Rabbid fox, what to do?

Ok so here is the situation.

I live in an old farm house on 4+ acres with two old buildings(carrage house and what they called a plant house?). We have lots (10?) of outdoor cats. We have to feed these cats outside because they will not come inside and be comfortable enough to eat. They hate being inside.

about a week ago i was feeding the cats and noticed a fox eating the cat food in the carrage house. I tried to scare it away but it didn't seem to care and the cats don't seemed scared of the fox either. Since then i have seen the fox at least once a day and everytime i see the fox he doesn't seemed to mind me being near him/her.

This fox looks like he has mange(sp?) although i was told by the SPCA its unlikely. He has a broken or hurt back leg. I am thinking this fox most likely has rabies since he is out during the day and is not scared of me. But i saw him drinking water out of a cat dish and i thought animals with rabies won't drink water.

What i have done -
-I moved all food and water bowls on top of things the cats can get to and hopefully the fox can't
-I called the local SPCA and they said there is nothing they can do and told me to call fish&wildlife
-I called F&W and they said they could give me numbers for trappers that would charge a fee.
-Rounded up all cats(took literally all day) and took them to get updated rabies shots.

The big problem -
What can i do? I don't want to put out live traps for fear of trapping the cats, but i have to do something cause i don't want the cats to get hurt. At this point the only option i can see is maybe putting traps far away from the buildings as the cats usually don't stray to far from them. Or just wait till i see it again and hope i can shoot it.

I don't mind shooting the fox since it seems to be in such poor health, I was just hoping maybe someone had some suggestions as to the best way to deal with this.

Thank you.

 

most likely going to need to shoot it.. make sure you kill it in one shot. going forward, do not allow any other animals to get to your cat food.

 

I first must commend you for having really thoroughly looked at this from all aspects, and taken necessary precautions...we have cats that basically are some in or out (as they please) and a few only out - as they please and all with up-to-date rabies shots.
I am pretty sure it is a myth about a rabid animal not drinking water...that would maybe be in the very last stages.
Being as it is a fox (a known rabies carrier) and in obvious bad heath...I think you should shoot it.
In our county, Animal Control would supposedly try to handle something like this...at least that is what I have been told. But if it came down to it, I bet they'd drag their feet, etc. I am sure you know that in order for the dianosis of rabies, they would have to decapitate the animal...and it might even be at your expense.
Best of luck to you.

 

SHOOT IT, Then Remove Any Traces Of Blood From The Ground Using A Shovel,

Burn Or Bury The Fox,*and the bloodsoaked earth* Well Away From

Your Place,Then Pour A Strong Solution Of Bleach Over The Shovel, Or

If You Can, Place The Metal Part In A Fire For A Few Minutes....

Problem Solved...:2thumbsup:



Cheers Glen.

 

Very good. ^^^What he said.

 

Thanks for your advice guys, especially the part about how to best dispose of the body. I will have to come up with a good game plan as to how to get the fox into the open and away from the cats to shoot it, but it shouldn't be hard as its pretty easy to scare the cats and not the fox.

I will probably just put some food out for it in the field. i am burning leaves at the moment so i will be outside alot in the next few days. And then wait to see it and shoot it. There are maybe two houses in a ten square mile area and another farm that has rentable hunting trip type deals. So you always hear gun shots this time of year so no worries there. Then take the body on the end of a shovel to the woods and bury it in a deep hole making sure to cover any earth that has come into contact with blood. Then since i have the fire going just through the shovel in it and get a new one.

The food and water will stay up on shelves from now on.

@Lynnbrown - thank you for your commendation. I am really not a huge cat person and if it was up to me we wouldn't have any, but still i would hate to see one or all get rabies just cause i don't like the cats as much as i love my two dogs.

And i agree with you about the whole not drinking water thing. It seems if they didn't rabies wouldn't be as big a problem as they would likely die rather quickly from dehydration, but i have heard it from a few people.

 

Contact the County health department. I know around here if a rabid animal case is suspected, it will then be confirmed, it is reported in the paper so the neighbors can be on the watch for other cases or odd behaviors in their own animals. Does your area have a separate Animal Control besides SPCA?

