I had a fox and several other med. mammals come in over the weekend which had been in a freezer for 1-3 years.They were very well wrapped but the foot pads on some are very hard, is there a good way that I can rehydrate them enought to skin them out?
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For the last twenty years, what has work well for me is- take about 3 tablespoons of borax and mix it with a quart of water. Fix a syringe with this and place the needle under the skin and inject the solution in these dried out areas and give them about an hour to soak up the solution. Then as you skin them out, you might need to inject solution as you go, when you encounter an area that is still a little dried out.
and it worked very well, I did as you said and injected a little at a time and was able to skin out the pads after letting them soften up for awhile, thanks for the help!
Happy to be of assistance.