Foxes are a major reason for the hedgehog decline

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[Derek]

Another one this afternoon
Little girl 250g

left back leg bitten off just above the knee. found curled up at 3pm on a back lawn in Buckhurst Hill ( 4 miles away)

The stump has scarred over so I hope she will make a recovery & I can find her an enclosed garden
She is on Antibiotics, pain relief & wormer

[Hedgehogirl]

Good luck to her, Derek.

[susancee]

This is so sad, Derek, all these appalling injuries that are happening.  I do hope the little girl hoggie does well.

Following on, BWR, from what you have written a little earlier. I am beginning to wonder re the countryside fox.  Up until 12 years ago lived in the countryside, heavily populated by hedgehogs, foxes and badgers.  Although we rarely saw a badger in the immediate area.
Occasionally we made the gruesome discovery on the lawn of a hedgehog pelt. Something had completely eaten the poor litle things insides. A hole had been freshly dug by its predator and it looked as though the hedgehog had been rolled into it - or else its predator had dug around it.
At the time we did suspect it might be our Springer Spaniel, but couldn't see how she managed to do this and would have been uncharacteristic.
Now I am wondering - fox or badger?   The hole dug around it may be a clue to which animal it possibly was?
Sue x

[Ruby]

All these are so upsetting and horrendous for the hedgehogs and for us who care for them and feed them.

I don't know what the answer is, are we encouraging the foxes into our gardens too, by feeding our hedgehogs?  thereby endangering the lives of our hedgies.

Since we got wheelie bins (some 3/4 years ago) we do not have the same number of foxes around.  Every evening, we used to look out of our bedroom window and 5/7 nights saw a fox walking across the road, nipping in gardens.  The dustbins were a good target for the foxes.  Since we got our wheelie bins, they can't get in them and I can't remember the last time we saw a fox, or saw their droppings around the garden.

I suppose the growth of the fast food industry and folks who just discard their rubbish around, encourages foxes into urban areas.  I just don't know what the answer is.

[Hedgehogirl]

I am going to put that video on my Blog and show people the proof that foxes are attacking Hedgehogs. If I can.

[Hedgehogirl]

Could not put the video on my blog. BUT I did do this:

www.allwildlife.blogspot.com

All the stuff there about the Foxes attacking the Hedgehogs, plus all the other issues. And my blog is full of links back to this website & forum. I am now posting the links politly on to other forums etc.

Hope all this helps.

[Derek]

another one tonight

It was the one from this post http://www.hedgehoghelp.co.uk/index.php/topic,921.msg19490.html#msg19490

A female about 250 g  from Potters Bar Herts ( about 15 miles away) left back leg missing

I took her straight to wildlife hospital where she was anaesthetised and wound cleaned & treated

hopefully she might be strong enough to have the remainder of the leg amputated properly in few days

 

[Marg]

That is excellent, Beth,what hard work you must have put in,compiling all that.I am very impressed and I am sure it will help a lot in educating people.

[Derek]

Changed straw in back shed yesterday. Bagged it up in recycling bag and put out last night for council to take this morning. Put it in-between the neighbours' recycling bags which had lots of grass cuttings, weeds, brambles etc.

This morning only my bag was ripped open & all the straw scattered all over the path. All the other 10 or 12 bags completely left untouched. The fox went for my bag because it was smelling of hedgehog poo & pee. What was left of the bag was absolutely stinking & covered in fox urine & faeces

[Marg]

Derek,would that be a way of trapping the fox next time you have a bin bag full of beddding straw? if it was placed inside a humane fox trap?
Or do you think it would be too clever and realise?

Just a thought.

[Derek]

Derek,would that be a way of trapping the fox next time you have a bin bag full of beddding straw? if it was placed inside a humane fox trap?
Or do you think it would be too clever and realise?

Just a thought.

it is worth  trying

[jimmy h]

im, sorry big (D),but my thoughts are with hoggies,over foxes,i love foxes and i know if they are in trouble they can run like billy wizz to get away,and hoggies cant,if it came to a choice to what id like to see in my garden at night hoggies would win hands down,although ive not seen either for two weeks,when you think a fox can take sheep, your cat or dog, a hoggie wont do that,so as sad as it seems,if a fox caused probs to my hoggies i would have to get rid of it,
               long live the hoggies
                  jimmy,

[Simone]

I do not like to see suffering in any animal. Foxes have to eat and unfortunately are not vegetarian. The humane solution to overbreeding of ANY animal is birth control. Here in France one can buy "the pill" for cats which I have done for a stray female in the neighbourhood who was having litter after litter. I am sure it would be a simple matter for fox populations to be controlled by those feeding foxes in their gardens by administering oral contraception. And surely it would be possible to sterilise foxes released into the wild by rescuers?

