Found a small chunk of spines

[clarelewlew]

I went to put feed out for the hogs tonight and found a chunk of skin with some spines attached. The attached skin looked slightly scabby, no blood or pus and was about the size of a ten pence.

I use a wildlife camera to record their activity at night and they seem fine (although I didn’t put the camera out last night!)

Is losing spines normal? Is losing a chunk normal?

[Penny]

It sounds like one of your hogs could have a bad case of ringworm or mange. They usually lose fur around their face and tummy so you should be able to see any bare patches on the camera footage. I would contact a local carer so it can be treated a.s.a.p. It can take a while to treat, but one of our visitors was treated earlier this year and it cleared up quite quickly…Good luck. 🙂

[clarelewlew]

Thanks for the reply Penny. That’s reassuring to hear one of your visitors was treated and it cleared up quickly

I sent some pictures to a local carer and they think it could be either be from an old injury or possibly mange. Got to keep an eye on them so will study the camera footage later.

There are two hogs who visit the garden. One of them rolls up into a ball when I see him/her so that one will be easy to get a look at. The other one makes a run for it so may be a bit trickier to study that one!

[Penny]

For the ones that do a runner, the best trick is to shine a torch in their face, that usually does the trick! It’s not easy to spot on the camera footage, but in the photo you can just see that nearly all of the fur on her skirt has gone and there are just a few clumps left, when I picked her up spines were falling out and her tummy and face were almost bare. She has made a full recovery and I suspect that she now has hoglets somewhere; she has gone from being very plump and caught on camera most of the night to being very slim and only picked up on video occasionally…fingers crossed! 🙂

https://www.flickr.com/gp/144453064@N05/456r4S

[clarelewlew]

Excellent, I’ll try it with the torch on the speedy one!

I sat out in the garden last night waiting for the one who comes out at 10pm. He/she looked great, no spines missing, a full skirt and I swear I’ve never seen something so small consume so much food!!

The other one should hopefully have been picked up on the camera last night. I didn’t get any footage the two nights before due to battery problems. This one tends to make an appearance in the early hours.

That a brilliant picture of Pumpkin as it really highlights the patches. I’ll keep a look out for that on my pictures. Thank you

[Angelbuffy1979]

Is there anyway I could home rescue hedgehogs in my garden do organizations do that?

[Author]

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