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'Our' fox

Ali

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We are lucky enough to live in a reasonably quiet area, and backing onto a woodland, heath and marsh area. Earlier in the year we had a fox visit us. We noticed he had a fur problem, so did some research and concluded he had mange. We'd been treating him for a while with medication provided to us by a fox protection charity but we stopped as he was beginning to look better. He seems to be really struggling now though, we still put out food occasionally just to help him out, but he keeps coming deep into our garden to drink from our pond. I saw him about 10 minutes ago right by our back door. His fur looks just as bad as it did before the poor thing.

Yesterday he got chased along the trailway path by somebody's dog. He has such a beautiful face and we all feel sorry for him. I am wondering if we should get some more of the medication.

He's trusting enough to be in our garden, but doesn't like it if I move to get a picture. Hopefully he'll be back later so I can try again. If I had gone into the kitchen at that moment, he probably would have walked into the house. I'm going to see what food I have for him now.
 

Zara

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Just be careful leaving medicated food out as I imagine you get hedgehogs and other little creatures visiting too?

Could maybe put it on a small box so the fox has to climb up? Near the pond (but not close enough for the food to fall in)?
 

dollfish

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Oh yeah Zara's idea is very good. We used to get foxes a lot when I lived in Ankara outside the city, they sure are beautiful creatures. Don't end up adopting the fox Ali. :laughing2:
 

Ali

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Just be careful leaving medicated food out as I imagine you get hedgehogs and other little creatures visiting too?

Could maybe put it on a small box so the fox has to climb up? Near the pond (but not close enough for the food to fall in)?
We actually donget hedgehogs out the back! I don't know where they live but they are only ever seen in the front gardens! It's very odd! We are very careful with it and do as we are told by the charity that provided it.


Don't end up adopting the fox Ali. :laughing2:
Oh, why not? :rofl:
 

AussieBird

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Glad you can help it. Awhile ago we had a fox crawling into our paddock, think it'd been hit by a car, but the only thing we could do was get someone to put it down. :( You're right they have the most beautiful faces.
 

Ali

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We have a family unit around here. We haven't seen who we belive is his brother in a while. We fear he may have been hit by a car in recent weeks.

I love when we get new cubs each year and they're out playing in the street and barking all night. They are so cute to watch.

We know we have deer, badgers and hedgehog here too, but I have only ever seen foxes and deer. The last time I saw deer a here walked down the road led by a stag. We were all put in the road on our bikes and scooters with the neighbours and they just stepped out of the bushes at the end of the road and walked between us. That was the last time I saw the deer here, a few years ago now.

We had a massive fire in between, which wiped out lots of reptiles in particular, as well as other animals. It reached the houses opposite the path from us, but didn't move forward towards us any further. We were very lucky. We even had a school visit when Dorset Wildlife Trust bought in some of the dead, charcoal-like reptiles in jars. It was horrible seeing what had happened so close to me. For about a year after it was all ash and burnt tree. It was a sad sight. We (the South) are one of the only places with all the native reptile species, so it was a real blow to populations.

A bit further away in Cranborne Chase they have been releasing sand lizards to rebuild the population. They were actually bred by Marwell Zoological Park in Hampshire. @tka
 

Shezbug

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I’m so conflicted- foxes don’t belong here and are a massive problem but they’re so darn cute.
I haven’t heard their babies called cubs before, so I learned something new- they go by Cubs as well as kits and pups which are the other two names I’m familiar with.
I hope you clear up that mange and it’s not transferred to your pets. Keeping my fingers crossed for you being able to sneak a pic.
 

Ali

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Keeping my fingers crossed for you being able to sneak a pic.
Me too!


I hope you clear up that mange and it’s not transferred to your pets
We looked that up and the type that cats can get is differ t from that of the foxes, so it should be fine. We're still carefully about it though
 

Khizz

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I read the title of this thinking "fgs hope he hasn't got himself a pet fox" :rofl:

On a serious note I do get really angry at dog owners who walk their dogs off lead when they know they will chase wildlife. If you dog isn't 100% trained to not chase after stuff, you shouldn't be walking them off lead in a forest where there is certainly wildlife. Our nearby forest has issues with dogs running off and killing baby deer, despite their signs warning people to keep their dogs on leads.
 

Ali

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dogs running off and killing baby deer, despite their signs warning people to keep their dogs on leads.
That's horrible, there are plenty of places you could walk your dog off a lead without it harming wildlife, even if your dog isn't fully trained not to chase.

We have had a few dogs in our garden running off the path. I can't belive just how out of control some people's dogs can be/how ignorant people are to lets their dogs do such a thing. It's as bad as people not picking up their pet's business.


I read the title of this thinking "fgs hope he hasn't got himself a pet fox" :rofl:
:lol:
 

Khizz

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That's horrible, there are plenty of places you could walk your dog off a lead without it harming wildlife, even if your dog isn't fully trained not to chase.

We have had a few dogs in our garden running off the path. I can't belive just how out of control some people's dogs can be/how ignorant people are to lets their dogs do such a thing. It's as bad as people not picking up their pet's business.
Exactly! Big open fields...parks...there are so many other options. At least an extendable lead?

That's terrible that they run in your garden! At my in-laws there used to be a public path that was directly through their garden. People would have to come through it to get to the field next to them. People would walk into the garden (take in mind you have to go through the gate, so you can tell it is a garden) and once somebody's dog was off it's lead and chased the ducks! Fortunately they caught it but imagine if it had killed one?!?
 

