Hi Caroline, I hope that you may be able to offer me some advice as one of my visitors appears to have a broken tail. It looks like it's snapped and it's hanging at quite an acute angle about 5 or 6 inches from the base. Some of the surrounding fur also appears to be missing. I don't know if it could be from a fight, from overenthusiastic cubs or if he may have been hit by a car. Unfortunately he is very shy and so I was unable to get a clear look to see if there was any sign of blood or rawness. This was on Tuesday night and so it would only have happened in the past couple of days as he was fine on the Friday. I am at a loss to know what to do. My local sanctuary is loathe to treat in house and as he is only a semi regular visitor even if I was to borrow a cage trap it would be very hit and miss as the vixen is in and out of the garden all the time, as are their cubs. If it is broken, could it reset by itself or does he need help asap? From the little information I have found in my books and on the web it says that a break can turn gangrenous. In your experience, is this likely? I would appreciate any advice you can offer. Thanks so much.

Hi
This is a difficult one to answer without actually seeing the injury. You would be surprised by the severity of injuries that wild animals can overcome without any intervention at all & this may be the case with your fox although if there is any break in the skin then this makes infection more likely.
The advice that we would give in this situation would be to monitor the fox over several days to see whether the injury improves or deteriorates. Getting the fox into a feeding routine by feeding in the same place, at the same time every day can help as foxes very quickly learn this routine & it will give you a better chance of getting a look at the injury.
If it does not start to improve, or if it deteriorates, then humane trapping is the only option & again, this is made a lot easier if the animal is already in a feeding routine.
Hope this helps - please keep me updated with the progress.

Hi again, thank you so much for your speedy response, and for all your help! I will definitely keep you posted on how he is. This pair have been visiting the garden for the past two years and had four cubs in March :-) I do put food out for them anyway but unfortunately he rarely seems to be able to enjoy any as the cubs are like ganets! Fingers crossed he will be in time to have a 'find' and give me time to assess the damage. I now think that it may have been the result of a fight as I just had a strange fox in the garden having a stand off with the vixen - all noise and posturing thankfully! Couldn't tell if they were male or female, but they did look like an adult, so there may be a turf war going on.Anyway, thank you once again and I will let you know how he is and soon as I've had the chance to see him properly. Enjoy your weekend :-)

Hi Caroline, I'm delighted to report that he is now absolutely fine! I resigned myself to the worst after he was missing for 7 weeks and was thrilled when he then wandered in right as nine pence, albeit it sporting a slightly crooked tail! Whilst his visits are still sporadic he is far more tolerant of me now, so I wonder if he may actually have been in the hands of a sanctuary during the period he was missing. As you know, it never rains but it pours in foxy land-I've just dropped Walter an email to ask about the shelf life of Panomec after having a visit from a little guy who looks to be in the later stages of mange. Fortunately he found food in the garden so I'm keeping my fingers crossed he will be back so I can try to help him.