Sandy Hedgehog Rescue Blog

One of the hogs we released in 2011 - Pandora - was found dead today. On the one hand, it's really sad that she's gone - but on the other hand, she survived just over 2 years post-release, which is great news - hopefully she had loads of babies in that time!

Aww sad , but she did well hope she did have lots and lots of babies .x

Sandy Hedgehog Rescue

Topsy (88g) and Turvey (93g) came in last night. Both male. They ate well for themselves overnight and have enjoyed their breakfast today. Will try and post some photos later.

Topsy and Turvey were joined last night by Tipsy (weighing 92g), another boy, almost certainly from the same litter. Tipsy and Topsy both ate well over night, although Turvey wasn't quite as hungry!

Well, that didn't take long - back from holiday on Friday and took in our first new hog yesterday! Paleros weighed 167g but was absolutely covered in fly eggs so we had lots of fun last night removing them! He hasn't started eating for himself yet but is happily taking hand feeds.

Topsy and Turvey are both doing very well, now over 400g and looking forward to being released in a few more weeks!

Took in another hog tonight, this time from our garden. Excitingly, it's a hog that we released well over 2 years ago! He - Grayson - looks in great shape other than a swollen toe (and a few ticks), so we'll take him to the vet for a checkover tomorrow.

We originally found Grayson in our garden with his mother, Gracie - which in itself was really exciting as she was a hog we'd rescued the previous year.

We reached a big milestone today - our 300th hog! - a little boy (390g) found playing chicken on a main road in Viking Industrial Estate in Bedford. Too early to say how he's going to get on, but he has a great pair of lungs - he objected very piercingly to his fluid injections (our cat is still trying to get over the noise!). We named him Hudson after one of the roads he was trying to cross. Many thanks to Danielle from Lecico for rescuing him.

We're hoping for more success than we had with our 299th hog, who unfortunately died yesterday. Our 298th hog is still with us but has a long way to go - a really nasty strimmer injury to her head.

On the positive side, Topsy and Turvey went out into our pre-release pen today and should be ready to go back into the wild next week!

A sad end to the day yesterday - a very sick hog brought in late last night, found the previous day on a dual carriageway in Letchworth. We knew she wouldn't survive for long and weren't at all surprised when she passed away during the night.

It probably wouldn't have made any difference in this case (we think she had damage to her pelvis and back legs) but please do get in touch with a carer as soon as possible if you find a sick hog.

Good news and bad news for Hudson. He's still with us and is eating well, but he is completely blind in his left eye. It doesn't look like a recent injury and there's no sign of infection, but he'll need an operation next week to tidy it up.

New patient in last night - adult hog had been attacked by a cat in Stevenage. Luckily, the injuries appear to be superficial - quite a lot of blood but nothing permanent.

It's unusual for cats to bother adult hogs, so we suspected there were other problems making her unusually vulnerable. Our fears were confirmed this morning as she can't really walk or curl up, which is nothing to do with the cat injuries. We've started treating for fluke (an internal parasite that can cause similar issues) and we'll see how she gets on.

All good news today:

Hudson's eye operation went well yesterday, and he's eating extremely well

Ithica - who came in about 10 days ago with a really nasty strimmer injury to the top of her head - is recovering extremely well. It's hard to believe now quite how bad the injury looked - it was absolutely teeming with maggots!

Stevie - the cat attack victim from Stevenage with fluke - is looking much better now. She's still very wobbly but at least she can now stand up without immediately falling over

IMPORTANT MESSAGE - PLEASE READ AND SHARE.
If you find a small hedgehog, or one lying out in the day.. DON'T IGNORE IT.. it needs help now, not tomorrow.

Do not leave it to see if it will go away. Do not stick it under a hedge. Pick it up, put it in a deep box or carrier with towels or an old fleece jumper, keep it warm and quiet. Then call a rescue immediately

Please do not give it anything to eat until you have spoken to somebody, you can offer it a shallow bowl of water only. Please remember these hedgehogs do not always have the luxury of time.

Do a web search for your town/area and hedgehog or wildlife rescue, call the British Hedgehog Preservation Society on 01584 890801 and ask for your nearest rescue, or call a local vet and ask them for a local number.

If there is nothing locally take the hedgehog to your nearest vet. They have a duty to deal with all sick animals under their code of practice and they should not charge you for doing so.