Perfectly Healthy Looking Fox Cubs That Collapse Suddenly and Have Seizures

 

One thing that has concerned me for a number of years are healthy looking fox cubs who are seen to collapse and have seizures. In some cases cubs have appeared to recover only to suddenly relapse.  generally a cub having seizures is put down.

In a number of cases I followed when rescues reported the cub dying or being put down after a relapsed I have asked what the vet thought the problem was and what any post mortem revealed. The responses are usually "we don't have the money" (their vet can ask for a free post mortem if a disease is suspected) or "We just take care and release them" and I always found that very annoying.

I understand rescues are basically always on the verge of financial collapse but surely if the animal in question can be submitted for a post mortem it might reveal an underlying health problem in local foxes that they need to keep an eye on?

Also, as rescues release foxes in fox friendly areas any inherent disease, etc., in the foxes will be spread across the country.  Cubs look healthy. Good. Release them in -----. Did the cub or adult come from a litter in which collapsing or fitting cubs came from? No way to know because no rescue has been willing to give basic info on where the foxes were picked up and then released. As far as I can find out only Secret World micro chip foxes.

This year the Bristol Fox Death Project has submitted cubs for post mortem including one which was put down today due to seizures.My personal hope is that we can find out whether this is just a disease or something that naturally occurs in fox cubs. We are already making some interesting finds so I hope we can answer the seizure issue.