Hedgehog Bottom

awww he got there in the end lovely video

Hope the little girl is ok x

aww I hope the little girl makes it

Well a very sad day yesterday but with a happier ending.

The two babies delivered first thing both died. The larger of the two was having obvious difficulties on arrival and lasted for an hour. The smaller one looked viable but was horribly dehydrated and despite fluids died in the afternoon.

I suspect they had been without mum for some considerable time and in desperation had wandered out of the nest tying to find her. Pretty difficult when your eyes and ears are still shut. Sometimes you want to cry at what these little things go through.

On a happier note, Fatty and Fannie Tearaway are doing well. Fatty demolished an entire dish of baby biscuits all by himself yesterday and this morning was huffing and jumping when the mummy hand went in to check him. Barring any birth issues that aren't currently apparent, he will be fine and will stay here until he's large enough to fend for himself in the wild.

Fannie is taking syringe feeds very well, is putting on weight and about to open her eyes. Ears look like they're already open. She's not quite as advanced as Fatty was at this stage and isn't trying to lick up spills by herself so I expect weaning won't be quite as much of a breeze but she's looking promising.

Mum and 4 babies are looking after themselves.

The female that gave birth appears to be finished with all of that and nothing more is going to happen.

Prince Piglet Pumpkinsquash the Pfifth is doing great, still losing the weight slowly.

Son of Stumpy is off his heat pad, eating well but still doing the occasional nose clear. Will be off to the vet for a check and possible antibiotic switch.

Two of the hogs I was about to release have started coughing like loons, no sign of anything in the samples so not sure what's going on at the moment.

Everything else needs to be out of here ASAP so the phone is red hot.

Panic call, hedgehog down a drain floating in washing powder.

Found by a 2 year old who thought it was a birdie.

Unfortunately it's a large female that may or may not be lactating, not easy to tell when they've been cleaned with bio washing stuff.

She's a bit wobbly from cold, wet and shock, and very hungry. I'm going to have to take a risk and get her back as soon as she's warmed up unless they can find a nest with babies.

If you have a drain in your garden with no grate on it please cover it! NOW.

Swimming pool, ornamental pond? Either provide an escape route or leave shallow dishes of water round the edges of the garden and keep them topped up so the animals can drink without getting themselves into trouble.

We ended up with babies last year as mum and the other tinies had fallen into a swimming pool and drowned. If mum goes in the babies will follow.

Yesterday was gambling day.

I took the decision that the female from the drain needed to stay here. The finder and all her neighbours were on hoglet listening duty and nothing has appeared. Persil will therefore stay here now until I'm sure she'd safe to release.

Mum and the 4 babies have been left alone, food and water put in daily but otherwise no interference. After 7 days the nest stank so I had to do something about is as it was attracting flies. (Those who donated fly nets thank you! they are being well used.)

I don't like handling until 10 days if I can help it but something had to be done, so deep breath, grab mum and put her in a box, lift babies out with as much clean nest as possible then wade in. That is the messiest, most disgusting mother I've ever had in. They were knee deep in poo and she'd made no attempt to clean out. What a slut. All seems to be OK this morning.

I was giving Fannie her last feed last night when one eye suddenly popped open. She looked at me, I looked at her and she shut it again quick. I'm not THAT scary!

Both eyes are now open but she's still in the confused state of 'does not compute'. Give her 24 hours and she'll be all over the place and into everything.

Four more out this afternoon, Beaver to stay in a hutch for a week to finish a course of antibiotics then go home, Fifi, Naish and Hunter are going back to the wild.

Now, to all the volunteers, I don't want floods of tears round here when you find Hunter's cage empty. She needed to go, will have a lovely home and no, you can't visit.

Three of these had finders who indicated they wanted them back, all but one have not responded to emails so I'm afraid they have gone elsewhere. We can't keep them inside forever.

Fatty Tearaway is now Fatty Terminator.

He has turned into a ball of hissing huffing scariness. Well that's what he thinks anyway. It's actually rather funny but a bit on the ouchy side to pick up.

Oh poop. Just got Fannie Tearaway to weaning stage and two more coming in with eyes still shut. Bums bums bums.

Bad news, Mum and 4 babies are now mum and one baby. They all appear to have died naturally, no marks from mum having attacked them. The 4th one seems to be OK so fingers crossed.

It never ceases to amaze me doing this job how you can go from completely miserable to totally ecstatic in 10 seconds flat.

The two babies that came in earlier having been dropped off at our vet were in a terrible state. They clearly hadn't eaten or drunk for some time and as there were no details about the circumstances in which they were found I have no idea what they've been through.

One was very flat, the other a little more aware but both had completely sunken tummies ad a lot of loose skin. These little ones should have a nice plump tummy.

I just went down to do the second lot of fluids and the flat baby has gone. It's so upsetting as he looked like he was curled up asleep, but sadly not. The second baby is still aware and wants to eat but is so thin I don't know if his organs are shutting down and nothing will save him. He'll get fluids every couple of hours through the night and hopefully can be saved.

Feeling totally gutted, I walked back past Piglet's cage and spied him running full pelt on his wheel! He jumped off and played a bit of noseball with his rattly, followed by another dash around on his wheel!

He may well have been on it before as it really is the most silent wheel I have ever met and no faulty plumbing noises to alert me. Go Piglet, weight now down to 521.

Two more lots of babies on the way. One lot from Basingstoke, one lot from Hampstead Norreys

And....

I'll get there eventually, lack of sleep is making me think in small chunks

two more sent out today, to acclimatise and finish meds before release later this week. Mivicki and Wantage. Just hope they stay out of trouble this time.

Gosht, forgot about the other little. The boy who came in from the vet along with his brother who died soon after arrival.

Well having stayed up all night giving injected fluids, the following day I started syringe feeds. He is now fully hydrated and looking as a hoglet should, nice round tummy, eating well and this afternoon he opened his eyes for the first time so things are looking good.

OK peeps, update today, sorry it's late but I've been eyeing up mushrooms to see if I can turn into a domestic goddess. Failed. Ate them.

On the baby front:

Mum and her one remaining baby seem to be doing OK.

Mum and two babies that arrived yesterday are settled in and relaxed after their trauma.

Fannie Tearaway has teef, weighs 98g and is close to eating by herself.

The two littles from Hampstead Norreys are both hydrated, warm and feeding well. They are now marked and in with Fannie for company as they are very similar sizes and developments. Half an hour of mayhem ensued as they all climbed on each other and shoved and pushed but they have now settled.

Fatty Tearaway is no longer a baby. All the volunteers arriving for their weekly shift are amazed at the change. He is now a young hog and far too grown up to want hand feeds thank you very much.

This is the boy that came in the other day, flat and dehydrated. I post this to show even hoglets dream. Not sure what about, but it involves a lot of twitching.

aww so tiny

There are certain noises you get used to hearing.

Hedgehogs snoring, hoglets peeping, lungworm coughs, contented snuffling, annoyed hissing and the strangulated cry of a volunteer discovering yet another female has given birth!