May 13th, 2009

Hi all, Well Hedgehog awareness week may be over, but not here. :) We have another little visitor to our garden. We have named him Spot, with a nick name of Speedy. Boy is he fast when he wants to be. I had brought him in a few nights ago to mark him and take down some details. And I hadn't noticed anything other than he seemed a bit dirty and smelly. So I marked him with a spot on his side and let him go back out in the garden. Well two nights ago Brian says we have a hedgehog in the food box again. So I went out to have a look and it was little Spot again....Only this time I noticed he had some ticks. Ick!!! Poor boy.

So out comes the cage and I get all my bits and bobs to do some tick removing. I used tweezers, but didn't pull them. This isn't a good way to remove as you could leave the mouth parts and then infection could start. You have to gently twist counter clockwise until the tick releases. I was up till past midnight removing them.... 14 that first night. With some near his little face and one on his tum that I just couldn't get to. The problem being is I would try for the tick, but then Spot would curl up and hide it away. Very difficult, and I was beginning to think that poor Spot had had enough for one evening. So I put him in his cage with some fresh bedding and food and water and some vitamins on his food.

Then last night with the assistance of Brian I got the large ticks around his face off. There isn't any set rules of how to go about doing this, other than lots and lots of patience and persistence. The one on the tummy proved most difficult though. And our little friend was caked in what looked to be mud. So not sure what it was and fearing he could be injured with a bite or something I decided to give him a bath. We didn't have any baby shampoo, so I just used warm water and a plastic shoe box for a tub. You tilt it slightly so his head is out of the water. And I began pouring water over him. And he scrabbled about a bit and then finally relaxed and looked like he was really enjoying it. His spines even went flat. They do that when they are relaxed. :)

We did get quite a bit of muck off him and on closer inspection I didn't see anymore ticks or injuries. But that stubborn one on his tummy. So we dried him off using a hair dryer set really low and held him in a towel. He looked so cute!!!!

Then we put him back down on the table and he was still pretty relaxed and like I said with a bit of patience and perseverance and all hands working together, we got the horrible beast. So Brian is now Assistant carer and has earned his badge quite well. And for being such a good little Hoggie, I gave spot some boiled chicken and more vitamins and some biscuits. He is now sleeping in his box and hopefully on inspection tonight there won't be any more ticks. :)

I will feed him up and watch him for a few days before releasing him back out in the wild. And I will get an after photo. These were taken the first night he was brought in.