Adam Prudhomme
Editor
A red fox struck by a vehicle and left for dead is on its way to recovery at Napanee’s Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre thanks to support from the community and a surgical procedure never before done on a wild animal in Ontario.
The fox was found near Kingston in need of serious medical attention having suffered major head trauma with substantial loss of blood. A frequent volunteer driver for SPWC came upon the scene, collected the fox and brought him to the centre. Upon examination, it was determined the fox had broken its jaw in three different places.
Leah Birmingham, assistant director at the centre, reached out to vet Dr. Andrew Winterborn to see if it would be possible to do surgery at SPWC.
“I was hoping we could do the repair in house because previously we’ve had to send them to the Guelph area,” said Birmingham. “It would be a lot less stressful (for the animals) if we could do them at Sandy Pines. He said yes after reviewing the x-rays and he’d be happy to do it and he had this other technique we could use, which was amazing.”
To do the surgery they needed one thing: phosphoric acid. That’s when they turned to the community-and they responded in a big way.
“I started looking on Amazon and then I thought maybe I’ll put it on my Facebook and see if there’s an orthodontist in the area, and it was crazy,” said Birmingham. “I posted it and within an hour he had already communicated with somebody who worked at a dental office (Auden Park Family Dentistry) and was willing to provide it.”
Armed with all the materials needed, Dr. Winterborn, his vet-tech wife Karoline and Birmingham set out to do a procedure that is believed to be the first of its kind on a wild animal in Ontario. Because time is a factor, they volunteered their time on Friday, knowing full well a snow storm was on its way.
“Typically what you would do for a broken jaw is put screws or pins in place or either side of the fracture and then you would attach that to a bar outside of the jaw, outside of the skin that would fixate it and hold it all in place,” said Birmingham. “This new method, what we’re doing instead is using the teeth. So you basically put wire around the teeth then you put this bone cement, or dental enamel on it and the wire sort of acts like a rebar and the dental cement around all the teeth, that gives you your stability so that the bone can stay stable and heal.”
The fox will stay at Sandy Pines for the winter months as its jaw continues to heal following the surgery. Submitted photo.
The procedure was a success and the fox is now recovering at SPWC, where it will spend the next several weeks.
The triumph of the surgery is not only great for the fox, but the positive implications of what it could mean for small jaw animals who suffer similar injuries are huge. It’s also also a victory when SPWC can celebrate a successful rescue-because far too often the animals that show up at their door aren’t as fortunate.
As a non-profit, in order to do the work they do SPWC relies on support from the community. Among their fundraising efforts is a monthly 50/50 draw. Tickets for January’s draw can be purchased at https://www.rafflebox.ca/raffle/sandypinesjanuary.