By Cori Carlson, Administrative Assistant

CWC’s two Gray Fox patients
By Brittany Moser

Gray Foxes may be named for their gray coats, but they also have a distinctive reddish-brown coloring along their sides and long bushy tails. The most common Fox in California, they live in woodland and forested areas in a range that runs all the way from southern Canada to South America. So far this year, California Wildlife Center has admitted two of the young Foxes. Last year we had a total of five Gray Foxes in care.

The first Fox arrived at the end of April with a hook embedded in his left front leg and a skin tear on the right front leg. These injuries were operated on and healed in about three weeks. In mid-May, we received a healthy, but orphaned second Fox. While these patients are in our care, wildlife technicians provide enrichment activities such as hiding food in boxes for the Foxes to open and search through. We also release live crickets to help them hone their hunting skills. It is important to try to make the enclosures as much like the animal’s home in the wild as possible. One of our technicians used branches and rods to create opportunities for the pups to climb and practice scaling trees.

Like cats, Gray Foxes have the ability to retract their claws and are the only member of the fox family who can climb trees. This unique ability allows them to escape predators and helps them gain an advantage over their prey. They have vertical pupils enabling them to see and hunt in the dark. Their keen eyesight, along with their excellent hearing, comes in handy as they do most of their hunting at night.

As omnivores, the Gray Fox’s diet includes fruits, plants, rabbits, rodents, squirrels, crickets, grasshoppers, and scavenged animals.

Gray Foxes have their kits in April. By the time those pups are four months old, they have learned to hunt with their parents and are ready to forage independently. By the fall, the young Foxes typically leave as they have reached maturity and are ready to start their own families. We plan to release our two Fox patients in the fall as well.

By Jenn Guess, Senior Wildlife Technician

Squirrel kits are fed a special formula, photo by Cambria Wells

Early Spring is a busy time of year at California Wildlife Center (CWC). This is when we see an influx of orphaned Squirrels.  If an orphaned Squirrel is a neonate (eyes closed, furless) or infant (eyes open, velvety fur), they are directed to our homecare facility where the Squirrels will receive a significant amount of hands-on care.  Very young Squirrels require specific formulas on a schedule of up to six times a day.  As the squirrels develop, they will transition formulas and will only need to be fed four times a day.  Providing appropriate nutrition at different stages of life is vital in keeping patients from developing metabolic bone disease and other fatal deficits due to poor and inappropriate nutrition.

Squirrel patients receive flowers for enrichment, photo by Jenn Guess

Once neonate and infant Squirrels reach a certain weight, they are transferred to our facility in Calabasas.  In our Orphan Care Unit, the Squirrels will continue to be fed specific formulas on a pre-designated schedule.  They are also given small amounts of solid food so they can start to explore eating on their own.  Staff closely monitors their weights to make sure that every Squirrel is progressing appropriately. The Squirrels are also provided enrichment.  Some examples of enrichment are multiple sticks, branches, and pinecones to chew on, flowers to destroy, and various soft fabrics and hammocks to snuggle into.  Eventually, each group of Squirrels receives a squirrel box.  A squirrel box is a 1’x1’x1’ wooden box with a hatch door that mimics a nest.

At CWC, young Squirrels are placed into groups of about six individuals, and these groups will stay together as a family unit through their release.  Once the unit is set, a group will not accept a new member.  The family unit grows up in our Orphan Care Unit together and eventually moves into an outdoor enclosure.  Outside, the groups of Squirrels continue to gain weight, get acclimated to the weather, and become more independent.  After two weeks in our outdoor enclosures, a group is ready to be soft released, meaning the patients are provided shelter (their squirrel box), food, and water for three days at their new location.  The Squirrels are then able to venture out on their own when they feel comfortable.  Eventually, all of the Squirrels in the group will start to find their own food/water and build nests.

Young Squirrels sleeping, photo by Christiane Aldana

Not all baby Squirrels that are found need to be brought to CWC.  Sometimes a Squirrel nest is compromised due to a predator attack, heavy winds, rain, or various other reasons.  When a nest is damaged, it is not uncommon for baby Squirrels to fall to the ground.  The mother Squirrel will often fix the nest before coming down to retrieve her babies.  It is also possible that an adult Squirrel will have multiple nests.  The mother might decide to check on an alternate nest and then take her young to the secondary location.

If you find a baby Squirrel on the ground and they do not have any obvious injuries, place them in a one-foot deep box with a soft towel and attach the box four feet off the ground to a nearby tree trunk.  Make sure the box is not in direct sunlight.  Heat some uncooked rice in the microwave until warm and place in a sock to create a makeshift heat source.  Place the heat source on one side of the box so the Squirrel can choose to move towards or away from the heat.  Leave the box for four hours to give the mother Squirrel time to retrieve her young.  If the mother does not come back, contact CWC.  If you find a baby Squirrel in the evening, bring it inside and keep it in a warm, quiet, dark location overnight and then try to re-nest the Squirrel first thing in the morning.  At no point should you try to feed or give water to a baby Squirrel. If you find a baby Squirrel with an injury, contact CWC immediately at (310) 458-9453.

