Hedgehog Bottom

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Harry the teddy hog. He has a very short nose which has resulted in him having permanent sniffles.

The new baby has been a nightmare to deal with since he arrived. Feeding was almost impossible, he had bloat and couldn't take anything. Several times I thought he was a lost cause but with fluids and Calpol this afternoon he finally took his syringe with gusto and drank a lot.

A new female in with awful breathing, luckily no sign of babies. Covered in ticks and her ear hanging off, all the tissue was necrotic so I removed it and on dissection found an ear tag embedded in it.

Another adult coming in found on a doorstep in Calcot with "something coming out of its back end". Sent Harv to investigate and ship straight to the vet if it's what I think it is.

Two went to the vet this morning. A boy with blood coming out of his mouth. Ulceration and bad teeth due to Liver/Kidney failure. PTS.

And the boy who came in with awful breathing plus a swollen foot. He's been treated and is now breathing normally and the foot isn't broken so he's coming back for antibiotics.

Two of my youngsters, Rosie and Jim, have gone off to stay with Auntie Joy and Uncle Ian so they can experience the particular mayhem that hogteens cause, and be fed up prior to going back home.

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I shall be incommunicado for the foreseeable future, or possibly even forever at the rate this is going.

Just arrived.

Found on a patio all by himself. Around 2-3 hours old.

No I don't know how he got there, don't know if he was dumped by mum, lost in a nest move, had a first feed or not. I just know that I get no sleep for another couple of weeks.

Please excuse all upcoming demented posts

I'm always wary of posting progress reports with the tinies as the law of sod kicks in 10 minutes after you hit the button so updates for the babies will be a bit thin on the ground for a while but the tiny from yesterday has started to get used to the syringe and is taking tiny amounts of feed every 2 hours.

The slightly larger hoglet that came in a couple of days before having been picked up next to his dead sibling is feeding well and has finally put on 2 grams.

I'm feeding the tiddler right through the night for the first couple of days until I can get him to take more at a sitting. The larger boy gets 4 hours off overnight.

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The baby driving me scatty, halfway through trying every possible feeding implement in the place to find one that he'll accept. After much trial and error I think we've finally come to a compromise and he's gone back to bed with a full tummy for once.

The black blob is the remains of his umbilical cord.

Please excuse the sticky tummy. It gets a bit messy and as he'd finally gone to sleep and stopped wriggling we took a pic before I cleaned him and woke him up again.

For a size gauge, that's my thumb at the top of the photo and I have small hands.

We tell people about tiny hoglets and their defense mechanism of sproinging around like a lunatic but until you've experienced it it's difficult to understand how hard it is to hold them still without hurting them.

When it's feeding time it's particularly difficult to get them in the right position. This will give you a better idea of what we're up against.

Those spines have now hardened off and it's like grabbing a pile of pins.

Bad news I'm afraid. The tiny hoglet has just been put to sleep.

He had a growth which was pressing against the urethra and stopping him from passing urine properly which meant it was almost impossible for him to empty his bladder. If it had been left any longer he would have died in great pain.

This is no doubt why he was found on his own. Mum knew best. So very sad, poor little guy had no chance.

so sad x

Dog attacked baby came in 2 hours ago. No major injuries that I can see but very subdued.

Another little one on the way found in a garden covered in flies.

Just spent two hours removing maggots from ears, eyes, anus, penis, none in his mouth though which makes a change.

Poor little mite is in a bad way. Very thin and I suspect has been in a nest with a sibling that died as the smell is there. He's had a wound on top of his nose which is now clean and pink but he's extremely flat and very thin.

Not a good week. The maggot infested hoglet from yesterday died within an hour. Another one on the way from Kingsclere that sounds in a similarly poor state.

Please don't leave these animals lying on the lawn to see what will happen. I can tell you what will happen.

They will lie there slowly dying. Flies will get attracted to them and lay eggs on them. They go for the moist areas to stop their eggs drying out.

