In the last two weeks we have had several phone calls to report very sick/injured hedgehogs – which the finders did not pick up and make safe. This meant the injured hedgehogs somehow manage to crawl away and were not found. They would then have to spend often days on end just slowly suffering and dying! If they had been picked up, we could very likely have saved their life, or at least put a humane end to their suffering.
We had this adult male hog dropped off to us on Tuesday morning from Blandford, it had been found laying out on the drive, not moving and did not roll up when poked.
It was dehydrated and had some bite wounds on it’s right side, just above the skirt.
We gave it subcut fluids for the dehydration and shock, cleaned and treated his wounds and placed him in one of the ICU’s , but he sadly passed away an hour later.
It had dehydration and some bite wounds on it’s right side, just above the skirt.
We have given it subcut fluids for the dehydration and shock, cleaned and treated his wounds and placed him in one of the ICU’s , but he sadly passed away an hour later.
You can’t beat a cup of tea and some pots of hedgehog poop to look at under the microscope – I get all the jobs!
I used our new suction machine to clean out a massively infected wound on a hog, it cleaned all the pus and blood out really well – I’m very impressed, and I’m sure the poor hog appreciates all that gunk being removed from it’s body too.
We had a call about a hedgehog in trouble on Sundayday, so it was off to Bearwood to collect an adult female hedgehog with a very bad cough.
This is almost certainly a secondary respiratory infection due to a heavy lung worm burden.
She will have nebuliser treatment for the respiratory infection, and once confirmed from checking a poo sample, will be treated for lungworm.
Another one of our emergencies;
She had been taken to a vet by the finder, where she had stitches in her mouth and front leg, and the finder then had her for about ten days.
She had not responded after the vets treatment, and the finder called us for advice, and we felt the hog should come to us for aid.
All I can say is that I hope we don’t have too many days and nights like last weekend!
Emergency after emergency. Four hogs giving birth, one of which produced four stillborn babies, two mothers had four babies each, and one had six!
This hog came to us after being trapped in pond netting and was partially submerged in the pond.
It was cut out of the netting and brought home to cut away the rest of the netting. The hog was very cold, so was placed on a heat pad while I cut it free.
It was given subcutaneous fluids for shock and dehydration, and it was placed in one of the ICU’s to warm up.
There were no obvious signs of injury, so it will be released once it’s had time to recover from the shock of it’s ordeal.
Sick and injured hedgehogs are vulnerable to fly strike (Myiasis). It is extremely important that you get help quickly.
Fly strike refers to when flies lay their eggs on a sick or injured animal. The eggs hatch into maggots which then eat away at the flesh of the still living creature.
We have hoglets! They came overnight last Friday night/Saturday morning.
Mothers and babies are doing well.
