A fox that was hit by a car in Kingston, Ont., last week is on the mend at Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre.
Last week got off to a tough start for this little fox when Sandy Pines staff received a call about a fox that had been hit by a car on Bath Road and needed immediate help.
“He was almost unconscious, he was in very poor condition. We couldn’t tell really what was wrong with him at that point other than the head trauma,” said Sandy Pines medical director Leah Birmingham.
Once they got the X-rays back, Birmingham said she knew exactly who to call as they tried to figure out how to treat the fox, who had multiple fractures to his jaw.
“I took some X-rays and sent it to one of the veterinarians that we work with, Dr. Andrew Winterborn, and asked him if this was something we could do in house rather than have to send him out,” she added.
Dr. Winterborn was more than happy, even braving the snowy conditions on Friday to make his way to Napanee.
Winterborn said he decided to use a different, less invasive procedure to treat the fox’s broken jaw, and said that he’s healing well.
“There was great stabilization of the mandible following the procedure. Less than 24 hours later the fox was eating, it seems to be doing really well,” he said.
Before the surgery, Winterborn says he realized he was short one key thing for the procedure: phosphoric acid.
It’s commonly used by orthodontists, but neither Winterborn or Birmingham had any, which is why they turned to the public for help, and in no time flat, they had it.
“That was sort of the missing piece to the puzzle. I had everything else, and Leah put that call out on Facebook and the response from the community was absolutely fantastic,” said Winterborn.
Birmingham said the fox will need another month and a half to heal up, but will be ready to return to the wild in six to eight weeks.