When Billie came in to us after spending nearly a week at the vets we were told and here we quote “There is nothing seriously wrong with her, she has a bite wound to her leg and she is a little weak. We estimate that after a rest and some good food she should be fit enough to be returned to the wild. We have checked the leg and there is no serious problem”.
Billie despite the advice from the vets in Essex wasn’t it appeared getting any better. Her leg was still badly swollen although the bite wound had healed nicely. We decided that although this leg was said to have been checked out, that we would get our vet ‘David Beiny’ To X-Ray.

The results of this were quite shocking. Her foot was so badly smashed up that it was without doubt irreparable. Billie must have been in excruciating pain even when the leg was off the ground. We were then faced with a decision to amputate. Since Billie was a very friendly fox we decided we would first have blood tests to rule out anything that could be changing her behaviour. Nothing at this point would have been worse to find that Billie was suffering from another illness that could have been cured. hence turning her into a normal fox i.e. un-friendly. Blood was taken and on receiving he results we discovered she was fine. The amputation went ahead.

Within hours of having Billie back she was up and getting around successfully on three legs. Possibly not that difficult since the bad leg wasn’t being used anyway, coupled with the pain it must have been causing her.