Admittance date: 4th February 2022
Scar came to us with a nasty open wound on his front right leg resulting in swelling around the affected area. He initially had a course of antibiotics in tablet form, although getting him to eat them in food was rather hit and miss. The wound did heal with daily cleaning but the swelling didn't resolve, potentially due to the fact he wasn’t getting all of the antibiotics. We booked a follow-up appointment for further examination by our vet and for the leg to be x-rayed, to give us a better idea of what was causing the inflammation. Sadly, the x-rays showed that Scar had an infection in the bone (osteomyelitis), which is a serious condition and therefore the prognosis is guarded.
A sample was taken and sent off to be cultured to determine the specific bacteria involved, so it could be targeted with the correct antibiotic, and in the meantime Scar was put on a course of broad spectrum antibiotics which are injectable so we can ensure he is getting them, he’s also being given a strong injectable painkiller. As we await culture results, Scar remains in one of the outdoor pens where he seems quite content, and we can hope that the antibiotics will get on top of the infection.
25/03: Almost 2 months on after being trapped for treatment of his front left leg which had a nasty open wound, there does seem to be some improvement in Scar's leg. Due to Scar not eating any food with antibiotics in, we had to resort to daily injectable antibiotics, and whilst there is still a large swelling on the leg near where the wound is (which is healing nicely), the area the swelling is in has definitely reduced. He’s still not out of the woods yet, but we’re cautiously hopeful. Antibiotics course finishes the 5th of April, and we’ll be getting him back to the vets for an x-ray again once they are done, to see what’s going on/if there is improvement. We’re also cleaning the wound out on top of the antibiotics, and thankfully Scar allows us to do this without resistance.
12/04: A recent visit to the vets with Scar involving an x-ray of the affected leg showed that there was a definite improvement, although still an infection present. It’s the best result we could have anticipated, as it was clear swelling in the leg hadn’t gone down, so to know for sure there is improvement is a good thing. The downside is that this means Scar still needs to stay with us whilst we continue with his long course of injectable antibiotics. The vet has advised to continue the course of antibiotics for another month, pushing the period of time Scar will have been with us to 3 months (once the next month of antibiotics is complete). This is much longer than we like to keep foxes in for, as they don’t take well to being in captivity, but with this issue (osteomyelitis – infection inside bone), recovery generally takes a long time, and we don’t have much option if we want to keep Scar going.
12/05: At long last, after just over 3 months with us, Scar was finally sent on his way home. On the 11th, we took Scar to the vets to have the leg x-rayed which confirmed that all traces of infection in the leg bone had disappeared, after a long course of antibiotics. Scar had been the perfect patient and coped well with being with us in a pen, albeit letting us know he did want his freedom back, as evidenced by regular chewing on the pen frame. We never like to keep foxes in, regardless of length of time, but sometimes it is necessary, as in this case, if they are to survive. Thankfully, it is rare we get foxes in that need to stay in for this period of time, and we were lucky that Scar was patient enough to put up with being in captivity for this long, for his own benefit. Since releasing Scar, we've had confirmation that he's continuing to turn up to the garden he was trapped in.