A Crazy Fox Story

[gawildlife]

Hopefully his carotids were pinched off quickly. Unconsciousness would have followed very quickly followed by death shortly after. Asphyxiation not so quickly especially since the trachea is a much firmer structure (resistant to compression) than the nearby carotid arteries.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

No doubt it wasn't pretty but animals find strange ways to die every day.

They sure do lol.

Poor little guy, but finding him and how he met his crazy demise sure beats finding your precious chickens dead. He does have a nice pelt and a beautiful full fluffy tail though. Do yall skin and tan yourselves or have a taxidermist do it?

Boy that is crazy, I had pictured his body wrapped in fence from head to tail and was trying to figure out the cause of death. I didn't imagine his nose and mouth wrapped up. Do you think he died of asphyxiation? He must have fought one heck of a fight!

Thanks for posting a picture!

yeah, i'd definitely rather him die than my chickens! He does have a nice pelt. We have never skinned a fox, but we have skinned rabbits. I did some research and it is very similar, you just have to be more careful with the head cause you want to keep the head instead of cutting if off like you do with rabbits. Its is pretty much dry and we will be skinning it tomorrow (hopefully). I can post pics if you want We haven't tried tanning yet, but will have some rabbit pelts we want to do as well, so we will freeze the pelt until we have the time and equipment to do it.

It is! His neck was wrapped so tight you can't even see it, and his nose and mouth were really wrapped. He even had fencing wrapped around way inside his mouth and around the tongue and teeth. Yeah, i'm pretty sure he died of asphyxiation (had to look that word up, now i know what it means, lol

Your welcome! I'm excited to get the pelt...fun story to tell when people ask me about the fox pelt

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Hopefully his carotids were pinched off quickly. Unconsciousness would have followed very quickly followed by death shortly after. Asphyxiation not so quickly especially since the trachea is a much firmer structure (resistant to compression) than the nearby carotid arteries.

hum....for his sake, i hope it was quick. Man, all these big words are making my head spin!

I'm getting smarter though lol

 

[gawildlife]

On skinning you're right it's like rabbits. It's called case skinning and the two areas that might be difficult is getting the tail stripped without tearing off the tail and the head. The ears need the cartrilidge trimmed close and the eyes trimmed without making big holes out of them. What are your plans, a taxi mount or just a tanned pelt. If taxi I'd just let the taxidermist do it since the foot pads and nose need to come off with the pelt plus big eyes are hard to fix on a mount but isn't as bad on a pelt.

 

[minnehaha]

Don't wait another day, if it doesn't get skinned and froze quickly the fur will slip (start falling out) and the hide will be worthless.

I agree that it's going to be a great/cool story when people ask about the pelt!

Like you said, it will take time and care to carefully skin the head, it is the hardest most detailed part!!!

 

[minnehaha]

hum....for his sake, i hope it was quick. Man, all these big words are making my head spin!

I'm getting smarter though lol

I had to google the spelling of Asphyxiation....you should have seen it before i corrected it, not even spell check could figure out what i was trying to spell....

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

On skinning you're right it's like rabbits. It's called case skinning and the two areas that might be difficult is getting the tail stripped without tearing off the tail and the head. The ears need the cartrilidge trimmed close and the eyes trimmed without making big holes out of them. What are your plans, a taxi mount or just a tanned pelt. If taxi I'd just let the taxidermist do it since the foot pads and nose need to come off with the pelt plus big eyes are hard to fix on a mount but isn't as bad on a pelt.

Thanks for the tips. We are just going to skin it and tan it. I would love to have a taxi mount, but right now we can't afford to let someone do it, and i would totally destroy the beautiful fur trying to do it

Don't wait another day, if it doesn't get skinned and froze quickly the fur will slip (start falling out) and the hide will be worthless.

I agree that it's going to be a great/cool story when people ask about the pelt!

Like you said, it will take time and care to carefully skin the head, it is the hardest most detailed part!!!

Thanks! We are going to do it in about an hour when my dad gets home from work

Hehehehee

Yeah, i'm praying we do good on the head

I had to google the spelling of Asphyxiation....you should have seen it before i corrected it, not even spell check could figure out what i was trying to spell....

 

[scooter147]

Saved yourself a bullet.

I know how you feel about animals dying. I do what I gotta do to protect my flock and most times after the deed is done I feel bad for the animal.

I had a hawk once get tangled in the netting that covers my run and die. He was tangled up by his feet I think he died of stress.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Saved yourself a bullet.

I know how you feel about animals dying. I do what I gotta do to protect my flock and most times after the deed is done I feel bad for the animal.

I had a hawk once get tangled in the netting that covers my run and die. He was tangled up by his feet I think he died of stress.

Yeah Sometime u have do what u have to do to protect your flock. Poor hawk...did you taxidermy him? lol. When i was younger, my cat caught a robin, so i tried to taxidermy it myself. Needless to say, i didn't work, but i dried the wings, tail, and feet. I still have them somewhere

I also got a lovely anatomy lesson.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Oh, and update:

We skinned the fox, but messed up a bit on the face

Overall, i am pretty proud of my first fox pelt It will be fun when we tan it and i can hang it up.