VIDEO: Fox with Hair Loss: Fox on the prowl near Stratford Road and Rand Road in Arlington Heights.

A fox with mange walked right down the middle of Stratford Road in Arlington Heights from Oakton Street to Rand Road Tuesday. Searching for water and food, the fox was oblivious to people and was seen by several neighbors in the area.

Mange is a class of persistent contagious skin diseases caused by parasitic mites. The mites embed themselves either in hair follicles or skin, depending upon their type. They generally infest domestic animals, including dogs and other canines, livestock (such as sheep scab), wild animals and even humans (such as scabies). The infection causes hair loss and severe itching of the affected animal. In people the infection is called scabies

The mites often proliferate near the ears. The fox frequently shook his body and flicked his ears. Most of the hair loss was near the face and ears. Part of the tail and upper legs also seemed affected.

Arlington Heights police received a report about 11:30 a.m. of a bat in an apartment in the 2800 block of East Bel Aire Drive.

The past two nights reports of burglars on the roof or the side of houses have turned out to be racoons on Donald Avenue and on Fernandez Avenue. The racoon on the roof broke a window.

A three-to-five-foot alligator was sighted about 5:30 p.m. Sunday on the bank of the Chicago River North Branch just north of Belmont Avenue. The location is very close to the location of another sighting of an alligator earlier this August.

Chicago police and animal control officers responded to search for an alligator Thursday, August 5, 2010 in the North Branch of the Chicago River in West Lakeview, but suspended the search until after 10 p.m., when the young animal would be easier to find.

A person claimed to have seen an alligator about 11:30 a.m. near the 3400 block of North Rockwell Avenue.
The alligator sighting location was near Clark Park on the east bank of the Chicago River and near Lane Tech High School and DeVry University.

Police Marine Unit officers in boats and a kayak, and officers on land searched the area until just after 4 p.m. A 2½-foot alligator captured on August 6, 2010.

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Update: 2½-foot alligator captured on August 6, 2010.

Chicago police and animal control officers responded to search for an alligator this afternoon in the North Branch of the Chicago River in West Lakeview, but have suspended the search until after 10 p.m., when the young animal may be easier to find.

A person claimed to have seen an alligator about 11:30 a.m. near the 3400 block of North Rockwell Avenue.
The alligator sighting location was near Clark Park on the east bank of the Chicago River and near Lane Tech High School and DeVry University.

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After losing his two rear paws in a nasty encounter with a combine harvester, Oscar the cat is back on his feet after being outfitted with two metallic pegs that link the ankle to the foot.

Professor Gordon Blunn and his team at University College London developed the Intraosteous Transcutaneous Amputation Prosthesis (ITAP) in 2006. A miniaturized version was made for the smaller bone structures of the cat’s skeletal system.

A honeycomb design was developed that mimics the way deer’s skin and fur blends around its antlers. The titanium metal implant attaches to the bone at the point of amputation so that it sticks out through the skin.

The new method enables skin and soft tissue to mesh and grow around the metal rod acting as a protective seal to prevent infection.

The implant is more flexible because it becomes an extension of the bone rather than an attachment.

Prosthetic limbs are screwed to the external bit of the ITAP after the prosthetic heals and meshes with bone and flesh.

Noel Fitzpatrick used two ITAPs on the animal drilling into the ankle bone on both back paws before sliding in two metal rods.

The three-hour surgical procedure was risky because the small ankle bones could be fractured by the drill that was needed to clear a way for the attachment of the ITAP.

Oscar wore through his first prosthetic paws in weeks, so a more enduring material was made for his next set of artificial bionic paws.

From Pubmed.gov …
See research related to Gordon Blun …

Summertime means being outside, and being outside means watching out for ticks. The bloodsucking parasites transmit illnesses like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Jorge Ribas gets tips on how to avoid them.

Department of Entomology, University of Maryland
Professor Mike Raupp’s Tick Tips:
1. Wear light colored clothing outdoors.
2. Tuck your pants into your socks.
3. Apply tick repellent to clothing.
4. Inspect yourself after going outside.
5. Use tweezers to remove ticks.

Ticks are blood-feeding parasites that are often found in tall grass where they will wait to attach to a passing host. A tick will attach itself to its host by inserting its chelicerae (cutting mandibles) and hypostome (feeding tube) into the skin. The hypostome is covered with recurved teeth and serves as a hammer. During feeding, the tick applies an anticoagulant so blood doesn’t clot and an analgesic so the host doesn’t feel the tick feeding.

The blacklegged or deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) is dependent on the white-tailed deer for reproduction. Larval and nymph stages (immature ticks that cannot reproduce) of the deer tick feed on birds and small mammals. The adult female tick needs a large 3 day blood meal from the deer before she can reproduce and lay her 2000 or more eggs. Deer are the primary host for the adult deer tick and are key to the reproductive success of the tick.

A 2006 study by Penn State’s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics indicated that reducing the deer population in small areas may lead to higher tick densities, resulting in more tick-borne infections in rodents leading to a high prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis and creating a tick hot-spot.