Fox Furballs?

[mbaldw]

Hi folks,

this evening I received the below photos from a lady who found what looks like a fur ball from a fox in her mother's garden. I know foxes groom themselves and other members of the family group, but I've never seen or read about them coughing up fur balls. Based on my experience with cat hair balls, it seems a little compact, although it generally seems to fit the profile (i.e. just hair, no bones etc.). According to the e-mail that accompanied the photos:

"It is an oval ball of tightly woven brown fur about 2.5 inches accross and when sectioned just contains matted fur. I found it in my mother's garden and foxes regularly visit."

Has anyone seen these before? If not a fox, any suggestions as to what they might be from?





Cheers,
Marc.

[wildliferescuer]

Hi Marc
Not sure but to me it looks a bit too brown for fox fur & not quite the right texture.
Can't suggest an alternative though.

[Hedgehoggy]

Hi Marc

In all my years of owning cats, I’ve never seen a cat furball look like that! They’re usually expelled as a long sausage shape of wet matted fur in a pool of bile...

If it's definitely not just a clump of matted fox fur, I would go along with the suggestion of a fox furball, although I've never one myself, but the furball certainly looks like fox hair.

EDIT: I was typing whilst WR posted!