Rabid Fox

WILDB!LL

WILDB!LL

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2A Bourbon Hound 2024
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Over the course of spring and summer my wife and I have been watching a family of foxes on the back of our property. Three pups and parents. Lots of fun watching them, barking at them, and watching them play. Week before last, my wife was running her battery powered weed eater around her garden area. Fox comes out of nowhere and attacks the weed eater. Wife uses it to keep the fox at bay, while backing up to the house. Fox shows no interest in her, just keeps biting at the weed eater. After about an hour , and fox disappeared, she goes back to work. Same deal, fox attacks the weed eater, but no interest in her, (for whatever reasons she didn’t turn the weed eater on), backs up to the house and gives up on weedeating. After an hour or so our two old dachshunds need to go out. They get about twenty yards from the house, and out comes the fox, and attacks one of the dogs. We are looking and we both run to the dogs rescue. She gets there and reaches for the dog, and pushes the fox away. I’m there by then and all the yelling the fox leaves. We take the dog in the house and inspect and clean his wounds. Puncture wounds on right hip, not bad, but we take him to be checked out by vet. Dog gets rabies booster, and antibiotics, and pain meds. Wife not bit, but because she picked up the dog she is going through post rabies exposure vaccines. While we were at the vet with the dog, one of our friends and an esteemed member here, came to ta care of the fox. He got him after running a weed eater to attract him. Animal control came the next day, Saturday, and on Tuesday we got the word that the fox was rabid. We were at the coast, and she started her rabies shots at Carteret hospital in Morehead city, will finish her shots next Thursday. If there is a moral to this story, it is to be vigilant at all times, and don’t take chances with wild animals.
 
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First time seeing a rabid animal up close that I know of. I figured in the later stages it should look sick. This one looked very healthy, but he wasn’t acting right.
 
What area of the county?

Glad no one was hurt and hope dogs ok
 
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In Raleigh where I work, suv was in the road, it was blocking traffic, a fox about the size of the one pictured above was arching its back and
looked real sick, I believe animal control took care of it, later that week we received notice that all the feral cats in the area were rounded up and euthanized because this fox was rabid and to watch out for more cats or foxes.
 
One point to make about the shot. It was indeed a good shot. Good in that it was not a head shot. Just for future reference unless something has changed in order to test for rabies they need the head intact. So If you encounter an animal you believe to be rabid, don't damage the head.

Sorry that your wife is having to undergo the treatments but hope she will come thru them ok.
 
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I know it used to be brutal, hopefully the treatment has changed, I believe the old shots had to go in your ABDOMEN. yikes
 
Burt Gummer said:
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First time seeing a rabid animal up close that I know of. I figured in the later stages it should look sick. This one looked very healthy, but he wasn’t acting right.
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So let me ask you a serious question, did they imply you needed rabies vaccinations after shooting it and I am sure moving it or did you not touch the dirt napping fox?
 
I am glad she is OK. Shots suck, but better than the alternative. People who actually contract rabies don't make it out alive (well, sometimes they do, and it almost makes the news it's so rare).

It seems I am seeing more animals with rabies these days, stories like this.
 
Radar said:
So let me ask you a serious question, did they imply you needed rabies vaccinations after shooting it and I am sure moving it or did you not touch the dirt napping fox?
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Me? No. First they don’t know who killed it. I’m like invisible death, I show up when someone needs something put down and I’m gone before everyone knew what happened 😎. Second, I scooped it up with a shovel to move it. I never got closer than a shovel length from it. I wasn’t about to touch it knowing how it had been acting.
 
Schattenreiter said:
One point to make about the shot. It was indeed a good shot. Good in that it was not a head shot. Just for future reference unless something has changed in order to test for rabies they need the head intact. So If you encounter an animal you believe to be rabid, don't damage the head.

Sorry that your wife is having to undergo the treatments but hope she will come thru them ok.
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Yep. They can’t test if the brain isn’t intact. I learned this hard way after shooting a raccoon that I assumed to be rabid a few years ago. They told me to just bury it after I informed them I shot it in the face
 
She is doing well with shots. First time was four shots one in each arm, and one in each leg. Next shot four days later, in arm, as the rest will be. No shots in the abdomen. Thanks to Burt, and to you all for her well wishes.
 
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All my shots were in the arms and upper thigh. Also did the shots make her sick? How many days did it take you to find out fox was positive fer rabies. The game warden just called me yesterday to tell me the fox I had the encounter with was positive.
 
Clinet said:
All my shots were in the arms and upper thigh. Also did the shots make her sick? How many days did it take you to find out fox was positive fer rabies. The game warden just called me yesterday to tell me the fox I had the encounter with was positive.
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Animal control picked up this fox on that Saturday morning, called them Tuesday so really three days
 
Wife had a reaction to yesterday’s vaccination. It was a different type that she had in Morehead City. She stayed on the phone for hours today trying to find someone local that had the same as Carteret co. . Called Winston, Burlington, Kernersville Reidsville, finally found the same type vaccine in High Point, so we don’t have to go back to Carteret Co.😃. She started running a fever, had severe chills, her tongue turned white, and was having trouble with swallowing. Took 3 ibuprofen, and a benadryl , was fine this morning.
 
My wife had these shots about a year and a half ago. She’s got a bleeding heart for animals (currently dealing with high kill shelter rescue with Parvo, we have other dogs) where she decided to help a sickly looking feral cat. We’ll he decided to bite. We figured he “probably” wasn’t rabid but this was the first time we’d seen him and we didn’t know. We’ve seen him since, he isn’t Rabid just I’ll tempered. But when the odds of losing are death, it’s not a good gamble.

The annoying part… hospital told her first time it was a one time cost for treatment protocol. The hospital billed combined $6k+ for multiple trips, all bills sent after everything was complete. That part was fun.
 
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