Mangy Badger

[pat191861]

Hi
Hoping someone can help.
Been feeding a number of badgers outside back door for 2 years or so but of the three that have been visiting for the last few months, one of them was very thin with an open sore above the tail.
Heard somewhere that garlic might help so for the last few weeks have been giving him sausage with sliced garlic inside.
This had a dramatic effect.
While not as big as his siblings, he has put on a good bit of weight and the sore had cleaerd up.
Two days ago I noticed that the sore was starting to return.
Does anyone know if there is anything that can be done to rid him of this horrible infestation for good?

[Farplace]

Welcome to WAB. I don't know the answer, but I wonder if there are any veterinary drugs that you can mix with the food? May be worth asking a wildlife-friendly vet.
jan

[pat191861]

Thanks for that Jan.
May go that route. Would be a shame to lose him to this.

[Hedgehoggy]

Hi Pat, Vale Wildlife Hospital (Home - Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre) have a 100% success rate in treating mange in foxes with Stronghold spot-on added to their food (Stronghold is only available from vets or via online with a prescription from your vets). I’m unsure whether this treatment would also be effective, and safe, for badgers, so I’ve just emailed Caroline (founder of Vale) to this effect and will need to wait for a reply before advocating this product for your badger.

In the meantime, do you have any photos you could post of the afflicted badger?

Oh, and welcome to WAB too!

[wildliferescuer]

Hi
It would certainly be useful to see photos of the badger & the affected area as mange is quite unusual in badgers. It sounds more likely that there has been some sort of injury which may be becoming infected and if this is the case then treatment with Stronghold will be useless.
Stronghold is safe for badgers if indeed this is what the problem is, but I think that mange is unlikely.
Any chance of photos?
Caroline

[pat191861]

Many thanks to both of you for your help.
Seems to be an area of hard skin more raised than surrounding fur.
I always assumed that is was mange given the affected area and him being so thin and also the dramatic and immediate improvement with the garlic but I'm certainly no expert and could easily be something else.
Bear with me and I'll attempt to get some photos.
Regards
Pat

[pat191861]

Finally have a couple of photos of this particular badger.
Not easy and I'm definitely no Simon King.
Hoping that this may give some of you an idea of this fellah's affliction.
Regards

Pat


Btw. This system of uploading photographs seems unnecessarily complicated.
Probably not got it right now!

[Farplace]

Not a very clear photo, but to me it looks more like a bite injury.

[Dogghound]

Badgers being so social and territorial often get into a variety of scrapes with other badgers. This looks like a typical bite wound inflicted by another badger. Badgers often show their rear to other badgers as a sign of submission, this often results in them getting bitten here. Alternatively fighting animals often squirm and circle around resulting in bites to the hind quarters. Some of these rump wounds lack hair and look a lot like your photo. These can also become infected although yours looks normal. The face and shoulders also get badly bitten in fights. As someone mentioned earlier mange is rare in badgers and is often closely associated with TB, as the animal becomes too weak to fight parasites.

Cross post with Farplace

[wildliferescuer]

I agree, this looks like a healing wound, probably bite wound. Doesn't look as if it's anything that needs intervention.