Porcupine pair recovering from mange

Two porcupines are making a speedy recovery after they were brought to the Atlantic Wildlife institute to be treated for mange.

"Mange is a disease caused by a very microscopic mite it's a nasty parasite we see a lot of time in a fox or coyotes because they are very susceptible," said Pam Novak of AWI.

But even people are susceptible to the parasite.

"It's called scabies when humans get it.," she said.

"The general rule of thumb is that if the parasite is over 60 per cent of the body sometimes you can't reverse the damage that's done you lose the animal."

"It's a horrific condition to deal with."

But the two porcupines are showing good signs of recovery. One was found in the Dieppe area in November.

"She's gone through, we go through weekly treatments, parasitic medicine we rehydrate them, getting their skin condition in better shape as well as any other meds that are necessary."

In this particular case Novak was treating the eyes of the porcupine.

The second was found outside of Fredericton and brought to the institute on Christmas Eve.

It was roaming around a woman's house and was concerned she or her family would get quilled.

Novak said the animal probably wandered so close to the house because the mange interfered withits vision.

"A volunteer found the porcupine and were able to retrieve him ... that one probably wouldn't have been alive by now for sure."

In 20years of working with porcupines, Novak has yet to be quilled.

"You get to used to how their movements are. You learn to work with how the animal is moving. I have a shovel to prop him up and move him to get closer to the face."

The animals are known to be very vocal both in the wild and at the institute.

"They're kind of fun to work with. They're quite comical, they get such a bad rap out there."