OP, what happened to the fox? Could you post an update?

- one PP who recommended calling the experts (not sure if there was more than one)

Anonymous wrote:Actually you’re supposed to leave it alone and let nature take its course. Mange is natural population control.

actually oftentimes it is caused by people or municipalities using poison as pest control. ironically this reduces the predator population which causes the rodent population to increase and thus more poison is used to control the rodents which prevents the predator population from growing/stabilizing .... etc.

https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/deadly-mange-linked-rodent-poisons

i can't say whether this was a factor for this particular fox but i just wanted to note that dismissing this as some sort of "natural population control" without accounting for the fact that humans are actually directly responsible for the increased susceptibility to mange in at least some animals, in some places, at least some of the time, would be -- at the very least -- inaccurate. sorry that the linked article is not from
a peer reviewed journal citing a double blind placebo controlled study (aka "the gold standard" of scientific evidence). i'm here because i'm looking for information on helping foxes as we have a similar problem in my area at the moment and i just found out the link between the rodenticides myself. i thought it might change some perspectives as it certainly did mine

^^we are located in fairfax county near mount Vernon.

Yes. My neighbor threw out raw chicken injected with anti mange medicine to a fox that had mange. Over the next few weeks the coat of the fox (that continued to visit her house for food) started to heal and look normal. The neighbor got the medicine from overseas. She had a big heart and saved the fox.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP. Please do not treat the fox yourself, if anyone is considering it. The expert who you spoke to is right, OP. By treating yourself, you could be breaking the law (I am not sure what “examining it” requires) and could harm other animals.

https://www.wildlifecenter.org/mange-wildlife

Successful treatments are available for mange, so you misunderstood or misremembered what the expert told you.

Please instead call one of the people who I provided links to. It’s kind of you to be concerned for the fox! I hope it can be cured.

I am the PP who saved my fox and I have a very different perspective. Some laws are stupid and should be broken when it harms no one and can save an animal’s life. Just keep your mouth shut about what you are doing and no one will ever know.

Or you can stand by, feel sorry for it, and just let it die so you don’t “break the law.”

Did you read the second half of the post? Of course you shouldn’t do nothing and should call an expert for advice so they can treat the fox. Treatments are available for mange. By treating the fox yourself without being advised to do so by an expert, you could seriously harm another animal who took the medication.

Laws in Virginia exist for good reasons. The advice from different experts online is to not treat it yourself.

Respectfully, I hope that you usually read more carefully.

Respectfully, as someone who treated three foxes as PP did, I think you should try enacting that plan and actually getting a rehab center to work with you before you judge others. It won’t happen for multiple reasons.

I live in Clarendon and we have fixes like this, sometimes running down business district whining. I thought some women was being attacked due to the high pitched whining—turned out it was a Fox that woke many of us up. There is a Fox den behind our elementary school
And they often cross the playground field.

Or the rabies.