Coyote fur problem

[J0HN_R1]

So I shot 2 coyotes last Friday, skinned one Saturday & the other on Monday. First one went fine, but this second one...

First real problem I had was flipping it after the salt & borax mixture, it split up the side (in the crease was from where the edge of the board would have been). I had to rehydrate it & perform a 13" stitching job (I use real surgical needles with thread fused to the needle).

But when I originally washed it after skinning, and still now after washing it a second time, the fur is... Well... The only way to describe it is "matted", kinda like my mothers Shih Tsu. Like hundreds of little balls of fur, all matted together.

This is only on the light greyish base-coat, all the guard hairs look fine. Usually, when I put them in the tub to wash them out, the hair will go all wavey like a Vidal Sassoon commercial. Not this one...

Any info/tips are appreciated, I'm already committed to the obvious/obligatory "comb it out" comments. Thanks in advance.

[kingrat]

Why the salt and borax treatment? And not much u can do with matted fur better off to leave it.

[pikeslayer22]

Mange?

[shakeyleg02]

Originally Posted by kingrat

Why the salt and borax treatment? And not much u can do with matted fur better off to leave it.

X2...as for matts you could try a hair detangling spray may help ..

[Camdec]

Originally Posted by pikeslayer22

Mange?

That's what I'm thinking. Only time I've seen coyotes matted like that is due to mange. Any pictures you can post?

[J0HN_R1]

Salt & Borax - I originally bought 8lbs of salt (last year) to do my coyotes with. This year, I decided to try Borax, but still had lots of salt left. So since they're both products to speed up the drying process and they're compatible, I mixed them.

After allowing the fur to dry in front of a fan, I can see that it's just matted fur. I have already pulled a substantial amount of burdocks from the fine base hair, an there seems to be no end to them.

When I run my hand over the fur, while the coyote is boarded, it feels like there's popcorn under the fur... What's bizarre is that originally I thought this dog had the nicer looking fur of the 2.

And I don't think it's mange. I'll take some pictures later.

[sanjuanworm]

We'll just have to get some more.