Is mange contagious?

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

My neighbor found a litter of kittens from some stray cats in the neighborhood. We had seen 1 or 2 kittens at a time, but never found the litter. Well now its been found, and they have mange. Is that contagious? Will the other animals in the neighborhood catch it? Would it be worth the expense of treating the strays or will they keep getting it? It looks like there are 6 kittens with it. Does anybody know what is involved in mange treatment and how much it costs?

[Melissa in Australia]

Mange is actually little bugs, so it isn't contagious as in a disease, but they do spread to other animals. Here dogs mostly get it from wombats. I have a cow that we need to catch and treat that has mange.

[ChristusG]

Depends on which kind it is. There's demodectic and sarcoptic mange. We just found out our little Jack Russell/Chihuahua has demodectic mange. It is genetic, non contagious, and brought on by stress. It can be treated and will usually not return. We are in the process of her having weekly dips with a strong solution that kills the mites. After six weeks we will have her skin tested again to see if they are still there. It is costing us less than normal since my sister is a vet tech and is doing the dips herself (her vet allowed it) so we just had to pay for the skin test, the bottle of shampoo (around $60) and another skin test at the end.

 

Sarcoptic mange is very contagious (and it sounds like what the kittens might have since all of them have it). It can spread to other animals and even people. It is called scabies in people. This mange is worse than the other kind since it can cause swelling, itching, infection, etc. I think it is more difficult to treat too.

Edited August 1, 2010 by ChristusG

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Sarcoptic mange is very contagious (and it sounds like what the kittens might have since all of them have it). It can spread to other animals and even people. It is called scabies in people. This mange is worse than the other kind since it can cause swelling, itching, infection, etc. I think it is more difficult to treat too.

 

 

:eek: Any suggestions on what to do? They are strays so I dont want to sink a whole lot of money into them, let along having to track them down to do treatments. I certainly don't want our dogs to get it- or us-scabies?? :ack2:

 

Right now its not a huge deal because they are very rarely out, but soon they will be all over the neighborhood. :001_huh:

[hazilsara]

From my experience, cats are much more susceptible to ring worm, and if they have a bad case, it can appear alot the same. Have the cats actually been diagnosed by a vet? If not, there is a cheap way to check for ringworm at home: get a black light! Spencers in the mall usually has them, we got a little hand held, battery operated one for under $15. If you can catch one of the kitties, take it into a dark room, and shine the black light over the scaly areas. If it glows...sort of a speckley appearance, its actually ringworm!

 

Unfortunately, ringworm is still highly contagious, to other animals, and to humans, but it can be treated with OTC ointments. We adopted a semi-feral street kitten, who had it pretty bad, and he had to be shaved so we could put the ointment on all his scaly spots, twice a day for at least 2 weeks! From that experience, I would strongly suggest keeping your kids and any other animals away from the kittens! Unfortunately, there's really no good one-time dosing for this, or at least not that's AT ALL cost effective! As much as it pains me to say it, you might be doing the kittens a favor by taking them to the humane society--if it gets bad enough they'll loose weight, not have the coat to survive cold weather, and generally die a sad and wasting death. Euthanasia might be preferable for the poor little guys! :crying: On the other hand, if you can treat them, I of course would applaud that choice even more!!!

 

Good Luck!!

[hornblower]

Well, either you & the neighbour take responsibility for the litter - which means vet treatment, vaccines, deflea & deworm + pediatric spay/neuter, or you need to find a cat rescue to take them, or take them to the shelter. It can get expensive quickly to do the treatments - a non profit cat rescue is able to fundraise & can often get discounts at vets....

 

It's hard & often expensive to do the right thing wrt to animals.

 

The other thing is that mom needs to be caught & spayed. If she's feral, she'll need to be trapped - again a cat rescue will have humane traps. She must not be allowed to breed again. Too many kitties in the world already :-(

[vettechmomof2]

From my experience, cats are much more susceptible to ring worm, and if they have a bad case, it can appear alot the same. Have the cats actually been diagnosed by a vet? If not, there is a cheap way to check for ringworm at home: get a black light! Spencers in the mall usually has them, we got a little hand held, battery operated one for under $15. If you can catch one of the kitties, take it into a dark room, and shine the black light over the scaly areas. If it glows...sort of a speckley appearance, its actually ringworm!

 

Unfortunately, ringworm is still highly contagious, to other animals, and to humans, but it can be treated with OTC ointments. We adopted a semi-feral street kitten, who had it pretty bad, and he had to be shaved so we could put the ointment on all his scaly spots, twice a day for at least 2 weeks! From that experience, I would strongly suggest keeping your kids and any other animals away from the kittens! Unfortunately, there's really no good one-time dosing for this, or at least not that's AT ALL cost effective! As much as it pains me to say it, you might be doing the kittens a favor by taking them to the humane society--if it gets bad enough they'll loose weight, not have the coat to survive cold weather, and generally die a sad and wasting death. Euthanasia might be preferable for the poor little guys! :crying: On the other hand, if you can treat them, I of course would applaud that choice even more!!!

 

Good Luck!!

 

I agree about the possibility of ringworm.

[weaver_67579]

Well, either you & the neighbour take responsibility for the litter - which means vet treatment, vaccines, deflea & deworm + pediatric spay/neuter, or you need to find a cat rescue to take them, or take them to the shelter. It can get expensive quickly to do the treatments - a non profit cat rescue is able to fundraise & can often get discounts at vets....

 

It's hard & often expensive to do the right thing wrt to animals.

 

The other thing is that mom needs to be caught & spayed. If she's feral, she'll need to be trapped - again a cat rescue will have humane traps. She must not be allowed to breed again. Too many kitties in the world already :-(

 

what she said and:

 

try and find a rescue group that will treat and place the kittens. The list in the title line is where to start to find local rescues.

 

Also agreeing with hornblower about spaying (and vaccinating) the Mom. We do Trap Neuter Return (TNR) here at the farm and it has made a huge difference in the number of and health of the resident ferals-and by extension the neighborhood animal population. There are often spay/neuter groups around that will provide free/reduced spay/neuter services for ferals. Most of them have live traps to borrow and will help you with information on how to trap. Some vets and rescue groups will also let you borrow a trap. Alley Cat Allies is a large feral cat advocacy group that may have some local contacts that can help you out. Just type that into a search engine.