26 May, 2019
No Comments
Last night we said a fond but tearful farewell to Colin, the hog we have in our care longer than any other.
He came to us as a juvenile aged approx 4-5 months on the evening of 23rd August 2018, after being trapped between two brick walls below ground level for five days. He appeared to have walked along or climbed over a garden wall and fallen into the 6inch gap behind, trapping him against a garage wall. In that time he had tried frantically to climb out, but at a depth of around 3ft below the garden level this was impossible. The frantic scratching to climb out resulted in him losing all the claws on his front feet and the tip of some of the toes.
We had an emergency entry this afternoon, a hog had been trapped in netting in a garden. The finder spent 1.5 hours cutting it free and then gave us a call for help.
Tracy collected the hog, and phoned me whilst on the way home to get fluids and fly strike cleaning kit out.
The hog is in a bad way, massively dehydrated and has constriction wounds, plus a deep wound all under her neck, which is infected and full of fly strike.
Tracy had a call earlier this evening by a lady who’s little son had been out playing with his friends on the village green and found this tiny bundle of love curled up in the road against the kerbstones. Despite being very young, he knew right away the baby should not have been out on his own, so he picked him up and ran home to his mum.
Well it’s been another busy day with hogs coming in and others going out for release.
This little guy we have named “Parker” was picked up at midnight by a young lad, when he noticed it was covered in blood. It was in the road outside his home so we guessed it may have been hit by a car.
Little Trooper Robbie loving his new fleece snugglepouch (made by Karen, one of our daughter-in-laws) and tiny Sweetpea getting ready for sleep inside hers.
Pouches are a great way to make hedgehogs feel secure and with some hogs such as blind or highly stressed ones, fleece pockets can have a real calming effect on them.
We’ve had quite a busy weekend, with several injured hogs coming in, including this poor male. He was covered in flystrike and has a horribly infected wound.
The wound has been flushed out by the vet, and he is on strong antibiotics to (hopefully) clear up the infection.
This venerable old lady is back from the vets now, she has had a full dental job including scale and polish.
Her lips are still swollen, as you can see in the photos, and her mouth and gums will be sore for a day or two. She had very bad Gingivitis and plaque, which the vet has sorted for her now.
We need to monitor her food intake for a few days, and take her back to the vet if she is not eating properly in the next couple of days.
She has lost a lot of weight because her mouth has been too sore for her to eat, and needs some feeding up.
We had a couple of emergencies before 9 o’clock this morning, one of which has sadly had to be put to sleep.The first was a female, probably hit by a car, and had several head wounds. It was taken straight to the vets, where x-ray showed multiple skull fractures, including one the that had split the head from front to back, and had split the sinus.
This juvenile female hog (now called Chrissy) was collected by a volunteer from Wildlife in Need on our behalf last night. She had been found at the side of a road during daytime, and seen to be struggling to walk and climb up the kerb.