Wildlife Rehabilitation through Quality Care and Public Education
I am so excited that my friend Jack’s book “Fox World” is finally out! We met years ago when he contacted me about saving a beautiful Red fox who had Sarcoptic mange. Together we devised a plan to heal this fox, and the fox repaid him with the experience of a lifetime. The book just came out, and I promise you, it is magnificent. It would make a wonderful Christmas gift for your nature-loving friends. https://www.foxworldnow.com/book.html
Wow! Thank you Jim from New Jersey for sharing your wonderful story about saving this fox with Sarcoptic mange using the guidelines we created and posted on our website. Please check out our article about using Ivermectin to heal You truly did save this foxe’s life, and are an inspiration to others who also want to do something for a fox in need <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Check out our facebook page as well
I Think I saved this fox’s life.
I live in Northern New Jersey in a small town only about 30 minutes from New York City. Because my property backs up to a 1,400 acre “Green Acres” preserve, seeing lots of wildlife in my yard is not at all unusual.
In early January this year, a red fox showed up on my front deck. The previous Spring I had a female and her three kits living in an abandoned woodchuck burrow under this deck so seeing a red fox out there not a surprise. What did surprise was how sick he looked (severe loss of fur and numerous sores on his body).
I did some research and found an article on your web site, “Treating Sarcoptic Mange in Red Foxes”. Following the advice in the article, I ordered the Agrimectin and the recommended syringes. I began leaving a small amount of dog food and some hamburger twice a day to attract him to the same spot. Every third day I would inject the dog food with the Agrimectin. “Mangy”, as I named him, came like clockwork. I also set up a couple trail cams to make sure it was Mangy that was eating the food. By mid February I could see a definite change with all the bare spots filling in with fur (though his tail still looked a bit like a “rope”). By the end of February, even his tail started to show signs of fur growing on it. I stopped the medicine around this time but still left him some food so that I could monitor his recovery and make sure the mites did not come back.
He looked quite healthy through most of March. I then stopped feeding him so that he wouldn’t become dependent on my food and would hunt for himself. He still came back at least twice a night or early morning to check for food for several weeks. Now he comes maybe every three or four days.
I’m sending a series of pictures. The first five are from early January when I first began to film him. The second five are from mid to late February. The last is from April 20. They are screenshots from videos so they are not as crisp as a regular photo might be. I think I save Mangy’s life. Thank you for posting that article.
Jim from New Jersey
This female Fisher was very unfortunate. A tree fell on her in the woods and she was trapped for days. A man walking his dog found her, well, his dog actually found her. They called me, but were unable to find it again last night because it got dark. This morning they went out, found the Fisher and it was still alive. Unfortunately, the dog ran up and killed her before they could stop him. I have her body and am going to save her in my freezer and try to get a permit and have her mounted so I can use her for education.
Fishers are incredible athletes! Look at her feet!
This gorgeous jet black male mink was caught in a trapper’s snare and suffered an injury to his right front leg. He was released when he fully recovered.
The weasel was released over the weekend. I’m sorry I don’t have pics of the release for you, but she was VERY wild and very elusive and I must respect that.
She entered life in the wild via a process called “Slow Release” where she is given the opportunity to familiarize herself with the surroundings in the safety of her cage, and then the door is opened and she is allowed the freedom to come and go as she pleases. Food, water and a familiar shelter for her were provided for her to come back to as needed. I won’t reveal the location, but it is excellent weasel habitat, loaded with mice.
Above are a couple photos of her being raised. As she became a young adult, her natural instincts began to reveal themselves and she did not want to be handled and began to become more secretive in her movements. Though followers would have loved to see her all grown up, my responsibility to her is greater, so that is why there were no more photos of her. I appreciate your understanding this.
One of the things that you will find we do NOT do here at Fox Wood is exploit our wildlife. We don’t get the donations that result from the exploitation of displaying animals in uncomfortable public settings or putting them on public display here at our facility. What we do here is strictly for the animals, not for the money, not for our ego’s. That is what sets Fox Wood apart. We rely only on donations from people who understand what we do and why we do it.
In May and June Fox Wood receives many calls from well meaning people who are worried about an “abandoned fawn”. It is important to know that fawns are born with a natural defense mechanism. When fawns are first born they have no appealing scent to predators and they have an amazing ability to lay perfectly still and quiet, allowing the fawn to hide in plain sight. The mother deer does not stay with her fawn because she does not want to alert predators to her baby’s location. She comes back to her fawn throughout the day and night, but only when it appears there are no humans or other predators around. She feeds and thoroughly cleans the fawn to erase any scent they may have. Instinctively the fawn knows that when mom leaves, it must lay very still and silent in the location mom left it. Since the fawn does not move and no mother is present, people often think it is abandoned. Because of this, healthy fawns are often “kidnapped”.
A doe may keep her babies in the short grass area, near your home, in your garden, etc. for the first 3 days, not in the woods where the predators are hunting. These first days a fawn can’t outrun a predator, so they go limp when someone picks them up. They are not dying, they are playing “possum” so you will not be interested and put them down. With twins, a doe will leave one baby in one place, and then 300-500 feet away, she will leave the other. She then goes off to the closest hiding area and forms a triangle so she can watch over both, unseen, until it is time to feed again. She will not let them travel with her until they are old enough to keep up with the herd, but she is never far away.
There are times when a fawn will not express normal fawn behavior. We will usually be concerned when we get a call about a fawn that is wandering around crying out. This is not natural behavior as it attracts predators. Diarrhea, flies, falling down, limping, twins together and obvious wounds are all signs of a fawn that needs help. If you suspect a fawn needs help, or just want to make sure a fawn is OK, you can contact us or your local Conservation Office for direction. In closing, remember the fawn that is lying still in your yard or garden is just nature’s way of giving us one more reason to smile. The fawn will leave on its own in just a couple of days, so take a picture and leave the baby for its real mother
This opossum was found on the side of the road in a snowbank, too weak to move because she was starving. I gathered her in a towel and brought her home. For the first couple days it was touch and go, and I was only able to feed her small amounts of chicken noodle soup. She started regaining some strength, and soon started eating on her own. She will be released as soon as the weather breaks and there is plenty food around for her.
It’s that time of year again folks! The baby big brown bats that often roost in attics and eaves of our homes are learning to fly! They will often follow a stream of light from inside your home at night, thinking that it is daylight and it is the way to get outside to catch bugs.
If you don’t enjoy bats flying around inside your home like I do, buy a tube of caulk and go over any cracks where walls meet ceilings, chimneys, window and door jams. Take duct tape and go entirely around wherever the door is that goes into your attic space. Stuff insulation material in larger spaces, such as where the stove pipe goes up through the house. Remember, bats follow streams of LIGHT to find daylight and outdoors at dusk, so the object is to seal off cracks in your living space where light from a TV, nightlight etc might stream into where they are roosting, fooling the youngsters into thinking it is the way outside.
If a bat does get into your house, don’t panic. grab a bath-sized towel and gently toss it over the bat and gather it up and take it outside. Bats are very delicate, like hummingbirds!
The NYS Health Department might want to test a bat that has been in your sleeping area while you were sleeping, so you might contact them first if you are concerned.
