This handsome old boy is named Clive. He was bought to us on Saturday night by one of our volunteers. Her neighbour had seen poor Clive laying out in the cold all day on her lawn and just left him there.
His weight was good at 950g, although with some loose skin, it is likely he has lost weight during hibernation. His responses were not great on arrival and he had subcutaneous emphysema or “balloon syndrome” on the upper spine and neck area, with some freshly broken spikes. We relieved the swelling in his skin, but given his age and lack of responses, we feared he may not survive the night.
Survive he did and the following day once he had warmed overnight in an incubator, we noticed he has a limp on one of his rear legs. We could not find any breaks in his legs on arrival, so off to the vet he went for an x-ray.
This showed he has an old healing fracture to his pelvis, which the vet thought had been done some time ago, possibly prior to him hibernating. It will have given his body time to start healing, although it will have reduced the speed of healing while in torpor.
The first few days, he didn’t eat much at all, but once he got the taste for food again, he has been eating heartily every day.
He’s a pretty grumpy kind of old man, but he is on pain relief, so hopefully he will soon stop hissing at the volunteers when they clean him out every day.