 

^^^ ditto

also, if they can test the dead fox [can't it be live-trapped and anesthetized?] they can confirm the rabies

 

I don't think it's rabid--it's hurt and can't hunt. Poor thing just wants to eat. If it was rabid it would have charged you or the cats. It would not drink water if it was rabid. Look it up.

 

could be...

i've seen skunks [non-rabid] eat with cats, but never a fox

stranger things have happened

maybe get a hold of a live trap [ask your local officials, sometimes they loan 'em out with a deposit] and watch the fox for strange behavior? set the trap if you see any?

 

Interspecies interaction is cool to watch. I had a friend that lived in the country here and she owned a big donkey. An elk would come out of the woods and run and play with the donkey and they had a great time. If the fox is not rabid(and I don't think it is, from what the op described) it will probably tame down if you continued to feed it. I hope you haven't shot it.

 

Found the dead fox today in the carrage house. I didn't have to shoot it. I buried him in the woods.

I am pretty sure it had rabies from the behaviors it was displaying. Again this fox had absolutely no fear of humans, i tried to scare it away and it didn't even acknowledge my presence. It would also just seem to walk around aimlessly like it was lost or in a daze, again rabies. From what i have read not all rabid animals will become aggressive, and get whats called "dumb-rabies". Both will show extremely weird behaviors such as not being scared of humans. We have foxes around here and i only ever see them at night and they are extremely wary of humans. I mean the slightest hint of you being around will send them off.

Hydrophobia only develops in the last stages cause the animals throat swells i thought.

What i really wanted to do was trap the fox and take him to some sort of animal authority. However, a call to the SPCA and Fish and wildlife left me with only two options. Pay somebody to come put traps all over our property that the cats will no doubt get into, or trap/shoot it myself. I was very surprised we don't have some free service that handles rabid animals, it just seems crazy. They do if you live within city limits though?

Anyway, the cats food is still up on shelves and hopefully i won't have any other problems. There is a raccoon that eats with the cats at night and he has found the food on the shelf, and thats fine with me. I am not about to go fucking with all the wild animals that are just doing what they do - finding food. I mean i really don't feel i have the right, if the cats want to eat outside they will just have to share with the raccoon. Its funny to watch him too cause he'll pick the food up with his front paws and then he rocks back and forth on his back legs while he eats, very funny. And the cats don't bother him so i doubt he will bother the cats.

 

Well, I guess all's well that ends well. There are raccoons here in town(not to mention lions,possums,deer ,turkeys,nutria,ect) and if I leave food out for cats--they'll scarf it all down then wash their hands in the drinking water.Fastidious little buggers,they are.

 

do you mean mountain lions? LOL i was like "lions in oregon? ... oh..."

Yes, the raccoon here will do the same thing, wash his hands, and then his face. Its only been just the one raccoon for awhile, i don't mind just one, but i sure as hell will not be feeding all of earths creatures with cat food.

 

none of this points towards any disease. foxes are playful and are often not scared of people. i was in the woods scouting for deer this year and a fox was 20 yards away and it just looked at me, walked a little closer, looked some more, and then kept walking like nothing happened. theyre really not scared of stuff i guess. why shoot it, unless its attacking your animals which its not, then leave it alone.

 

Foxes that walk around your back yard during the day and are not just unafraid but don't even acknowledge human presence(i was outside and the fox didn't even realize i was there, during the day) usually points to rabies. It would be irresponsible of me to have not done anything. But the fox is dead now.

Maybe the fox you saw did what it did because.
1. you where wearing camo if your hunting deer
2. you were wearing doe piss if your hunting deer
I am to impatient for deer hunting but when i have gone these things were like mandatory, otherwise the deer will smell you and will most likely see you.

It probably wasn't sure what you were, you smelled like a deer looked like a bush and didn't try to come towards it. maybe?

 

A rabid fox? Call your nearest Christian church. Being fellow sufferers they will most likely befriend it and make it the mascot of their hydrophobic cult.

 

But how then will they baptize it, being hydrophobic and all?

 

Christians don't baptise animals because they think there is no need. They dont believe they go to Heaven. Yet another reason why I hate the utterly self-centered narcissistic cunts.

 

Yup--mountain lions in town.