Unhappy fox

As some might know I've been feeding some foxes for a few years now, but a while back I noticed one was acting strangely, it walks all one sided and kind of drags itself along to some extent.
It's head is always down and over to one side as well.

I phoned the fox project charity this morning and they asked me, if they provide a trap will I monitor it, of course I said yes.
Trouble is it can take a week for one to become available.

 

Surely there is not a shortage of the traps. Poor critter. I wish you well in your endeavour.

 

That sounds like stroke symptoms. Good luck with catching it and getting it some care

 

It also will be hard to catch fox in the trap strait away as your smell will be over it, put food in it and up to it, but don't set the trap, get him/her use to it first the then set it, let the fox go in and out of trap then set it is the best way

 

Understand your concern @pete but wonder if catching and transporting it away from its pack would cause it more stress and harm ?

Not meaning to sound cruel, but would it be better to let nature take its course for better or worse ?

 

I'm guessing that they would just put it down unless it's something very simple to sort out.
Kind of been here before and it turned out good.

But this one has been struggling around for at least 2 weeks, I'm guessing it can't compete with the others for food, so is probably starving to some extent.
Tbh, I'm no killer, but if I had a gun I'm sure I could have shot it last night, it's pitiful to watch.

 

There are at least 2 others, so I'm not expecting it to be easy.

 

I think you'll find that once an animal has been caught in the trap and not being the one you want, you release it, it will have learned not to go in there again.

I have trapped many animals, using humane live traps, and placing food in there always easily attracts the little fellows.

I hope you catch the poorly fox and it gets a gentle epitaph rather than being the prey of something nasty.

 

That is exactly what the fox people said, and that I would need to monitor the trap regularly.
At least twice a day, but I'm around most of the time so would know pretty quickly if anything was in it.

 

Sometimes they take awhile to realize that the trap is open so it might take a few minutes for them to walk out. Be happy you're not having to try to trap opossums. I accidently trapped one of those it was a challenge to get him to come out!

 

If I get the wrong one it will be a case of open the trap and walk away, so it can come out at it's own pace.

 

20230619_085333 by pete2255, on Flickr

A bit of video but dont look if its likely to bother you.

 

Oh no, that just makes me tear up. The fox people probably wouldn't even need a cage. Just throw a blankie over it, wrap it and take it.

It obviously feels safer at your property than anywhere else. That's a big applaud to you.

 

I would agree it looks like stroke symptoms. I guess animals can suffer it like humans. Poor foxy. Or hit by a car and a broken spine.

 

You cant get near it, it feels vulnerable I guess so is likely to do something stupid, its very wary.
I took the video over the fence, he's in a neighbours garden and basically just the camera over the fence, not showing my outline.