Trevor’s Week: Lively fox sprang to life after help
Last week was a busy week again, and with two of our ambulances off the road dealing with call-outs was rather stressful, but we tried to do as much as possible.
We had a call-out to the Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare at Ringmer this week, after staff found a fox in a bad way on their land which they were unable to catch.
WRAS rescuer Tony attended on site and was able to catch what turned out to be a very badly injured fox with nasty damage to its face. Tony suspects the poor creature had been hit by a car, but the wounds were too severe to treat sadly and the fox had to be put to sleep.
I attended to a fox curled up in a summer house in a back garden in Hailsham too.
A lady called to say the fox was not moving and didn’t look very well, so we attended on site to find the fox fast asleep on a bed in an old summer house. As we approach the fox didn’t pay any attention to us it was only when I opened the door that he then sprang into life.
It took a good 10 minutes of moving furniture and other items stored inside for me to be able to get to the fox and catch him so I could safely bring him out.
Once in a cage, we could check him better. He wasn’t too bad but had a minor form of mange across almost all of his body. He is now in care at our centre and being treated. He is nice and lively and responding well to treatment.
We had a young pigeon in this week which had been force fed wet bread by the finder. The bird was very emaciated and in need of help, but the lady had been force feeding the bread which was just expanding the crop which was just getting bigger and bigger all the time.
The crop was massive and solid with food which clearly wasn’t being digested. In these cases the food has to be removed which is not a nice process for us or the bird.
Eventually we managed to remove the majority of the food which was compacted in the crop.
With a liquid food we were able to start the bird’s digestive system working again, but the trauma of the whole incident was eventually just too much for him.
Please do not force feed birds if you don’t know what you are doing or if you don’t have the right food either.
If the crop does not empty then you need to seek help and get veterinary support.
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Weather for Eastbourne
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 4 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North west
