Helping a hedgehog in trouble out in the daytime

[Aggie]

I haven’t been on recently – am in far West Cornwall. I began to feed a hedgehog in the summer and autumn, and carried on until about November. Unfortunately in early Dec my mother died and I had to leave home at short notice for over 5 weeks until this week. My husband looked after the birds, but I didn’t like to ask him to do much for the hedgehogs as they seemed to be hibernating and previously the neighbours had been feeding also.

Just before I came back my husband told me that there was one out in the daytime one day. On the day after I returned the hedgehog (assuming it’s the same one) came out to feed in the day, twice in one day. I decided then that it must be in trouble, and got a box into our garden room with food and water and low heat and put it in there and rang the number given for advice. There is no support person in easy reach of where I live, but after chatting with the nearest person (I have no car so cannot go there), I have added a hot water bottle with towel round it, and weighed it and it’s 400gm which apparently is 50 gm short of being able to survive, plus it should not be out in the day anyway.

I have been advised to take it to a vet tomorrow, but it seems unlikely to me that a vet would want to hold onto it until the Spring. If so I don’t quite know what I am going to do with it. I will have to play it by ear I guess depending on what the vet says.

What have other people done in this situation or do the vets offer to take them off their hands? I would hate to shove the poor creature out into the cold again..

Incidentally when I found the hog it was enthusiastically eating and drinking so I am hoping that it’s not ill, but just undernourished. I guess that the vet may be able to tell. Would most vets charge for their services in this situation? I have been told no, but this seems unlikely to me.

[Nic]

Hi Aggie

Did you try contacting some of the other rescues who weren’t quite so close. (I take it that you rang the BHPS and got a list of contact details from them?) Some will come and collect hogs, or have volunteers who they can call on to collect for them. Some hog carers/rehabilitators know more about hog problems than some vets do, so it’s worth making a few phone calls if you haven’t already.

Re. the vets. I am always hearing that vets aren’t supposed to charge for wild animals, but I have also heard of people who have been charged for hedgehogs, so it sounds as if it is chance whether they do or don’t charge. It probably also depends on the vet whether they just check the hog over and give it back to you. Some may have carers, who they have connections with.

Just one thought. Make sure that the hog has enough room that it can get away from the hot water bottle should it wish to.

Caring is not my area of knowledge, but, if you do end up having to look after the hog, and having had it checked for internal parasites, etc. (you might want to take a poo sample with you to the vet so they can check it). i.e. if it has a clean bill of health, I would continue to do what you have been doing, but without a hot water bottle. You will need to be prepared to clean it out every day. I wouldn’t want to release it now until it has put on some weight. (the recommended weight for release for a hog who has been in captivity for a period of time is 600g) If you do need to keep the hog hopefully someone with experience in rehabilitating hogs will be able to give you some further advice. I imagine your local carers will be able to advise you even if they can’t take the hog in.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

[Nic]

At risk of this appearing twice. I had to make a small edit and the Forum is misbehaving at the momenet, so my comment disappeared, but this is a copy. It may or may not work.

Hi Aggie

Did you try contacting some of the other rescues who weren’t quite so close. (I take it that you rang the BHPS and got a list of contact details from them?) Some will come and collect hogs, or have volunteers who they can call on to collect for them. Some hog carers/rehabilitators know more about hog problems than some vets do, so it’s worth making a few phone calls if you haven’t already.

Re. the vets. I am always hearing that vets aren’t supposed to charge for wild animals, but I have also heard of people who have been charged for hedgehogs, so it sounds as if it is chance whether they do or don’t charge. It probably also depends on the vet whether they just check the hog over and give it back to you. Some may have carers, who they have connections with.

Just one thought. Make sure that the hog has enough room that it can get away from the hot water bottle should it wish to.

Caring is not really my area of knowledge, but, if you do end up having to look after the hog, and having had it checked for internal parasites, etc. (you might want to take a poo sample with you to the vet so they can check it). i.e. if it has a clean bill of health, I would continue to do what you have been doing, but without a hot water bottle. You will need to be prepared to clean it out every day. I wouldn’t want to release it now until it has put on some weight. (the recommended weight for release for a hog who has been in captivity for a period of time is 600g) If you do need to keep the hog hopefully someone with experience in rehabilitating hogs will be able to give you some further advice. I imagine your local carers will be able to advise you even if they can’t take the hog in.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

[Aggie]

Thank you Nic for your reply and so sorry for such a late one from me.

In the end I rang up one of the local vets (there are 2) and the larger one is obviously very set up to help hedgehogs and I spoke to a nurse there before I went who indicated that they had people to take the hogs to if appropriate, and took my details too so that the hog might be returned to me if it recovered to be released in the same area it came from.

Because of my mother’s death, I have had a lot to do since,and a week has gone by since it went to the vet. I rang up today and spoke to the same nurse, and it seems that sadly the hog didn’t make it and died when with them. Apparently it had hundreds of ticks on it, and had bad anaemia. He did say that normally they have a good track record with hedgehogs so it must have been in a bad way though wasn’t drastically underweight (was 400gm) as I had weighed it.

Very sad but at least I now know a good place to take any more sick hogs. No mention of charging me too!

Incidentally I did make sure that the hog had plenty of space to move off the hot water bottle which was well covered with towels, as it was quite a large box.

[Nic]

Hi Aggie

So sorry to hear about the little hog. Maybe part of the weight was all those ticks. Sadly, we can’t win them all, but as you say, at least now you know a good place to take them if necessary.

Good luck with the rest of the hogs. It won’t be too long now until the hibernators return.

[Aggie]

Thank you Nic. We spoke to our direct neighbour yesterday to tell her about the hog, as she also had been feeding them in the autumn. She still thinks there is one hibernating among the roots of the bamboo which forms a hedge between us. I am not totally convinced as I fear it may be the hog that I took to the vet, but we will see…….I did have one in my igloo earlier in the autumn, so there may be one in there hibernating.

I won’t of course be looking or disturbing until it warms up a bit and I know they have gone from the hedgehog boxes. I also have a hog house in the front garden but I put that in quite late, and don’t know if a hog went in there at all. Often the food disappears even now, quite quickly but we have so much squirrel activity, I suspect them with eating it.

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