A friend of mine tells me his dog was baying and howling outside this morning, and on investigation discovered that the dog had been in a fight with a fox, which the dog won – fox’s dead body being the evidence for the victory.
He’s managed to secure the dog inside.
What’s the best practice-type thing for him to do next?
Take the dog to a vet. Should have been obvious. First off there is the chance of rabies transmission in any wild animal attack. Secondly foxes aren’t exactly defenceless, and it’s hard for an untrained person to find tooth puncture wounds under fur, so the dog could easily be injured.
Unless money is a real issue it’s usually worth taking your pet to a vet any time it gets into a life and death fight with another animal. But like I said, that would seem obvious.
And box up the fox carcass and put it somewhere cool. You definitely want them to be checking the fox for rabies instead of the dog, given what the test consists of…
Most individual dogs would have some degree of difficulty getting a crack at a fox unless it was sick and careless or defending babies. He needs to get the dog to vet ASAP and he needs to be very cautious handling that carcass as rabies is spread via saliva. If his dog was potentially infected he may also want to be careful letting the dog lick him or in handling the dog as well.
Yeah, dog to vet - check that shots are up to date.
I would contact the applicable animal control department - or maybe just the police, to see how they want to deal with the body. Would probably use a shovel to put it in a trashbag, but other than that, would leave it to the authorities.
Animal control has been called but they have not called back yet, which lack prompted this thread posting… I wanted to offer sage advice, but all I had was “Uh… call them again?”
Subscribing. I want to see how this turns out.
Dead bodies get super stinky pretty quick. Regardless of whether animal control shows up or not, if it starts to smell at all, I’d recommend digging a deep hole and burying.
I read that sentence the first time where cool = awesome instead of cool = slightly cold. Makes a difference. I started wondering about an awesome place to put a fox carcass.
Another vote for get the dog to the vet ASAP, and minimizing handling of the dog & carcass until it’s checked for rabies.
I’d be on the phone to Animal Control again, and/or asking the vet for advice on getting the fox checked.
Maybe there’s no problem - but this sounds very odd for fox behavior, and rabies is nothing to fool around with.
Sicne we don’t knwo the circumstances, this may or may not be correct. Dogs will pick fights with a lot of thing, and will sometimes kill foxes just because. Foxes will almost always run away if they can, but they don’t have a speed advantage over dogs, either. If it cornered the fox, a dog would certainly win unless it was very small one.
Taxidermist’s, then mantel over the fireplace, in that order.
One thing that can be - uh - uncomfortable about involving “the authorities” is they might come up with all kinds of rules and such you never dreamt with. For example, our friend had a possum in her garage. My wife and she trapped it in a garbage can and took it to the local wildlife center. Not only would they not accept it, but they said the women were breaking laws by what they had already done, and that they had to take it back to the garage, put it exactly where they found it, and just wait for it to wander off on its own accord.
So yeah, right! That’s just what they did! :rolleyes:
If I called the vet, and the vet said the dog’s shots were up-to-date and there was nothing to worry about, I’d be tempted to just bag and dump the carcass.
Yes…that’s how I read it until your post. We city folk suck at reading this kind of thing! 
Dogs have been killing foxes since the beginning of time. That’s why they put dogs and have the guard chickens among other things.
If the dog has rabies shots, which it should, it’ll be fine. The dog did what it was programmed to do, just like a cat catching a mouse.
Domesticated dogs are somewhat “stupid,” at least judging from my dog who got skunked not once, not twice but THREE times in the same summer, but deep down inside they are still animals. It’s hard to think of Mr Puppy as a vicious killer, but that’s the way it goes in the animal world.
Re
Before I realized he was using corporate speak on first glancing at the post I thought the guy was training the dog to be a fox hound and Bricker wanted some new practice hunting exercises.
Give the dog a nice steak and tell him “good boy”?
True. It’s possible that it was a young fox that didn’t know any better, or the fox was running from something else or intent on stealing chickens and didn’t notice the dog, or some such. But in general foxes are pretty good about not getting cornered, so absent sure knowledge of the circumstances, I’d be cautious. Especially since foxes are a fairly common vector for rabies in the U.S, and lack of usual cautious behavior is a symptom of rabies in foxes.
Y’all do realize that rabies vaccine is not 100% effective, right? It’s a very good, very effective vaccine, but would you really risk the lives of everyone around you just to avoid a little hassle?
That’s horrible! Foxes are my favorite animal, you brute!
I can totally understand your outrage, because I love me some foxes too. One of the prettiest varmints ever. However, I suggested rewarding the dog because that’s what dogs do: they go git critters. My dogs would be so proud of themselves if they ever actually managed to catch a squirrel, I’m sure their heads would implode if they caught a FOX! Now, I would be heartbroken, but if I pat the kitty on the head and give him tuna for catching a mouse, any good dog should be patted on the head for being a dog and catching a critter.
That said, I kinda wish the OP’s dog had gotten a rat or something we don’t find so dern cute.
But yeah I’ll take a bitch slap for implying fox hate. Not my intent at all. This is the same poster who cried the first time she caught a catfish because well. I felt sorry for the catfish, who was just minding his own business, swimming around and then, randomly, HURK snatched out of the water by a human who was just as surprised I caught him as he was to be caught. My BFF still makes fun of me, lo these 20 years later, for crying over the fish I caught. Even after we let it go. Still bawled like a bitch. 