Fox in oxygen cage
Photo by Cambria Wells

By Stephany Lewis, DVM

California Wildlife Center received an approximately 6-month-old male Gray Fox early in the morning on October 8^th of this year. He was found the night before by a good Samaritan, lying non-responsive on Mulholland Highway in Calabasas. Based on his exam and diagnostic findings, the Fox appeared to have been struck by a vehicle shortly before being discovered. When he presented to us, he was stuporous, unable to stand, move, lift his head, or look around, and was non-responsive to any stimuli. He had an elevated heart rate, and he had abnormal lung sounds when his chest was listened to with a stethoscope. There was also a fresh wound over his left elbow. Full-body radiographs (x-rays) and an abdominal and chest ultrasound were taken. While he luckily had no broken bones, his chest showed evidence of trauma, as he had a mild pneumothorax, or collapsed lung, and evidence of bruising within his lungs.  A full blood panel was run and did not show any major abnormalities.

Three diagnostics were also run to test this fox for canine distemper. Canine distemper is particularly common in Gray Foxes, and can cause a variety of neurological signs, such as the ones displayed by this Fox. It can also infect other wildlife, such as Coyotes, Skunks, and Raccoons, as well as domestic dogs. It is nearly always fatal, but vaccines developed for domestic dogs help prevent the disease. Luckily this Fox did not have canine distemper, and all his neurological signs could be contributable to traumatic brain injury, which while preferable to distemper, still came with a guarded prognosis.

Gray Fox with bandage on his elbow
Photo by Cambria Wells

This Gray Fox patient received intensive care for the first few days of hospitalization. First, an intravenous catheter was placed, and through it he received a drug called mannitol, which is a diuretic that helps reduce swelling in the brain in cases of head trauma, followed by intravenous fluids to help maintain blood pressure and reduce the fluid lost from the mannitol. He was also maintained in an oxygen cage, with his head elevated to help minimize pressure within the brain. Pain medication was given, and his wound was cleaned and bandaged. His temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, EKG, and a small blood panel were all monitored daily. He required other extensive nursing care as well, such as passive range of motion exercises, assisted feedings, and daily bandage changes, but our technical staff more than rose to the challenge and provided excellent care to this special patient.

The patient in his outside enclosure
Photo by Dr. Stephany Lewis

The Fox’s neurological status improved daily! Within three days he was standing and walking, though other neurological signs began to show, such as a tendency to only circle to the right, and he did not display an appropriate fear of humans. However, all these abnormal signs were completely resolved in less than two weeks, and two weeks after admission he was stable enough to undergo surgery to repair the wound over his elbow. His surgical procedure was without any complications, and he recovered well from anesthesia.

The following week after his surgery, the Fox moved to an outside enclosure, and seemed very happy to do so! His sutures have been removed, and after one month in care he was ready to be released! Since Gray Foxes have a very small home range, he was returned to the location he was found. Success stories like this are why we do what we do here at CWC, and we love to share them!

By Cori Carlson, Administrative Assistant

Striped Skunks
Photo by Rebecca Hernandez

California Wildlife Center has admitted 25 Striped Skunks so far this year. That’s up from last year’s total of 19 patients. Best known for their smelly self-defense tactic and distinctive white stripes and black coat, this particular native species of Skunk ranges throughout North America from Southern Canada to Northern Mexico and are easy to identify with two thick white stripes along their back and tail. Variations in color are possible, though. This year, we admitted one with white armpits.

Their pungent-smelling spray comes from two glands located near the base of their tail. Young Skunk kits are capable of spraying when they are as young as eight days old. This line of defense can give the small mammals a bad reputation, but they will warn animals or people before spraying. They arch their backs, raise their tail, hiss, stomp their feet and sometimes do a handstand.

When a Skunk is admitted to CWC, they are initially quarantined for a week as they can carry rabies or distemper, a viral disease that affects the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central nervous systems. Due to this risk, it’s important not to touch or pick up a Skunk with your bare hands. Once they are determined to be healthy, we give them a distemper vaccine and put them into an enclosure with up to four other Skunks.

Skunks are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals. When a kit is admitted into our care, they are initially fed a special milk-replacement formula. When they move onto solid foods, they eat a special mix of dry dog food, vegetables and a variety of either mice, mealworms, super worms or crickets. This is very similar to their diet in the wild, which consists of insects, small mammals, fruit and plants.

While in our care, we also give them enrichment boxes that help them use their excellent sense of smell and hone their hunting skills. The boxes have worms, fish, vegetables, or fruit hidden under leaves for them to find. We also put exercise wheels in the Skunk enclosures. They look similar to those you might see a Hamster run on but much bigger. They seem to love the wheels, and occasionally one will push another out to get a turn.

When the Skunks are ready to go back into the wild, we generally limit the number released at any one site to two or three. We do this because we want to make sure there are enough resources to give them the best chance to thrive back out in the wild.