We Need To Talk About Foxes and Injured Legs

 

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If there is one thing I hear all year and every year it is that a fox has been sighted and is limping -not putting much weight on its leg. The leg is usually one of the rear ones although I have observed foxes limping on their front legs.

Unless you see an open wound, mangled leg or blood the best thing you can do is just keep an eye on the fox and usually in just over a week the limp goes although some can get an intermittent limp it usually passes. I had one under observation that would not put too much weight down on its paw and I was thinking it might need treating but as there was no wound and the leg was not swollen I waited. The limp went. Then, one night, a brief territory squabble and the limp was back slightly but over the days went.

A limping fox is a very common sight.

There is one fox I know of that had a bloodied leg and seemed to have a wound -possibly from a snare (in the City). However, it seemed to be healing up. It was drinking okay and eating well and even wandered off to return to the feeder's garden later. Had that fox been caught by the RSPCA the standard practice is to put it to sleep. Kill it. There is "no space or staff to look after an injured fox". The local rescue would also have put the fox down as standard practice. To me this is totally wrong  as any animal deserves a chance but I do not dictate policy. In the case of the fox missing its foot it is doing well.

There are a number of foxes in the UK with a back leg missing and examining the photos shows quite clearly that the leg was surgically amputated. Would a fox cope with three legs? Yes. I've seen it and if you think about it there are a lot of pet dogs that have lost legs and lead a full life.

Foxes are known as "the cat-like canid" because it is very cat-like in the way it moves and behaves. I have seen foxes sunbathing on terraced house rooves, up in trees (and foxes are well known and documented as sleeping and climbing into trees) and they leap over fences and twice I have heard a loud bang as a fox misjudged a leap and whacked its leg on the fence! A friend was sat in her garden one day when out of the high hedgerow a fox peeked out then went back in.

If the fox is a regular through your garden put out some dry cat food or even wet (canned) dog or cat food so that you can keep a check on it but if a limp its low priority. If you see a mangled  or bloodied leg or appears to be dazed or staggering around then you need to call the nearest wildlife rescue for advice and help.

At times the number of limping fox reports outnumbers the number of mange reports so it is common. Again, a lot of domestic cats get limps because of the same reasons making the fox even more of a cat-like canid!