Little wild euro hog rescue

This is my little wild euro hog who has double lung pneumonia. He was coughing heaps this afternoon so I am hoping he gets through it.

That's a cat bed, not his home. We put him on it in an attempt to get him to sit still.

Didn't work!!

I am really hoping that he pulls through for you - xx

awww hope he gets well.

Aww Mau , he looks so small . Looks like he has some spike issues there as well ? Can you tell us a little bit more about him x

His backstory:

In January, it is mid-Summer here in NZ. Hot, bright sunny day. We had just had the lawns mown for the first time since Nov (as there wasn't much growth). I looked out the big window and saw something in the grass.

I thought, oh dear.. He's been hit by the weed-eater.

I went out to see if there was anything I could do for him and realized he was lying completely flat, front paws out the side, back paws out the side. Just like a turtle.

He was dirty, smelly and very weak.

I got a soft grocery bag and picked him up, expecting him to be bloody but there was no blood. He must have come out after the weed eater.

I immediately called my husband, who together we had rescued a previous hog in 2001.

He said to try and get some water into him and ring the vet. I rang the vet and they got us in at 4pm, telling me to keep him cool and in the dark as he could have sunstroke as well as being dehydrated.

So, we went in and that's when we saw what we were up against. The mites were literally pouring off him, scuttling all over our hands and the table.

Our vet Pauline has had some rescue work as an intern, but like other Kiwi vets, they are taught that hedgehogs are 'pests' and to euthanise them. However, she said she wasn't going to and that he deserved to live.

His paws were caked in poo and were bloody from open wounds. He has some spine loss and he weighed in at 50g.

She estimated he must be about 3 months old due to his size and that he would get better quickly.

However, over the coming weeks, we found that he had pneumonia. He's had it 3 times now.

By posting photos on her exotic vet forum, we've estimated him to be about 9 weeks old, not 3 months old. He was probably about 3 *weeks* old when we found him.

By looking at the lovely African hogs, he seems huge, but by euro standards, he is very small.

He didn't put on weight for about 3 weeks. We tried him on every drug possible.

At one stage, on a Friday afternoon, he was very cold and weighed in at 49g. I cried to Pauline and asked was it fair to keep him going or should we just let him pass peacefully?

She told me if I had the strength to keep going that she had the time and the resources to fight. So we agreed to fight for him.

And it's paid off!

We shot his xray on Wed and both lungs are absolutely full of liquid. He's had some permanent changes and will never be able to be released. One lung looks pretty deflated but hopefully once he's well, we can start exercising him and be might build up some lung tolerance. He does get short of breath when excited and coughs dramatically.

We found him the day after my birthday (Jan 23) and I had prayed that morning: Lord, what challenges will I have this year?

A couple hours later...there he was!

I'll admit, I'm a cat lady. I love cats to the end of the world, but my little hog has made me very interested in caring for exotic animals and my husband has been encouraging me to look into vet nursing.

So, that's the story of my little hog.

Quills: He did lose quite a few from the mites but those are regrowing. However, he does seem to be quilling as well. We've checked him for mites and do not believe we have any, so it must be a growing boy thing.

As we don't know if he will quill along the same lines as African hogs, we just have to guess.

Weight: We weighed him Wed and he was 75g. I don't like to weigh him daily as it makes me quite worried. We tend to weigh him every 3 days to give a better picture of gaining (and to reduce my anxiety).

Fur: We don't quite know what colour he will be. He seems to be growing in some grey fur on his snout and belly. It's hard to find any resources on what colour euro hogs can be. A friend is worried it is grey from stress, so we are trying to keep him feeling secure.

Play: At the moment he doesn't seem well enough to do any sort of play, but we take him out for lots of cuddles and let him run his legs for a few minutes in the afternoon. He then sleeps quite a bit.

Birthday: Counting back, he seems to have born at the start of January, so I think for dating purposes we're just going to say 1 Jan 2012 to make it easier to count forward.

He has being through so much .. i have a garden full of wildes and always pass them on to Gill who has being on giving you advice you really couldn't get anyone better to advise you on Wildes Gill is wonderful . I hope he make a full recovery . Think its very sad they are seen as pests as over here in the UK they are very much a big part of our wilde life .x

Thank you for sharing - can only say that Gill's advice is second to none - the advice she is giving you will hopefully help your little one survive x

Thank you all so much.

It's so hard getting advice here. I have a great lady named Peg who I can ring as well.

I don't get much time with Peg, so being able to write it all out is very good.

Gill has been great.


NZ is very protective of it's native species. Animals have been introduced to great detriment, almost completely wiping out the bird life here, so I can appreciate their hard work.

However, it's been proven in several long-term studies that hedgehogs do not prey on bird life or geckos or lizards to the extent of say introduced stoats or even dogs.

Cats are the biggest threat to bird life, yet people seem to think hedgehogs steal eggs and that they are carriers of TB and the like.

Pauline wants us to use Hedgie as a tool for education, as he will be quite tame throughout his entire life.

We just have to get these lungs healthy enough to survive long term.

And, believe it or not, we've even had some friends tell us we're doing the wrong thing and that they can't support what we're doing.

Yet, they have a cat who stays out all night hunting.

It's quite lonely trying to get advice and we are so, so lucky to have Pauline as our vet.

Well i hope you feel that you have a friendly forum to come to here Mau ... I am sure Gill will continue to give you advice ... and we will continue to hope that he pulls through seems like this little fellow was lucky to find you x

You have us and we are all hoping your little hoggie pulls through x

Oh Mau.... I've only just read this... It's an amazing liitle story... I really do hope he continues to make good progress and then lead a longer happy and healthy life.....

As the girls said, the advice from Gill s priceless....

There is a lively man.... Hugh Warwick, who studies wild hedgehogs... All over the world but more especially the Eoropean wild hedgehog... He wrote a book about his work... In it he also tells the story of when a small island blamed the hedgehog for stealing the eggs off birds making the close to extinction and so they all were under threat of being culled... There was no proof that the missing eggs were down to the poor choggies though.... Madness!

Anyways... Thank you so much for sending us photies.. I only asked the other day... It's lovely to be able to picture this little fella... He does look very similar to our wild hedges, chances are he'll stay a very dark colour just like e is now.

Thanks again!

xoxox