Update on the hoggies.

We are bursting at the seams here at the moment. We have 7 hedgehogs in care inside and only 3 cages!!! First off is Pip.... Who I think I mentioned has a broken leg. She is our adult hog inside. We have been taking her to the vet for a check up on her healing progress. And after our last visit Brian had mentioned maybe some hydro therapy. So I called Tiggywinkles and they suggested a routine. I have had to adjust this to suit our situation. So Pip goes swimming every morning in the bath tub for about 6-7 minutes. I have noticed a little improvement and she sometimes uses the foot rather than drags it. And one morning while swimming she did spread her toes. So I hope it will just be a matter of time and it will be usable for her. We are off to the vets on Monday for a check up.

The Triplets

The Triplets as we call them are growing fast!!!!!! It is like they do it right before my eyes and I blink and they have gotten even bigger. They are now in a big cage and love trashing it. They have a banquet in there of dried kitten biscuits, wet kitten biscuits, goats milk and water. And sometimes Brian sneaks them in a digestive biscuit. They love playing with things and will spend hours gathering up small news paper strips to build their nests. Also card board tubes with a slit down them are loads of entertainment for them. Today I gave them the ball..... It is a red ball meant for cats, that has a slider thing in it so you can put little cat biscuits in it. They thought that was super. So easy to please.

We also have our little grand hoglet in at the moment. I am treating her for lung worm. I am sure her mom has it so could well have passed it on to her. I would treat mum, but not sure if she is pregnant and whether I should while she is so. Not always an easy decision. She doesn't much care for being in, but hopefully she can be released back out in the garden soon. We named her Suty after her mum Suzy and Tyler her dad.

Spike


Poppy

We also received two new babies yesterday. My friend Linda called asking for the hedgehog rescue. I told her not to be so silly. LOL She was dead serious, though I think she was teasing just a little. Anyway, last year Brian and I went to do a talk at one of her Beaver scout meetings. Well one of her Beavers parents found a baby hedgehog. She wanted to know if I would take it in. I said I would.... and just mentioned they might look for more as sometimes there can be more. Glad I did.... And glad they looked. As we now have two. Dubbed the twins. Poppy a little girl and Spike a little boy. It was a good thing they paid attention to our talk and sought help for them immediately. Both had fly strike and fleas. To me though the fleas are a nuisance and not nice for the hogs. They can be easily dealt with. A bit of rid mite powder for birds and it does the job. But the fly strike is another matter. They are eggs and if the babies got warm then the eggs would hatch out into maggots. I did get one maggot off them. I really hate those. So Linda gave me a hand and so did Brian and we managed to get them off the babies. Took a bit of time but I think we got them all. I even used a new product called F10 that is for killing maggots. Not sure if it worked on eggs or not. but I tried it any way. Once we got those off then I put drops in their ears just in case any were hiding in there and we gave them some rehydration fluids and a nice warm bath of salt water to help get rid of anymore that might be around. Thanks Linda for delivering them to me and your friend for finding them and getting them help. Also for helping me. Sometimes two hands just aren't enough. After they settled and we weighed them we gave them their first feed of goats milk and Hills Ad. They are now slowly putting weight on and gaining strength. We estimate them to be about 3 weeks old. And I would say they had been without mum for a day or two. Who knows what happened to her. We are experiencing a drought here at the moment so it could have all been too much for her. So if you can, please not just fill up the bird bath, but also a bowl of water or two around your gardens at ground level would help. At the moment they are asleep in a little carrier cuddled up in some warm fleeces on a heat pad. And are being fed every 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Hopefully it will be a progression of releases so that the cages come available at the time they will be needed. Other wise we may have a hoggy or two in some large cat carriers here.

And as a bit of enjoyment I thought we would share this video with you of Alex. It was really hot the other night. And Alex must have missed his nap during the day.... LOL Poor boy just couldn't keep awake. Lovely that he felt safe in the garden to be able to sleep like this in the open. We brought him in last night and he weighed in at a whopping 834 grams!!!!