Fox Cub Update

The fox cubs are now 11 days old but sadly we now only have two remaining. Since they came in they have had one problem after another, mainly due to them being left in the cold & wet for so long during their first 24 hours. We also don't know whether or not they received the all-important colostrum from the vixen after they were born. Without this baby mammals are highly susceptible to all infections as they have not received the necessary antibodies to fight off bacteria.

Unfortunately we lost one of the cubs suddenly after a couple of days. It was unexpected as they seemed to be doing well, but this one obviously had internal problems that we were not aware of.

The next set back was that the remaining cubs all developed chest infections &, although we were loath to put them onto antibiotics at their young age, we ended up with no choice as the infection would have killed them without it. We gave them a four day course of the minutest amount of antibiotic, which worked well, but then they developed diarrhoea as a result. Being so tiny they were then at great risk of dehydration because of this so we had to start them on subcutaneous injections of fluids to counteract this.

Despite receiving hourly intensive treatment from dedicated staff, a third cub died yesterday, leaving the remaining 2 which are making good progress at the time of writing. They will open their eyes any day now, which is another of their milestones. Fox cubs eyes are blue when they first open but change to their adult amber colour when they are around four to five weeks old.

I hope to post new pictures here shortly & will write another update soon.....