Sick animal - Fox or coyote?

18 years ago

Hey all

I got a couple of photos of a creature that has been in my back yard the last couple of days. I am VERY concerned that it is not healthy and since I have a dog and small kids I am converned for their safety. The hair coat is very sparse (mange?) and it is not quick moving. When it ran off it was sort of loping, certainly not acting like a healthy wild animal that is avoiding people.

Would someone offer an opinion of what this thing is and what I should do?

BTW - I have a pretty good telephoto lens on my camera - I certainly was NOT that close!

Thanks

Alexa

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Comments (9)

Elly_NJ
18 years ago
It's a fox. It will soon die and your family will be safe.
caliloo
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks.

I hope it finds someplace else to die - I sure don't want a dead fox in my yard.

Alexa
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Coyotes eat everything they can dead or alive & are opportunists.Here in AZ they take many peoples pets-dogs,cats. They can and will take down a full grown fox or good sized dog or lrg. cat especially if there are more than one coyote hunting together. In Southern Ohio where my sister lives they actually have a coyote watch system set up;when someone sees a coyote in their yard or close by they call a special city number and then a call system actually calls all the houses in the area letting everyone know to keep watch over their pets when they are let out in the yards. We as people have built buildings, streets everywhere and the coyotes have and will continue to adapt to the environment that we are overtaking. They keep smaller animals (rabbits,mice,rats)under control. Everything on the planet has it's purpose even if we humans finds whatever it is to be a nuisance.
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Suzq has it totally right in all points - fox with mange, and it can be highly contagious - if it keeps hanging around you might want to call animal control to remove it. ~Mike
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Jay, I just do not understand why the coyotes seem to be losing their fear of humans lately, but it is obvious they have. I miss the good old days when they turned tail and slunk away like the varmints they are. Maybe too many are breeding with feral dogs and too many dog genes are wiping out their fear of human beings. I am glad that the one Judy's daughter saw didn't come after her. I know it is very rare for them to attack people, but occasionally one does. I have read about the fairly new hybrid Coywolves but aren't we all too far away from wolf habitat to have them here? I am fairly sure we are down here at my end of the state. Since you're so close to Colorado, I could see Coywolves maybe being more likely there. For those of you who haven't seen anything about Coywolves before, here's some info on them: CoyWolf We are seeing the same recklessness on the part of bobcats, but since they are smaller, they don't scare me as much. That doesn't mean I want to get too close to one. I also think we are seeing them out more in daylight, year-round, and it doesn't seem to matter if it is a dry year or a wet year, so I'm thinking they are not necessarily being driven to hunt in the daylight hours because food is scarce. I don't know if coyotes and bobcats feed on foxes, but I assume they do. We see tons ot coyotes and bobcats now and almost never see a fox. I miss seeing the darling little red foxes and gray foxes running up the road. (I wouldn't feel that way if one was trying to grab a small chicken, like a banty of a half-grown standard chicken.) And, one more thing. Ever since the flooding of 2015, we almost never see raccoons in our yard. Before that, we had them all over. We aren't seeing many possums or armadillos either. At first I attributed this to the flooding, and figured it merely swept away a lot of them. Maybe it did, but maybe it didn't. Maybe the predators are eating them. Carol, That's always a possibility. In the bad cougar year, my hands shook so much after an encounter that I had a hard time opening the door. It wasn't even locked, I don't think. It was just that my hands were shaking so much I couldn't turn the door knob. I tried to call Tim and had a hard time operating the cell phone, and it didn't matter because he was in one room with the door closed and his phone was 3 rooms away. (This caused a loud disagreement because I already had told him over and over to keep his phone near him because I was having so may wildlife scares.) The time a skunk chased me from the back garden area to the house was almost as scary. It wasn't that I thought the skunk would kill me, but I feared he'd catch up with me and bite me and then I'd have to have rabies shots. Reading what I just wrote has me thinking I have lost my mind and should just move back to the city. What in the world are all these wild things doing in my life????? We have so much more wildlife now than we had when we moved here. That's not right. They should be afraid of us and should be vacating our property to avoid close human contact, and they certainly aren't doing that. Dawn
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sspye
18 years ago
Alexa,

Have you tried a rehabber or Department of Natural Resources (or similar)? They may try to rehab the animal or euthanize it if necessary.

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caliloo
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks for asking Denise

Yes, I tried the local wild animal rehab center and they said it looks like the fox has mange/scabies which is very contageous. They will not allow the animal in the facility in the advanced state.

They did suggest I contact my local police dept to shoot it, the only problem is I haven't seen it in a few days and I can't assure them the fox will be here long enough for them to respond. The Fish & Game dept suggested I find a friend with a small calibre (.22) gun to dispatch it for me - they will offer a one time permit to eliminate this particualr animal.

Of course, with the heavy rains the last few days it seems to have gone back into the woods behind my house and I haven't seen it. Both people I spoke to suggested it might go into the woods to die and it would be gone no matter what. So I guess I wait and watch

Thanks again for the response
Alexa
webkat5
18 years ago
I would keep your dog on Revolution or other topical preventative (ask your vet)....Sarcoptic mange can live quite a while off the host.
ole_dawg
18 years ago
I don't know what state you are in, but you REALLY SHOULD be CAREFUL. Many times funny acting animals are RABID. Both Foxes and Yotes carry Rabies. Keep your dog and your kids inside. Call the Fish and Game boys again and tell them you think it is RABID. Also call your local health department and tell them the same thing. AND IF THAT DOES NOT GET RESULTS CALL THE LOCAL TV STATION Rabies is nothing to play around with. I have killed rabid animals before twice. Once a bobcat coming right into your yard after our dog.
The funny gate/walk you mentioned is a prime indicator

1eyedJack and the Dawg
daesaflgatorfan
18 years ago
Fox. Please do try to get someone to end it's suffering. Poor thing.
caliloo
Original Author
18 years ago
Update

I haven't seen this animal since I took the photo almost a month ago. I suppose it has passed on somewhere in the woods. The Fish & Game guy said that advanced scabies will also attack the nervous system causing the staggering gate, so I guess I will never know if it was rabies or scabies but neither sounds good.

I also took the dog to the vet since she was scratching and yes, the vet recommended a course of Revolution. Dog had the first application about 2 weeks ago and we are waiting another week or two to do another. The scratching has lessened but isn't completely gone.

Thanks again for the responses and advice

Alexa

Thanks again for the responses,
craig76
18 years ago
Caliloo. You said it rained for a few days.With the condition of it thinning fur it may have died from hypothermia.There is also the chance that if you have coyotes it became an easy meal.Coyotes will kill a fox even healthy one. Fox are competition for food.Only problem here is if the fox was rabid you my have a rabid coyote running around.While no one wants to see an animal suffer there are times that helping does more harm.Nature depends on the sick and weak for survival.

Sick animal - Fox or coyote?

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Elly_NJ

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Sick animal - Fox or coyote?

Comments (9)

Elly_NJ

calilooOriginal Author

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sspye

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caliloo
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