Scabby the mange-ridden fox nursed back to health with honey sandwiches

A woman nursed a mange-ridden fox back to health using honey sandwiches. Louise Carlton, 31, from Blackheath, south East London, has managed to cure the sick ginger visitor after Googling mange treatments. After leaving mange medicine in honey sandwiches, "Scabby" is now back to full health and still pays regular visits to her garden. She said: "It all started in August - I was in the garden sunbathing, had fallen asleep, and awoke to find this little fox licking my ear. To this day I am not sure whether he was being friendly/inquisitive or I was about to become his dinner. After this I became quite fond of him and used to notice him in the garden."



Miss Carlton named the fox Scabby last September when she noticed the fox looking ill and chronically underweight. She described him as being skinny and covered in mange with part of his tail bleeding. "I had become quite attached to him by this point and had a look on Google to see if I could work out what was wrong with him and make it better." After visiting a fox welfare website, Miss Carlton was advised to leave mange treatment medicine for Scabby in honey sandwiches. This was because Scabby would not take the medicine on its own and cats and dogs would not be interested in anything sweet.



Miss Carlton added: "It turns out Scabby absolutely loves honey sandwiches and I have been making them for him long since he completed his course of mange treatment." Since the sandwiches, Scabby's menu has received an upgrade and Miss Carlton's partner Jonathan now thinks the fox is better fed than he is. Miss Carlton said: "He has leftover roast chicken sometimes on a Sunday and I cooked him a Turkey crown at Christmas. He even knows when I have been shopping and has been known to turn up at the kitchen window at the sight of a shopping bag."



A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said: "It is wonderful to see these people obviously enjoying the wildlife in the garden and wanting to help, but it is important to remember that if you regularly see foxes in your garden, they have probably already found a good food supply in the area and so do not need extra food. As a result we would always recommend caution when feeding foxes. It is also important that people take care to avoid making foxes tame, so never hand-feeding them or putting out too much food as foxes may not move far if all the food they need is available in one garden. In this particular case, the fox does look overweight and this may well affect his welfare."