The Reality of Winter

share
0
0

Recent videos from naturewatcher

3 Four Hungry Mouths
Jun 29, 2009
5 Bird Feeder Live Webcam
Apr 27, 2009
49 videos see all

what people are saying

add a comment

2000 characters left.
First collected by naturewatcher
Feb 1, 2009
from urbanextension.wordpress.com
join Your favorite videos on the web, in one place. Start your collection now.

related videos

collected by 1 person

details

29 views

original description

I’m not going to try and soften this story up and make it pretty, it’s the flip side to life in an urban garden. It’s not pretty, it’s painful to watch and it’s not fair but it is real and I think it’s worth talking about. Ratty visits the garden for one of the first times I’ve been studying several foxes in the garden since New Year. There are about five local ones, most seem healthy but not all. For the last week a fox with very, very bad sarcoptic mange has been visiting.  I’m sure it’s not one of the local family group (if it had been I’m sure I would have seen it before) but has been pushed out of another territory and is looking for food. It’s coat is in very poor condition, in places on it’s back it’s bald and it’s tail is completely bare. I’ve named it Ratty. It’s not much bigger than a domestic cat and looks very sorry for itself. Since I first spotted it I’ve been putting out some extra food in a bowl. On the first night Ratty was very wary of it. The local foxes march straight up to the bowl without a care in the world but he didn’t eat a thing, and spent the entire night circling it. more about “Fox with Mange : 27 January 2009 on V…“, posted with vodpod That was Tuesday, since then he’s got much braver and last night was tucking into the food I put out. We had a problem with foxes and mange last year and I managed to get some advice from the National Fox Welfare Society. They sent me some homoeopathic treatment (for free) that I can put onto food, and suggested getting some SA37 vitamin/mineral powder from the pet shop. I used the SA37 last night, and if the fox stays around I’ll start it on the homoeopathic treatment as well. Most foxes with mange this bad don’t survive. If a fox is healthy it’s harder for the mites (Sarcoptes Scabiei) associated with mange to take hold. So, other things you can feed
Flag this Video as inappropriate or broken