injured fox behaviour

[Herman Hellebore]

hi everyone

got back home from work yesterday to discover an injured vixen in our garden (transpires that she'd obviously been clipped by a car and had a fractured rear leg); she was unable to walk, and had clearly dragged and struggled herself some fifty yards or so from the road to a relatively quiet spot - but all along what had clearly been her route, there were plants, shoots and very low branches that had all been bitten off - even a plastic garden bin thing that had been bitten and thrown about - and when we found her, she was having a go at some bracken, even though she seemed to be fairly calm and docile

what's all that about then - just a case of fear, and striking out at the only things she could get hold of, or might it be something like domestic dogs that eat grass to aid their digestion - possibly lessening discomfort - so mrs fox was hoping to gain some pain relief by it all - we've no idea !

we had her collected by the local wildlife rescue sorts, who were carting her off to the vet - we'll be ringing later today (saturday) to see how she got on, but it'd be interesting to find out what her pruning behaviour was all about if possible - thanks in advance !

[valleyforge]

Hi there HH,

This is an interesting post ... I don't know the answer but just as you deduced, I'd also be inclined to think it was by means of distraction from the pain.

Thanks for sharing your observations ... it's from posts like this that we can all learn something new about wildlife behaviour.

Hope the outcome is good for this vixen.

[Lance Morgan]

Injury looks pretty bad probably spinal. I don't think the vet will be able to do much except put her out of her misery. I hope all goes well for her

[ellen h]

I would say its probably a means of distraction of pain too.Injury doesnt look good,but hoping for a positive outcome....
ellen

[Words]

I hope she recovers. I can't add much to the behaviour, though I have seen a healthy fox attack our shrubs for no apparent reason. Biting and leaping into them. He just seemed to enjoy doing it for a week or so, and then the behaviour stopped.

[Picidae]

Agree with VF, an interesting (but sad!) behavioral post. I agree, it's likely a distracting behaviour. As we all know, dogs do this when bored or cooped up if they've been used to a bit more freedom ... although I haven't seen them engaging in distracting behaviour when sick or recovering from injury/surgery though - they tend to milk it for all it's worth! I'm sure that's for our benefit though and wild dogs/foxes are different.

Injured animals also invariably become aggressive when injured - especially wild/feral ones - It's a defensive reaction to pain triggered by the innate survival instinct and perhaps some incognitive reaction to immediate vulnerability. (Also possibly bio-chemically induced as a result of increased endorphins which also incidently might explain the apparent euphoric behavior of some mammals when they are coming into season - ie. some endorphins are known to trigger sex hormones!)

Best wishes for the fox - from the pic and it's inability to walk, my own rough guess judging by the way she's alert and head held up would be some kind of pelvic fracture rather than ''probably spinal'' ... (but we all like to be armchair 'vets' at times don't we! ) Either way, the poor girl could end up with pins and lame and unable to be released back into the wild. It will be a long recovery I'd imagine. Do let us know of any updates and well done for getting the help she needed.

[Herman Hellebore]

bad news i'm afraid - ms fox was put down having been seen by the rescue centre's vet - but rather that than her laying in a ditch for a few days before dying, i suppose.......

[valleyforge]

That's indeed sad, but as you say, you made provision for her to have a 'kinder' end than had you done nothing.

Thanks for letting us know.