Fox family updates

We’ve been continuing to feed a family of foxes in Aberdeen along with some other volunteers after spotting the mother ill with mange a couple of months ago. The mother, Rita, is looking much better after receiving her treatment. We’re confident all her fur will grow back and by winter she’ll be a healthy fox again. But for the cubs it’s a different story.

On the camera a couple of weeks ago I spotted this cub that looks blind. You can see her sniffing her way around and with very squinty eyes that she can’t seem to see out of. I contacted Fox Angels and they said it likely this cub has mange as it causes conjunctivitis which can make it difficult to open your eyes.

Treating the cub was going to be difficult because we weren’t even sure how many there are and they’re tricky to tell apart. Plus at that time we were mostly only seeing them on camera.

Not long after seeing this video I ran down one day down before lunch and found the gate to a car lot I’d seen the foxes run into was open. I hovered around the entrance when someone came and asked if I needed help. I explained I’d been feeding the local fox family and that I’d seen them run into their yard. The man pointed to an upstairs room in an abandoned building adjacent to the car lot and said they were living in there. He let me go up to look and it was a very sorry sight. The whole place stank and there were bird carcasses everywhere. The door to the room was shut but the foxes were getting in and out through a hole in the ceiling. I opened the door tentatively and peered inside. There was one fox cub sitting on the windowsill looking out. She immediately jumped to the floor to hide when she saw me. I also saw a dead cub in there – no doubt the source of the smell. I put some food down and left but talked to the guy about returning to remove the dead animal in a couple of days.

By this time more medication to treat manage had arrived from Fox Angels and we volunteers were planning how to treat the blind cub. A couple of the volunteers went into the room again and treated one of the poorly cubs. Unfortunately two of the cubs have conjunctivitis and we only treated one of them but are not sure which one so we now have a waiting game to see which cub recovers and which one gets worse. It’s important not to double-dose with mange treatment as it can destroy their kidneys and liver. The other bad news is a second dead cub was found in the room. It was hidden behind furniture at the back which is why I hadn’t seen it when I first entered.

From what we now understand, Rita originally had five cubs and two have died. We don’t know how they died. I removed the dead bodies and I could see no signs of mange. I think they had been dead for a week or two already. Possibly they got stuck in the room and were too little to jump up and out through the ceiling then died of dehydration – that’s just my guess.

At 5:30am today this cub appeared on the camera and I think this is the one we still need to treat. She is developing a crusty snout which happens as mange gets more severe and she’s starting to lose the fur from the base of her tail.

It’s a really horrible environment for the fox family as it’s an industrial area with no nature other than weeds that probably get poisoned from time to time. It’s not surprising they’re all so sick. But the good news is there are many people looking out for them. It’s heartwarming to see so many people concerned for our wildlife.

Ted, the adult male, looks very healthy. I got this great footage of him a few days ago.