From Mange to Miracle: Wilson the Abilene Prairie Dog Turns Advocate

ABILENE, Texas (
KTAB/KRBC
) –

The prairie dogs at Red Bud Park are currently being treated for mange. The outbreak was discovered after a sick prairie dog, named Wilson, was found in a residential garage near the park.

The initial call went to Big Country Wildlife and Rehabilitation Center, where President Bessie Hollar said she noticed how friendly he was and knew he could not be released back.

“We came to pick him up, and he was very sick, and he had a lot of mange and stuff like that,” Hollar said. “[Wilson] is very, very sweet, and so, he’s not going to be able to be released back into the wild because of that. But we talked to our vet, and our vet got with the Abilene Zoo’s vet, and we came up with a plan to go ahead and treat these guys on a monthly basis, as long as their symptoms.”

Mange is a parasitic skin disease caused by mites. It can leave lesions on the prairie dog’s skin, causing it to be irritable and itchy, resulting in patches of fur gone. Hollar explained the treatment plan for the locally beloved animals at the park.

“What we are doing to treat that is we are giving them oral medication, and then we are also treating the outside of their burrows. So that way, when they go outside to roll in the dirt and stuff, they’re not also contacting the mites,” Hollar said.

Frequent prairie dog visitor, Elsa Alvarado, said she knew something was different about them, but did not know they were sick.

“My grandkids love to come out here. My kids used to love it. Even my grown-up ones comes, we all come out here and visit them and see them and feed them and stuff. We enjoy watching them,” Alvarado said. “I see they have some spots on them, and we always wonder, ‘why do they have it like that?’ I didn’t know they were sick. I thought they were like fighting or something, and that’s why their fur was coming out.”

Wilson, after completing treatment and recovering, now serves as an advocate for his peers, advocating for education and conversations about the burrowing creatures.

“He’s such an advocate for the prairie dogs, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity for him to also be an advocate with the prairie dogs as well, the Flying Bisons, when they do their throwback Thursdays. So, it’s been a blast,” Hollar said.

Hollar says the improvement in the animals is significant, but they will continue treatment for the next few months.

“95% of them looked fine. We’re hoping to do another treatment to treat the last bit of those, and then we’ll come back in much later to do one additional treatment. If we don’t see any signs or symptoms or anything, then that should hopefully be the last time we train up, and we’ll just come back and check periodically,” Hollar said.

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