Rescue
"Anya" must be one of the smartest foxes we've admitted into care!
Suffering with severe mange, multiple sores over her body, infected eyes, and dehydration, she was caught after walking herself into a vets' practice, yes you read that correctly!
Even more amazing was that the vets Anya just happened to walk into, just also happened to be the vets that Margaret, one of our long standing volunteer vet nurses also worked in! We mean, how lucky could Anya be?!
After being contained in the foyer, Anya was able to be placed into a carrier and transferred over to our hospital.
Rehabilitation
Once at the hospital Anya received a full assessment, where the full extent of her mange could be seen. Whilst mange isn't usually the primary cause of mortality in animals suffering with the condition, the, sometimes extremely deep sores caused by the incessant irritation from the mites, often lead to infection which is where complications can arise.
As well as the mange, Anya had also sustained a wound to one of her rear legs, was underweight and very clearly suffering with conjunctivitis, a common symptom caused by the mange mites. Vet, Meriem set to work on cleaning and debriding as much of the crust away from both the deeper wound as well as the several superficial wounds Anya had across her body.
Sitting-bone wounds can be regularly seen on foxes that have severe cases of mange, as they develop when the fox sits on either side of its tail in order to use it's back leg to scratch, and thus develop bed sore like wounds. These can become extremely deep pockets of infection, but, thankfully for Anya whilst there was clear evidence of the wounds developing, they hadn't yet become serious.
After administering some essential fluids, Meriem prescribed Anya pain relief, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatories. Due to Anya's condition, and similarly for most of our mange patients, we have to make sure the patients are stable before starting them on mange treatment, having been suffering for so long, it can be quite a shock to their system due to strength of the medication.
Anya was given the night to settle in, and the following day, after she'd cleared her entire dinner plate, the vet team were able to give the very needed anti-parasitic injection. Over the following weeks, staff, volunteers and the vet team fell in love with Anya, as she liked to regularly sit out and watch the world go by, whilst also letting us know she was out of food... regularly.
Release
Anya spent just over a month with us, not only having the three week mange treatment, but also gaining some vital weight. Weighing just a tiny 3.6kg, she was well under what she should have been for her size. But, as you can see she looks a world a way from the day she arrived, and we were over the moon when the vet team gave her the all clear to return home, where of course Margaret was given the honours!
Happy Graduation Anya!
