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Fantastic Mr Fox!

Last week we had a fox brought into us from Weston super Mare. He had climbed through an air vent and was on a suspended ceiling. Unfortunately the ceiling was not made to take any weight and much to the surprise of the people below, he fell into an indoor market. Luckily it was a handbag and luggage stall and he landed safely on a suitcase. He was suffering from concussion and was very quiet when he arrived here.

Fantastic Mr Fox

He was checked over by our veterinary nurse and given a few days in a warm pen with food on supply. By the weekend, he was fully recovered and I was able to take him back to where he came from. Luckily there was a park nearby so I went out about mid-night on Sunday and set him free. He certainly had a fantastic escape!

 Our last group of fox cubs are going today. We have had so many this year and it is always hard to find enough release sites for them. Quite a few of the groups have been passed on to us by other wildlife centres that don’t have the grassed paddocks to hold them in until they are able to look after themselves.

The new adoption soft toy is arriving soon and it is the last of the adoptions that we shall be doing. It’s a lovely plush fox so we shall have to see if it is as popular as the otter, badger and hedgehog.

Speaking of hedgehogs, one of our inmates has lost nearly all his spines and is a rather sorrowful picture as he is suffering from ring worm. Crusty ( as he has been lovingly named by Simon ) is nice and warm in his incubator and hopefully once his treatment starts to take effect, he should start to grow a few spines.

Crusty, the Hedgehog

The injured fox that came in last night seems to be suffering from concussion but it has eaten all it’s food so we are going to continue supporting it and see how it progresses.

The young deer, I’m almost sure is blind and the leg injury is an old fracture. The sight problem would be the reason for it just sitting on a drive in a housing estate. It freaks out when you touch it so we have put food around it and will leave it quiet for today.

The other fox cub that came in from a vets on Saturday night, again is eating his food but obviously has some neurological symptoms. A lot of the pigeons, crows and magpies were picked up over the weekend to be released by the people who brought them in so our aviaries have emptied a little

Helen, our work experience student, is on her third week and is feeling more at home. She certainly is a great help and today was busy in the hospital room – mainly pellet feeding pigeons and many other baby birds! Students are so much help at this time of year.

Helen, our work experience busy in the Hospital Room

Luckily we are going to be able to use an enclosure that one of our supporters has in his garden for a group of fox cubs as all our grassed enclosures are full. Most of the fox and badger cubs are being fed at night now so it lots of bowls of food that all has to be made up for the evening shift.

Managed to do a bit of weeding in the evening while Derek, the roe fawn charged around the front garden. There was quite a few visitors to so it was past 10 by the time we sat and ate our dinner. Still very hot even in the night.

Great Tits, some of the many birds needing feeding in the hospital room

The badger cub and her fleas!

Wednesday June 24^th

Managed to finish a bit more of the front garden . I’ve nearly finished and then I can move to the garden around the side of the house. Dave, one of our volunteers rang while I was out there to say he was bringing in a badger cub and injured squirrel but would not be here till after 11 30.

I went on with feeding the fawns in the kitchen while I waited and Marie also kindly stayed on although she was meant to finish at 10. Dave and his wife, Rosemary got here just after 11.30. Marie saw to the squirrel which was not able to move its back legs but could move its tail. We decided to give it pain relief and give it the benefit of the doubt. Its back was not broken if it could move its tail but it looked like a broken pelvis. A quiet night was all we could do at this stage. He was still lively as he had managed to bite Dave and Marie was careful when she injected it.

The badger cub had obviously lost mum. It was very under weight and found in someone’s chicken house. She had come complete with fleas so we sprayed her and left her for a while as the fleas jumped ship ! Once she was clear, we moved her down with Polly and Little Miss Muffet. We put an extra portion of food in the pen and she was soon snuggled up with the others. Continue reading Pauline’s Blog! 24th June 09

The number of fox cubs we are caring for is on the increase!

May 20^th

Simon’s birthday so he’s off for a day of leisure. Maybe he knew it would be a crazy day- it certainly was a fox cub day. We had a fox cub in from a carer in bath, 3 fox cubs from Wiltshire Wildlife Rescue and six fox cubs and 1 badger cub from Oak and Furrow near Cirencester so it was all change in the pens.

The grass has grown so long in our rehabilitation pens that strimming was in order for it to be suitable for the cubs to go into the pens. They need long grass to hide in and short grass to be able to forage for worms in wet weather. We are lucky to have 5 pens so are able to help with the second stage of rehabilitation of fox cubs that have been hand reared.

We always give the cubs plenty to play with

It means though that we will be desperately looking for release sites for them and it is all extra work for the staff but they know that there is a lot of pressure at this time of year. The 6 cubs went straight out into a grass paddock

but the 3 will have to wait until we can get their pen done. The odd one has joined a group of 5 that are the same size in the Millie Block. We already have a group of 7 and 6 so that takes us up to 28.

We never release on site as neighbours around us shoot and anyway, we are too near the motorway. They need the best chance of survival after all the work has gone into them.

All in all a long day but eventually all the animals were sorted.

The smaller cubs will start in one of the inside pens

May 21^st

Leigh managed to strim a couple of the fox pens for the group of 3 and 6. With luck they will be out tomorrow enjoying the space.

A vet nurse in Wales is bringing us a fox cub with a broken leg tomorrow which has already received treatment but needs rehabilitation to convalesce. He is also bringing a swan that has lead poisoning so our pens will be nearly full again. I hope we won’t have to turn animals away.

Another cygnet came in today. Evidently it is a sibling to the one that had the broken leg and had to be put to sleep. Something must have happened to the parents as they are usually very protective and would never leave

The larger ones are all ready to go into one of the outside enclosures

them on their own. He’s being called Seymour as it co-incides with the first anniversary of our Cygnet Web Club which is for children. As members of our Cygnet Club the children ‘See More’ wildlife – we have Debbie to thank for that little gem !!

It has been fabulous watching on the cameras Hope play in her enclosure. She is loving the pond and bounds around in the long grass.

Our little white duck, Matilda, who has had ducklings on our dipping pond is down to 6 ducklings but they do look pretty amongst the water lilies.

It was a trustees meeting tonight so a late finish again. Tomorrow will be busy getting ready for our open weekend. At least the weather sounds as if it is going to be good.

Matilda and her happy family

Virginie with Jonathon

April 14^th

We’ve had a very busy Easter Weekend with many, many people visiting. Thank goodness we had badger cubs to show them this year, even if it was a fleeting glimpse on the lawn! The weather was great on every day except Friday when we had rain but the visitors still came.

Val was able to show her little fox cub Ruby, with Jonathon and Ross coming out last for the talk on the lawn. A third badger cub arrived on Sunday from the Vale Wildlife Rescue.

I have had some lovely emails from people who came and enjoyed themselves and we were able to fill many more petition forms against the culling ready for them to be presented to the Welsh Assembly next week. We had local volunteers as well as those who travelled from Worcester, Swansea, Southampton and Surrey to help man the many stands and everyone was kept busy!

Continue reading Pauline’s Blog – 14th to 21st April (a bumper entry!)