She is doing well in an incubator to keep her warm, she is eating and putting on weight. Cat bites can be very infectious, this infection too often kills wild animals, especially when their immune system is weakened by shock. This lucky rabbit is over the worst, we hope we can release him/her in the next few days.

She is around 12 weeks old and is unfortunately blind in both eyes, she also has signs of having been attacked. She has a torn ear and a couple of infected wounds. She is doing fine, she is eating well and running around like a playful fox cub should do. We have cleaned her up and put her on antibiotics.

This little girl though will never be able to be released into the wild, she would not survive. We are hoping that she will be cared for by a specialist fox rescue centre, where she will live with other fox cubs, that are also unable to be released. We only keep wild animals in captivity as a last resort and only if they have quality of life and as natural as possible, full of stimulation and enrichment.

We don’t normally handle wild animals, we need to prevent them from becoming imprinted, however as this fox cub cannot be released, she needs to be fairly tame.

Firstly we need to assess the patient, we need to be sure of the breed and age to ensure we feed them an appropriate diet. We check them over for wounds, weigh them, check for parasites such as ticks, ensure they are not dehydrated and check their general health and treat them accordingly.

Quite often patients are cold, before we can even think of feeding them or administering medication, they need to be warm, for this we use heat pads or incubators. Giving them food or drink whilst they’re cold can lower their body temperature even further putting them at a greater risk.

Once checked over and treated for any immediate  priorities and they are warm, we can think about feeding them. This can initially involve force feeding them and they don’t recognise us as their parents. Force feeding should never be attempted by anyone who is not experienced and trained.

Our days revolve around the young, some need feeding every hour, some every few hours and some around the clock. This is very difficult, especially when looking after so many other animals and working full-time for a living. It’s a good job Beth has an understanding boss who lets her take a menagerie of animals into work each day!

The hedgehogs literally inflate, as air or gas is trapped under their skin, they inflate so much that they end up like a balloon, and cannot roll up or even walk. In this condition they cannot move, let alone eat or drink and the internal pressure makes it difficult for them to breath.

Balloon syndrome is a secondary issue, the primary being either severe internal infection causing gas to build up, or damage to the respiratory tract.

The first priority is to deflate him, we did this by inserting a Syringe and literally sucking out the air. Now deflated and the pressure off hi internal organs, we can treat the primary cause with antibiotics. The last picture shows how much better he looks after 30 minutes of deflating.

After 30 minutes of deflating him, he can now roll up in a ball and his breathing is much better, but we’ll have to check him every hour now for the next 24 hours, generally we have had to deflate them 3 or 4 times before they have fully recovered.

Today was a big day for 2 little foxes we have hand reared.  One of the foxes came in with awful mange and had ongoing treatment for 9 weeks!  We have really struggled to find a suitable site for these foxes be released at.  Other sanctuaries are also having difficulty finding suitable sites.  Thanks to a very kind couple we have set up a temporary pen in their garden where they will be fed for a few nights before eventually being allowed to go as they please.  This form of release is called ‘soft release’ and means that the animals will be fed and have continuous access to food until they can fend for themselves.  There are plenty of sources of food at the site and an amazing nature reserve for them to spend the rest of their lives.

If you know of a potential release site for future foxes then please get in touch as we have had such difficulty trying to find somewhere for this beautiful pair.  It is very sad that some people choose to kill these amazing animals in the name of sport and thanks to this country’s slack laws, continue to do so illegally!  Foxes are such stunning creatures and it has been so rewarding to have known these two.

This poor guy had fallen down a 10cm open pipe and in his struggle to get out, had become completely trapped between two water pipes and the outer pipe section.

When we arrived, we could touch the hog, we could see he was still alive but he was completely stuck, we couldn’t get him out as he was without hurting him, which we had to avoid. Over the next three hours we slowly cut away the pipe and dug down around it, to give him more space and free him off.

In the end, we called the fire brigade to see if they could help. Thankfully after a bit of persuasion they sent a team that had small hacksaws and a dedication, they were as keen as we were to rescue the poor chap.

Finally after over three hours, he was free and Broxtowe Borough Council had turned up to fill the hole and make it safe. We took the guy back and put him in an incubator to warm up.

He is now doing well, he has eaten thankfully and looking much happier than he did, he is still very mucky though and needs treating for ringworm. He has gone through such an ordeal, we hope he will survive, so far so good.

Lots of people tell us that they want to learn to care for hedgehogs but are unaware of how smelly and time consuming they are to care for.  It amazes us how much mess a hedgehog can make in 1 night!  Caring for baby hedgehogs (hoglets) means often getting up in the night and feeding regularly throughout the day.  Many peoples day to day commitments mean that caring and rehabilitating hedgehogs is out of the question.  However, if you think you have what it takes then get yourself on this invaluable course.  Janet Peto who has organised the course encouraged us in the early days and has been an invaluable source of information.  She has been caring for hedgehogs for 38 years.

Hedgehogs are in huge decline in this country and the more people that become aware and care for our little spikey friends, the better.

The course is £20.00 and will run from 10am til 4.30pm 13th August at FOSTON VILLAGE HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE (4 miles North of Grantham).

