top of page
Search

Winter

she looks like a cub, but she’s elderly, clumsy and adorable. She is a cancer survivor.


Winter the fox and hello kitty cushion
Winter

Winter's story

The elderly lady with the face of a cub who follows me around.


Originally caught and taken in by a kind member of the public who wanted to care for her because she was found unable to walk. After a week the lady contacted me and I explained how she needed specialist care. She transported to me in a dog crate and upon initial examination in her car I found Winter had a serious (infected, weeping) bite wound hidden in her fur over her spine with puncture wounds in her abdomen (a common way for foxes to attack others during play or real fights). She was also missing half of her tail, soft tissue mostly healed but always a risk of nerve damage related issues. You can see form the video how dehydrated she was too from the skin turgor, (I had to return it to its position myself).


Her limp is not obvious unless you observe her gait carefully, although sometimes she trips over herself. You can see from the xrays, the femur is healed but deformed where she had no help during the health process in the wild, she’s lucky to have survived this long but obviously she was declining at the stage she was found. It looks like the bone attempted to heal a few different ways, all severely misaligned and it’s finished in that state. How it even healed is beyond me. If you’re a radiographer let me know your thoughts.


I did however, suspect cancer. I cannot explain why I thought cancer but I seem to have a way of recognising it in foxes. It’s in their behaviour, their eyes and the look on their face. The last patient I dealt with had the exact same behaviour and look.


She had a small pea-sized growth on her side. The lovely Dr Charlotte removed it and sent it to IDEXX to examine, it did indeed come back as “an apocrine carcinoma, a malignant tumour of the apocrine sweat gland”. “Prognosis for Winter is considered to be favourable to good and surgical excision in all likelihood be completely curative”. The tumour site has fully healed at the time of writing this weeks after rescue.


More on Winter in Stories and future posts.


She follows me around and looks up at me with such an innocent look in a way that makes me melt.


She has my whole heart.


Indications:

  • Deformed Left Femur from an old break that healed badly in the wild

  • Malignant apocrine carcinoma (now removed)

  • broken caudal vertebrae (tail, healed, now has half a tail).


Treatment:

  • Ipakitine twice daily (chitosan, calcium carbonate)

  • Denamarin/Hepatosyl once a day (silybin extract [milk thistle] 40mg, S-Adrenosylmethionine 100mg)


 

Instagram Post Links:





become a sponsor?

All of the residents can be sponsored, you can go to the sponsor page to find out more. Sponsoring a fox helps towards their general daily care. Some foxes need more than others depending on their disability, injury, post-surgery requirements or condition. To find out more, go here.


refer a patient

this section is temporarily hidden as it is a service that has been prepared and will be revealed and available when the new hospital and sanctuary build is complete

transfer a fox to us

this section is temporarily hidden as it is a service that has been prepared and will be revealed and available when the new hospital and sanctuary build is complete

Fox Hospital Logo
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Wish List
  • TikTok
  • Facebook
Fox Hospital Outline Logo

address for deliveries only

The Fox Hospital

Address Line 1

Address Line 2

County

Postcode

///what.three.words

Telephone

Gate 4:

Mail, Parcels, Medical and Food.

 

Gate 5:

Agricultural Deliveries (Landscaping, Hay, Timber, Plant)

facilities

vets

sanctuaries, rehabbers

+ rescues

Advanced Diagnostics Imaging

MRI

CT

Dental CT

Radiography

Ultrasound

Fluoroscopy

Laparoscopy and Endoscopy

Surgical Theatres

Dental Surgeries

Wards

Physiotherapy

Hydrotherapy

Resonant Frequency Therapy

Sanctuaries

Quarantine

Wellness Suite

Triage

Patient Nutrition

Patient Camera System

Vet Team Night Accommodation

RCVS logo
Screen Shot 2025-01-29 at 10.07.21.png

Refer or transfer patient

Advice and support

Discuss a case

Visit us

Training

Knowledge base

Case Studies

about

Our team

About us

Contact

Outreach Programs

News

Standards & Policies

Financial Information

additional info

this section is temporarily hidden as it is a selection of services and links that will be revealed and available only when the build is complete

Cardboard-2554037-Thin.jpg

The Fox Hospital is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, Registered in England and Wales, No. 1206417     |     VAT Reg No. _________

background image of crumpled cardboard

Copyright © The Fox Hospital.  No part of this website or any of its content (including but not limited to text, video, images or documents) may be copied, plagiarised, altered, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted (other than sharing public links for promotion, fundraising or educational purposes), in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, screenshotting, printing, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

bottom of page