go. His dog had four puncture wounds in his neck and back and had to have a course of ABs.

My dogs go bananas if a fox comes anywhere near our garden.

I see several most nights when walking the dogs.

I usually first think cat, and then see it is too tall and large.  We also ahve Badgers above the old railway tunnel.

> I usually first think cat, and then see it is too tall and large.

Me too! Bit of an aside... but when visiting the USA and walking in an urban nature reserve beside a river, I saw some horribly deformed stray cats on the riverbank.

Doh!
(they were raccoons...of course.... lol)

> We also ahve Badgers above the old railway tunnel.

Barbara, in your area they are highly likely to have TB - so keep the dogs away if possible.