Snuffle Lodge Hedgehog Rescue

Very brave little female hoglet brought to us from near Eastwood. She's only 180g but has a broken back leg and, more worringly, what looks to be a seriously fractured jaw. Possible cruelty case or disagreement with a car. Off to the vets tomorrow, but prognosis poor. Real heartbreaker this one

Lucky and Star have been joined, albeit 4 days late, by their brother Luna who arrived today and has been happily reunited with his siblings. Cue mass pile of writhing pricklyness as the reunion began !

Hope the little female makes it. Sending her lots of positive vibes to get better.
Aww, lovely little pile of hoggy siblings. x

Jack and Holly have take their first steps towards a carnivorous diet with their experience today of some small traces of recovery diet food mixed in with their formula. Yummy yummy - has encouraged them to lap more and more, and plenty of self-anointing occurred as a consequence.

A female adult has been admitted from Hucknall with a suspected broken pelvis - both her back legs are not working, although there is a blood flow to both. She has a lot of fight but sadly another where the prognosis is very poor.

Sadly the female hog admitted yesterday evening with the suspected broken pelvis took any decision we may have had to make away from us by passing away gently within a few hours of admission.

We've admitted four siblings discovered in a nest literally 5 minutes away from us. Unfortunately mummy hog had been involved in a road accident and wasn't coming home. They vary in size from 150 to 200g, so probably about 3-4 weeks old. They've all piled into a new home for the duration.

The four new admissions have certainly got their own 'characters' - I know we shouldn't be anthropomorphistic but we definitely have a grump, a glutton, a bashful hog and a cheeky juvenile

In the meantime, to the person who left a comment noting:

"I put out some spikes dinner dried hedgehog food out for three young hedgehogs that frequently visit my garden, they seemed tottally disinterested, they walked over it, through it and stood in it but I didnt see them eat any of it, is this normal?"

The answer is yes ! A lot of hedgehogs are very picky about food, and we've never had any success whatsoever with proprietary hedgehog foods. The best advice is to leave out IAMS kitten biscuits or cat food in jelly (pref white meat eg turkey, chicken, rabbit), the latter in the evening only - hogs like this !

Delightful new admission, Fluffy, a male hoglet weighing 188g who spent the first part of the week wandering into a local Tesco's. He was rescued by an employee at Pets At Home who took him to the vet, received great advice, and has now fattened him up. He will stay with us for a few more weeks to get him to a chunky size and aim to release him in a nature reserve near to his local supermarket, so he can still do his shopping if he chooses.

Sandy, male 65g, is the sole survivor of a litter of four from Sandiacre. He's very weak and malnourished, but took to the syringe immediately and also laps for himself. Very unsteady on his feet. Now snuggled up to a cuddly mummy hog on a heatpad and will receive little and often feeds.

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Spider-hog, spider-hog, does whatever a spider can - Boris yesterday, the hog found next door. We think he wanted to go...

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The Walnut Tree Gang during cleaning out this morning - four very different hedgehogs....

And in come another three, from Newthorpe, weighing between 106 and 120g. Brick, Minnie and Froch are now in a big cage (poor old Sniffles was evicted to a luxurious hutch to accommodate them). Froch is the weakest of the three and was struggling, but some heat and rehydration quickly stirred him. The three are now snuggled together in their new home

I'm loving spider-hog Boris, looks like his is going to be a great success story. I hope all goes in the same direction for Sandy...

xoxox

Pleased to report that our two frailest hogs are both doing well. Sandy is still struggling to stay upright but is now happily lapping for himself, whilst Froch, who came in at death's door last night, is happily snuggled up with Brick and Minnie. Yay

Froch is now happily causing chaos with Brick and Minnie so it's safe to say he's out of the woods for the moment. Like all youngsters it's still early days, but looks good.

A hog which came in over the weekend from Snape Wood (yes another one) was gently put to sleep today by our vets. The poor adult hog had broken its rear right leg and was missing its rear left leg completely. Sadly, with the best will in the world, this was a hog beyond help so we ensured it was comfortable before the euthanasia.

OK, the next babies in may just end up in the dreaded 'Ozzie-cockatiel's old cage'... A cryptic way of saying, we're filling up rapidly. There may have to be a reshuffle soon with some of the bigger singles (200g+) moving to indoor hutches to free up some cages suitable for tinies.

New admission, Katie 488g - an old but very underweight adult found today in New Ollerton who looks to have had a bang to the face - bloody nose, swollen eye. Should be fairly straightforward case of 'treat and fatten up', but nothing is ever that simple...

A sad day at the rescue today with the loss of two hogs. Katy, the adult female, slipped away in the early hours, whilst an unnamed juvenile, admitted last night passed away this morning.

A sweeping 'every other hog in the rescue is doing just fine and dandy' is needed here - all 17 are fighting fit, and our two littlest fellas, Sandy and Froch, are out of whatever dangerous woods they were in when they were admitted last weekend and far away and over the hill on the way to Juvenile Delinquent City

New admission, adult, with suspected broken back leg and a huge abscess to boot. Found crossing the road this evening by a runner in Beeston. Looks like my regular morning phone call to Byron Veterinary Clinic then

And so back to 18 again - we'll update on weights and conditions tomorrow, but four hogs (siblings Lucky, Star and Luna, and Sniffles) have done so very well we think they will probably be able to go to outside runs next week, ahead of their returns to the wild - great news !

Sadly the adult female who came to us last night was put to sleep this afternoon. We discovered after posting here that she had a serious amount of injuries to her head and ear, most likely strimmer-related, which had become infected. The sad thing is our vets felt the leg would have been salvageable, despite the abscess the size of a golf-ball. At least she escaped the ignominy of a slow, painful death in the wild - she was feisty to the end, was Bobby.