fox apears injured

[tameblackbirds]

Posted this picture few days ago in 'mammal of the day' well saw what I think is the same fox,as it travels the same route in the garden, but it was noticeably hopping. It was carrying its one hind leg. This was about 3ish this afternoon. I have put two chicken portions out for it, just checked still there. hope it is ok.

[wildliferescuer]

Hopefully it is a minor injury & it will improve over the next few days. It could be as simple as a thorn in the pad of its foot.
When we get calls like this, if there is no obvious major injury we advise feeding & keeping an eye on it for a few days & if it deteriorates we will trap the fox so we can properly examine it.
If you let me know where you are I can see if there's a wildlife hospital in your area.

[Wild-Woman]

Foxes have been know to break a leg and still get around on it until it heals. Infact there was a study of foxes skeletons a few years ago and I think that it was about 30% of them had healed fractures. Amazing really, their pain threshold must be much higher than ours.

[mbaldw]

Infact there was a study of foxes skeletons a few years ago and I think that it was about 30% of them had healed fractures.

Spot on! The study was carried out by the biologists at Bristol University. They examined 331 fox carcasses and found that 91 (27%) had at least one bone fracture that had healed naturally. The researchers also noted an increase in the incidence of fractures with age: they found ~30% of foxes aged six to 12 months old had at least one healed fracture, while some 70% of foxes over five years old had at least one healed fracture. Apparently, males were also slightly more prone to breakages than females – presumably because they're more active than females during the breeding period. I'm not sure where these data actually ended up being published, but if I had to guess I'd say they formed part of Prof. Harris' Ph.D thesis. Anyway, following on from this, in their book Urban Foxes, Stephen Harris & Phil Baker tie these data to those of a related (subsequent?) study -- published in the Journal of Archaeological Science during 1977 -- and write:

"These injuries [skeletal deformations caused during healing] may sound horrible, yet once healed seem to cause the fox surprisingly little inconvenience, although one consequence of all these injuries was that the foxes were more susceptible to arthritis."

Indeed, the 1977 study found that 34.5% of studied foxes from London were found to be suffering from spondylosis deformans (I believe from ancient Greek spondylos, meaning “vertebra”), which is osteoarthritis of the spinal cord.

Cheers,
Marc.

[tameblackbirds]

well! last night I put out two chicken portions and guess what..... midnight woken by the most horrendous screams... guess they had dined out on my chicken and things had developed not sure if it is the male or female that is injured but by the sounds of last night it obviously isn't having too much effect

[galanthus]

Really pleased to hear that tameblackbirds

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by mbaldw

Spot on! The study was carried out by the biologists at Bristol University. They examined 331 fox carcasses and found that 91 (27%) had at least one bone fracture that had healed naturally. The researchers also noted an increase in the incidence of fractures with age: they found ~30% of foxes aged six to 12 months old had at least one healed fracture, while some 70% of foxes over five years old had at least one healed fracture. Apparently, males were also slightly more prone to breakages than females – presumably because they're more active than females during the breeding period. I'm not sure where these data actually ended up being published, but if I had to guess I'd say they formed part of Prof. Harris' Ph.D thesis. Anyway, following on from this, in their book Urban Foxes, Stephen Harris & Phil Baker tie these data to those of a related (subsequent?) study -- published in the Journal of Archaeological Science during 1977 -- and write:

"These injuries [skeletal deformations caused during healing] may sound horrible, yet once healed seem to cause the fox surprisingly little inconvenience, although one consequence of all these injuries was that the foxes were more susceptible to arthritis."

Indeed, the 1977 study found that 34.5% of studied foxes from London were found to be suffering from spondylosis deformans (I believe from ancient Greek spondylos, meaning “vertebra”), which is osteoarthritis of the spinal cord.

Cheers,
Marc.

Im halfway through the "Urban foxes" new edition (i read the old edition a year ago), with all this in. The bit I remember is the fox whos leg was a few inches shorter than the others because the bone had broken and shifted up before the two halfs fused together again. But this was a years old injury so the foxes wasnt handicaped by it

[tameblackbirds]

me too as we had a family of foxes 20 yes 20 years ago the first spring we moved into our home never saw a fox again until two summers ago. Then a family was raised again and two out of three cubs survived. And they are back again and it sounds to me like a family will be here again next spring

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by tameblackbirds

well! last night I put out two chicken portions and guess what..... midnight woken by the most horrendous screams... guess they had dined out on my chicken and things had developed not sure if it is the male or female that is injured but by the sounds of last night it obviously isn't having too much effect

Its a amazing how quick you get better with the right offer

[tameblackbirds]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

Its a amazing how quick you get better with the right offer

Thinking of putting candles out tonight