If they are not removed, in warm weather, within a couple of hours they hatch. The maggots make their way into the mouth, eyes, ears, anus and urethra where they begin to eat the animal from the inside out.

We constantly get calls saying an hog has been found, there are flies all round it but they are not laying eggs. Yes they are. You may not be able to see them as they are often in amongst the spines and fur but they are there in their thousands.

Each female fly can lay approximately 500 eggs in several batches of about 75 to 150. The eggs are white and are about 1.2 mm in length.

The new baby is a lovely boy but had maggots in every orifice as well as crawling all over him, his spines were moving. They have been flushed and he's medicated and asleep.

Two more little ones coming in. Andover and Bradfield. The Andover one sounds pretty poor, sibiling had died.

Large female in on Friday has a cracked and infected tooth so won't eat, off to the vet in the morning.

Sometimes your faith in humans is restored big time. We had a large female brought in by a lady in Tilehurst. The hog had awful breathing and wasn't at all well. She's doing OK, still not right but getting there. (I have 3 of them here now with resistant chest infections).

The finder rings regularly to see how she's doing which is nice.

So imagine my surprise when I was contacted by another lady asking about the same hog. Her neighbour is also interested. I've now managed to link them up so we should have a hedgie friendly neighbourhood and this girl will be very well looked after when she goes home.

Another very emaciated youngster in today. That's two now, so painfully thin.

An adult female that came in was put to sleep, Her mouth was bleeding and was full of ulceration. We suspect that in the dry weather hogs have been drinking anything they can find and people have been out cleaning patios with Jeyes fluid and similar.

If you are using cleaning fluids outside please make sure you get rid of any run off or puddles when you have finished.

I had one of those sweet and sour moments this morning.

The two seriously ill and emaciated juveniles that came in over the last 2 days have the same thing wrong with them so due to space requirements plus stress issues I popped them in together so they didn't feel like they were alone.

When I went to check on them they were both curled up together, nose to nose. Got them out and gave them fluids put them back and they dragged themselves back together and curled up again.

Incoming, hoglet found crying on a cycle track.

As soon as you think it's safe to put away all the feeding stuff, you have to get it out again. Tiny little boy, crying for his mum. Belly now full and fast asleep.

Balloon boy hasn't re-inflated, is no longer going round in circles and is currently sitting in the middle of a big dish of sloppy meat chomping away.

Seven adult hogs gone off for release today, thanks Jo and Chrissie.

Two more adults going out tomorrow and possibly one mum and extremely large baby as well.

Another adult out this morning, two more going this afternoon.

One in, a boy with a leg missing, maggots in his ear and by the looks of it a heavy worm load. Triaged by Tadley vets and sent here as they don't carry the worming meds needed.

Adult female just in, both eyes look as though they've gone. It's very recent as she's panicking. Medicated and calm now, Vet first thing.

I have to post some thank yous.

Thank you to those who follow us on here. It'd look a bit daft if we were posting to ourselves and besides which, we have a volunteers group for that so this page would be very quiet.

Thank you to those who donate, whether that is cash, disposables or assets. Without your help we couldn't possibly keep going.

I also have to give a big thank you to Royal Canin.

Last week I sent them an email, polite one I hope, about an item that had appeared in the press. Their response was swift and reassuring.

Today a massive box arrived with a postman struggling somewhere underneath it. Contents: 12kg Babycat and 128 alutrays recovery diet. That has saved us £200.

Complaining nicely gets results. Thank you Royal Canin.

8am call. Two little ones, about the size of a plate.

Well the finders obviously don't eat much as what arrived would fit in an egg cup.

Off we go again. 1-2 weeks old, 45g and 55g. Eyes and ears closed.

Another dog attack just in. Adult female. The dog's tooth has gone in through her bottom jaw and up into the eye socket, eye is gone, possible skull fracture. Face covered in flystrike and terrible breathing.

Cleaned and medicated, now resting comfortably and vet in the morning.