Admittance date: 1st December 2024
Patch was cage trapped in order to be treated for mange. As you can see in the photograph, she's in a particularly bad state with thick crust covering all of her back end. Despite all of this, she's one of the more feisty foxes we have had in, and it's necessary to use a divider when cleaning her kennel out as she will stand her ground!
13/12 update: Patch is doing better, with a lot of the crust off her back falling off on its own accord. She's still as feisty as she was when she was brought in to us, and refuses to wait until we're done cleaning her kennel before wolfing down her food whilst growling at us at the same time. Surely this fighting fit attitude can only be a positive thing.
19/12 update: Following a short stint in one of the outdoor pens (necessary as she had managed to pull a claw off in the kennel and constant scratching at the door wasn't helping it heal), we opted to release Patch back home. Whilst she is very much bald, she's been in an outdoor pen and has had the time to acclimitise to the weather, and there's no doubt that her fur will grow faster in the wild, without the added stress of being caged up with us. She didn't take well to being handled and her whole experience with us has been a very stressful one. We've no doubts however, that she can hold her own as she is a little fighter and the idea of keeping her in for several more weeks until she begun to grow back some fur didn't seem right. Especially considering we are now getting into the mating season and she'd risk losing out on her one chance of the year to mate.