Rescued Hedgehog (1 Viewer)

[Deb Burhinus]

I saw a hedgehog looking for seed under the bird feeders (at 11 am). She was clearly extremely underweight for an adult and had probably just woken up. Given that hedgehogs out during the day are usually seriously struggling, I brought her in and put her into a large cardboard box (which I keep for the sole purpose of Hedgehogs in distress - lined with newspaper and a custom made sleeping compartment with a bit of straw and tissues). I gave her a shallow bowl of water and some granulated hedgehog supplement as well as a few hedgehog biscuits. She was lethargic and unresponsive when I placed her next to the food bowl. So I left her undisturbed for half an hour while I phoned my local wildlife rescue centre. After half an hour, she had perked up a bit and was eating a few biscuits and had sipped some water. The next time I looked she had crawled into the sleeping compartment and was sitting therewith her eyes open. The rescue centre collected her within the hour.

Hopefully she will be fine but please keep your eyes open for hedgehogs during the day at the moment- many go into hibernation without enough food reserves to get through hibernation and die during the big sleep. Others, like the one this morning, get through hibernation but wake around the first 2-3 weeks in March on the brink of starvation. Myself and several of my neighbors have been leaving food and water out everynight for the past 3 weeks but clearly this wasn’t enough to prevent this one from nearly (but hopefully not completely) succumbing to starvation.

 

[Kits]

Well done on your rescue, Deb, and thanks for the advice.

 

[d.steeley]

Well done Debs, they need all the help we can give them. Ours has popped in a couple of nights this week.

Dave

 

[Charlotte1]

Well done On finding the hedgehog. Please let us know how she gets on.

 

[delia todd]

Very well done on your rescue job Deb!

Thanks for telling us the tale and for the excellent advice too. Please report back if you get any updates from the rescue centre.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

Please let us know how she gets on.

Please report back if you get any updates from the rescue centre.

UPDATE TODAY

The female hedgehog is still in care. She was ‘critically underweight’ and has been on a fluid regime as well as being on a course of treatment (not sure what for but hedgehogs in care are normally treated for lungworm etc as a matter of course). She is being weighed daily and is not likely to allowed to come ‘home’ for release for another 3 weeks - she is still very underweight - they want her to be 500g before discharging her. (I would guess based on her size and lifting her she was about 175-200g when I found her).

She is however in the rehab unit so out of immediate danger by the sound of it. Fortunately the weather is turning quite cold again at night, so she is not loosing out too much and hopefully the male will not find another mate in the next 3 weeks! 🙂

 

[delia todd]

Looking good for her then - thanks for the update Deb.

 

[Charlotte1]

Thanks Deb for update. Glad all is going well for hedgehog and she will be released in due course.