[Derek]

Another one today

Female about 600g, front leg bitten off above elbow

Found in Cheshunt ( 9 miles away)

The woman says that foxes climb over her garage roof to get into garden & saw 3 of them on the roof the other day

- - - - - - - - - - - -

No Foxes aren't vegetarian but Foxes don't eat the hedgehogs, they just maim them. Foxes are not supposed to exist in such high densities ( an average of  more than 1 fox per garden in many areas). It simply isn't natural

[Derek]

It is heartbreaking to see her walk or try to walk with a missing front leg & keep nose diving into the ground

She has coped for  a few weeks in the garden so I intend to give her a chance and see how she manages

I just really feel I am doing the wrong thing, long term for her but lets see

[dink]

its a hard decision to make,but i think giving her a chance to get the hang of it,is the best choice to make and at least if it doesn't work out then you know in your heart that she had a chance and what better chance has she got than being with you and a couple of weeks with good food and someone who cares is better than a slow painful existence in the wild

[susancee]

Good luck with her, Derek, poor little girl! 

Three foxes climbing over a garage roof to get to the garden is incredible and very alarming! 
Sue x

[dink]

bless her.at least shes in good hands

[Derek]

Another one today, just got back with him

male 620g, juvenile from early this year
Found Walthamstow E17 ( 8 miles away)
bitten off right back leg, with a stump.
 Left back leg is fractured in several places but has set at a distorted  angle and he is walking on it
The fox would have grabbed both back legs when he was a bit smaller & bitten one off but only managed to break the other one. From what I can see of the stump, it would have happened about 1 month ago as it looks almost healed up
Really bad mites on face & ears

[Mouse]

The pain they must endure doesn't bare thinking about and to live through it and survive shows just what wonderful creatures they are. 

It sounds like a real problem Derek and there seems to be no let up for you.

Ali x 

[Derek]

another one here

[Derek]

Edmund has settled down nicely in the shed, sharing it with some juveniles for now. He was "lucky" that he was found and now has a safe place to go.

He has been started on panacur and given Ivermectin & B12

I dread to think of the thousands of others who are being massacred and maimed by foxes and never found.

It is getting desperate now. We have run out of secure enclosed gardens. We used to have a big list of people with enclosed gardens who were willing and able to look after a disabled hedgehog.  All them now have 2 and 3 already. We have had so many. I really don’t know what I am  going to do now.

It is absolutely heartbreaking to see the long  trail of victims that the foxes have left behind, I just can’t keep up with it.

The way things are going, the hedgehogs won’t be around much longer.

Compare the injuries caused by foxes  HERE with the injuries caused by Strimmers  HERE (which are completely different)

[dink]

its a dreadful situation and no matter what we do,we're always thinking what if?  i only have boris to go in my garden,so theres room here if needed and my mums thinking of enclosing her garden,its just a case of securing the gate and sorting one fence out,so more room this way if needed.

[Derek]

Thanks Dink

Just had a call from one of my local vet practices. A girl about 250g, she should have been about 400 from size.

2 broken back legs, the left one so badly infected there was no flesh left at all and absolutely stinking of fox. There is no mistaking the smell a fox leaves.

It had been taken into them a few minutes earlier when a dog found it lying in middle of a local playing field, but vet had left & only receptionist still there so didn't know whether it was savable 

Needless to say it had to be put down. It was in agony and must have been suffering for at least a week to be in that state

[hoglover!!]

Edmund was my boy (Derek's post at 12:21)
I released 2 more with him in April.
I'm very pleased that I found him and Derek has now procured him a home but I'm so very worried that the other 2 might have been attacked too and not lucky enough to have been found.
Also, I find it so strange not to have any hedgehogs visiting fattening themselves up for hibernation.
If I have a fox around who's attacking hogs, as it appears I have, I am very worried to release the only one left in my care!
I just hate to think of all the hogs out there, suffering with their legs bitten off!
PatX

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