Ali

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Exactly! Big open fields...parks...there are so many other options. At least an extendable lead?

That's terrible that they run in your garden! At my in-laws there used to be a public path that was directly through their garden. People would have to come through it to get to the field next to them. People would walk into the garden (take in mind you have to go through the gate, so you can tell it is a garden) and once somebody's dog was off it's lead and chased the ducks! Fortunately they caught it but imagine if it had killed one?!?
Farmers alway complain (and rightly so) about that in spring. People walk through their fields with young lambs in and the pedestrians dogs go and kill them!
 

MommyBird

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Predators here (I just kinda kept going from my original point):

We have foxes here and they get the mange also. There's no program here that I know of to medicate them, so that was interesting to read.
Actually there used to be fox farms around here very long ago (for fur trade) but they closed and I guess foxes were released. So, we have some very beautiful and interesting coat colors that will pop up regularly.

The last few years we have had a population explosion of bobcats. They are everywhere, with people posting pictures regularly on NextDoor. A few years ago my neighbors, with their preschool daughter, were looking out of their glass patio door on Christmas Eve and a bobcat killed a squirrel right in front of them on their patio.

There is also a good population of weasels. Some locations have a lot, but I have only seen them 3 times in 30 years. Once was while I was standing at a bus stop, the second when driving by the same bus stop years later, and then two weeks ago when I parked at a small shop in town and one was making his way across the parking lot. I ran in the shop and was telling everyone about it but they were only mildly interested. <<sigh>>

We also have coyotes but I do not hear them very much. They seem to be quite active in grabbing up peoples small cats and dogs that are let outside, even for a few minutes.

Then there are the mountain lions. I refuse to walk to my roadside mailbox when mail is delivered after dark (I love my Mail Chime). We have an abundance of deer and elk here all the time, and there were several incidents recently where mt lions were stalking people. They are quite regularly photographed on peoples webcams and posted, and are also a danger to pets let outdoors.

And yes bears, ah bears. I will be so glad when they go to hibernate!

Edit to add: And just a few days ago, Colorado voted to release wolves in the state! oh boy! (yeah I voted for it too)
 

Ali

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Predators here (I just kinda kept going from my original point):

We have foxes here and they get the mange also. There's no program here that I know of to medicate them, so that was interesting to read.
Actually there used to be fox farms around here very long ago (for fur trade) but they closed and I guess foxes were released. So, we have some very beautiful and interesting coat colors that will pop up regularly.

The last few years we have had a population explosion of bobcats. They are everywhere, with people posting pictures regularly on NextDoor. A few years ago my neighbors, with their preschool daughter, were looking out of their glass patio door on Christmas Eve and a bobcat killed a squirrel right in front of them on their patio.

There is also a good population of weasels. Some locations have a lot, but I have only seen them 3 times in 30 years. Once was while I was standing at a bus stop, the second when driving by the same bus stop years later, and then two weeks ago when I parked at a small shop in town and one was making his way across the parking lot. I ran in the shop and was telling everyone about it but they were only mildly interested. <<sigh>>

We also have coyotes but I do not hear them very much. They seem to be quite active in grabbing up peoples small cats and dogs that are let outside, even for a few minutes.

Then there are the mountain lions. I refuse to walk to my roadside mailbox when mail is delivered after dark (I love my Mail Chime). We have an abundance of deer and elk here all the time, and there were several incidents recently where mt lions were stalking people. They are quite regularly photographed on peoples webcams and posted, and are also a danger to pets let outdoors.

And yes bears, ah bears. I will be so glad when they go to hibernate!

Edit to add: And just a few days ago, Colorado voted to release wolves in the state! oh boy! (yeah I voted for it too)
Woah, you've got a bit of everything!!
 

Dona

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What a cool story @Ali I love foxes especially red ones. I hope he recovers.

Holy mackerel @MommyBird that's some scary neighbors.

We raised our kids in the Hereford Zone, a rural area of Maryland, just 30 minutes from Baltimore. We retired to the suburbs but now my daughter and family live 5 minutes from her childhood home. We saw so much wildlife and now she does too, foxes, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels, deer, so many kinds of birds like my fave pileated woodpecker, but no bears or coyotes. The first day I visited my daughter after their move, a bobcat ran in front of my car at their driveway. Even with their Great Pyrenees guardian dog, they have lost so many chickens to predators. They temporarily gave up and just have goats, dogs and a very protected bunny.
 

budgieluv3

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Good luck!
 
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AussieBird

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I’m so conflicted- foxes don’t belong here and are a massive problem but they’re so darn cute.
This is how I feel about it too :(
 

Aves

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I read the title of this thinking "fgs hope he hasn't got himself a pet fox" :rofl:

On a serious note I do get really angry at dog owners who walk their dogs off lead when they know they will chase wildlife. If you dog isn't 100% trained to not chase after stuff, you shouldn't be walking them off lead in a forest where there is certainly wildlife. Our nearby forest has issues with dogs running off and killing baby deer, despite their signs warning people to keep their dogs on leads.
In the town I live in people let their dogs run and poop wherever they want and the owners don't pick it up. And the dog poop ruins parks, and trails in the mountains. One time a loose dog bit a person's hand. Another time a loose dog killed somebody's pet dog. :extremeanger:
 
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