The days agenda will include:

Marion Horscroft Nutrition and feeding, wild hedgehogs and in care

Chris Kozarzewski Veterinary Surgeon – What we should and should not be doing in care and what to leave to the professionalsWorking with your Veterinary Surgeon, a two way partnership

Janet Peto Health and Safety – You and the hedgehog Raising Hoglets New born to release General Information (useful information acquired in 28 years of hedgehog care)

Dr Nigel Reeve Hedgehogs in the Wild – Then we know if it is normal behaviour or not when they are in care.

We would like to thank the British Hedgehog Preservation Society for sponsorship toward the cost of this event.

If you are interested in attending the course can you please email janet.peto@btineternet.com and Janet will put you on the list of interested parties – Thank you  (Lunch will cater for all dietary needs)

This condition is the symptom of something more serious, such as respiratory tract damage or a gas build up from a gangrenous wound. The balloon condition is caused by gas building up under the skin.

The first and foremost treatment we have applied is to release the gas, hedgehogs have been know to literally explode from a gas build up. We have achieved this by venting out the gas via a hypodermic syringe, we have now had to do this four times. The last venting was at midnight last night, this morning there has been no further build up and so we can move on to bring him back to health. As we do not know what the cause is, it is now antibiotics, anti-inflammatory painkillers and a waiting game.

This photograph was taken at midnight last night, just before we vented him for the last time. You can see the extent of the expansion of his body, the darker skin should actually be his  underside, here you can clearly see how expanded he is, so much that he could not roll up into a ball.

He is probably around four weeks old so still being fed on milk, our task will be to keep him warm and bottle feed on milk replacement.  Fox cubs do require a lot of attention, they are quite noisy particularly at night!

Slowly he can been weaned off milk onto puppy food. We always minimise our handling so that he will not get too imprinted and easier to release back into the wild.

Today he was released back into the wild where he belongs.

Hedgehogs are indigenous and in decline due to climate change, a lack of food and habitate in our manicured gardens and due to the use of slug pellets.

Hogs need to be at least 600 grams to survive hibernation through the cold winter, so those that are too small have been kept by us over the winter and released in Spring.

We clean and fed them every day and monitor their progress. This is very time consuming and boy do they eat, each hog will eat a third of its body weight every day. We feed them chicken based dog food and water. Never feed a hedgehog milk or bread!

We also investigate and treat any health issues, by looking at their pooh and skin samples under a microscope, looking for parasites.

Many hogs come to us with lung worm, a parasite that they catch from eating slugs, this seems to be on the increase possibly due to our ever wetter climate. If left untreated this often leads to death.

Of the 9 hedgehogs we have had overwintering, 7 have survived and 6 were released today back to where they were rescued.

Unfortunately two did not recover from lung worm, the remaining 3 survivors will be released over the next few days.

These two are weaned off their mother but are too small for this time of year. They need to be above 500 grams to survive hibernation, otherwise they will perish. It is likely that these two will have to be kept with us until the spring when we will release them.

We always try to release hogs where they were found, wherever there are hedgehogs there is food.

 

If you want to encourage hedgehogs into your garden then here are a few simple things you can do:

A log pile will create a great damp area where a hedgehog will be able to find food like slugs and beetles. 

Lots of ground coverage and plants will also be a great haven for a hedgehog to snuffle round in and find food.

Feeding hedgehogs – tinned cat and dog meat or Spikes Hedgehog food.   DO NOT feed a hedgehog bread and milk and DO NOT feed a hedgehog gravy based dog/cat food.

Leave water out for your hedgehog.  When we haven’t had any rain for a while many hedgehogs come to us completely dehydrated. Remember to leave it in a heavy bowl as hedgehogs are very good at tipping up bowls in search of tasty treats underneath.

Provide an area that hedgehogs might be able to nest or hibernate.  Hedgehogs retreat during the day and make themselves obscure by making a nest. You could buy a specially designed hedgehog hibernator from a fabulous local company! http://www.worm.co.uk/default.asp?mode=viewTree&nodeId=79&divId=middlenode79

By encouraging other types of wildlife to your garden you will increase your chances of encouraging a hedgehog.  If you exterminate and poison other creatures in your garden then the chances are you will also poison a hedgehog. Most poisons like metaldehyde (found in slug pellets) and warfarin (in rat and mouse poison) will also kill a hedgehog slowly and callously.

Hedgehogs are charming little creatures to have around your garden and do no end of pest control for you the way nature intended. 

We are now hand rearing all three, this is very time consuming, feeding them every 3 hours and then mimicking all the natural motherly actions, like teaching them to go to the toilet after feeding.

Unfortunately a cat caught two babies and both parents, killing the mother. They were brought to us by the cats owner, we released the father back inot the wild and are now hand rearing the only surviving baby. The other baby died shortly after arrival, it was very cold and had puncture wounds from the cats teeth. Cats mouths are full of bacteria and often cause infections.

Hand rearing creatures of this size poses many challenges, particulary at feeding time. This mouse is being fed from our smallest syringe (1ml) and teat.