In 2001 we had a call on a baby grey fox who had been raised by a vet tech and her little 4 year old girl, who had let the baby fox sleep with her and named him Todd, after the fox in the Disney film "The Fox and the Hound". We expected a somewhat tame fox but had no idea what we were about to have join our family...Todd came out of the pet carrier and immediately came up to us all, licking and wagging his tail. He was so friendly it took us all off guard. He never let up, and was the favorite of anyone who came to Lakota. He was so friendly and loving, he made a great ambassador for grey foxes, and even today, we consider them one of our favorite animals just from our experiences with this special little guy.

Unfortunately, there are no known approved and safe distemper vaccines out there for grey foxes. Distemper swept through our foxes in early 2006. Coyotes, Red foxes and Raccoons were fine because they had been vaccinated, but we could only watch in horror and sadness as we watched 5 of our sweet gery foxes die one by one. We thought Todd was okay...we had separated him when we first saw the signs of the dreaded disease, but he contracted it within the month of our first one dying, and even with a week of round the clock care, we were not able to save this very special animal. 

****** (PLEASE NOTE: If you rehab Grey foxes, please be aware that any animal they are with who has been vaccinated with any distemper/parvo vaccine will shed the distemper/parvo virus for up to 2 weeks in their feces...in other words, Grey foxes can catch distemper/parvo from contact with this animals' feces. It is important to keep Grey foxes away from any other animals who have been vaccinated for at least 3 weeks for the safety of the Grey.)