Permanently Closed - Little Wiggly Snouts Hedgehog Rescue

11/07/2023

Afternoon all. After repeated occurrences of finders turning up on the doorstep, I need to re-state that I am closed to all new admissions.

The decision to close the rescue wasn’t made lightly and many of you know how hard it was and how difficult I find it to not accept a hedgehog in need.

HOWEVER.

The reasons WHY I have had to close have not changed.

It was never ok to turn up on the doorstep without prior arrangement before - because I may be out at the vet, because I may not have space, because the hedgehog may need to go straight to a vet, and not least because this is my home, not a business premises.

It is doubly not ok now that I am closed.

My voicemail states that I’m closed, and my messenger auto-replies with the same information. With all the will in the world, you having a hedgehog in need of a rescue doesn’t make the reasons why I’m closed disappear. It just doesn’t.

Please PLEASE follow the information in my voicemail and message responders. It’s not ok to show up and hope guilt will see me take pity and take them in, it’s not fair on you, me, OR the hedgehog.

If I could still be open, believe me I would be. But I can’t. Please don’t make that decision any harder than it already is.

Thank you.

(There are still hedgehogs in care here, currently a total of 8 as we speak, with one being released tomorrow - but that doesn’t mean I can take more in. I MUST get to zero. It is not optional. Thanks for understanding that it is due to circumstances outside of my control, and please don’t make me feel even worse than I already do.)

10/06/2023

Warm weather is on the way, and our wildlife will be in need of fresh drinking water more than ever 💚💙

Should you choose to share this, thank you x

31/05/2023

WARNING - the last image after the warnings is the wound without green to hide it… you have been warned!!!

Thought I’d do a little update on Onyx as we saw the vet yesterday for a progress check. Vet was very pleased as she had doubts we could get on top of the infection but he is healing well now with just one small area of not great looking skin at the edge of it. The wound has reduced in size a lot - this is a normal part of healing such a huge wound. The stronger painkillers have helped as well, as it’s meant less stress on him (though he still thinks I’m a terrible terrible person). The other puncture wounds are healing well too, tho I can see more areas where he was bitten - all of them as suspected amongst the snapped off spines. But he is doing so very well, this was always going to be a long haul due to the size and nature of the wound and the infection that set in. He’s still continuing to have twice daily sterile saline flushing of the wound to remove dead cells and bacteria, dried with a sterile gauze, then the antibiotic cream and the ‘Christmas tree’ cream applied, plus daily antibiotics are continuing for another 10 days along with the strong painkiller for 7.

It’s a lot of work but as you can see the progress is worth it! So much of the wound is now fresh pink healthy skin, a huge contrast to where we started.

(If you do decide to look at the last image - what you might see as yellow yuck is actually the dead cells his body has been producing as part of fighting the infection, tinted yellow by the Christmas tree ointment!). I am a huge fan of the ointment - it is called VetSalve and is only available from vets, but well worth asking for with wounds like this. It has similar benefits to manuka honey but it stays put rather than sliding off in a weeping wound - and keeps the wound just the right amount of moist for healing to take place.

Pearl is almost ready to return to her finder too, which is great, and Brutus will be released soon as well! So it’s good news all round :)

30/05/2023

Hedgehog nests aren’t as obvious as you might think…

If you have been taking part in please check for hedgehogs before you cut the grass. This garden was being strimmed before building works commence and under this pile of grass was a hedgehog and 4 hoglets.

If you find a nest, cover it back up, move away and call your nearest wildlife rescue for advice immediately. We were able to help save this family today.

24/05/2023

A not great photo of Onyx, the hedgehog from Kettering attacked by a dog. It’s been a while so an update was needed. He remains on twice daily wound care, strong pain relief and two antibiotics. His main (huge) wound is reducing in size, but in the last day or so two more puncture wounds have erupted - despite careful checking amongst all the snapped off spines these have laid hidden and festered under the skin. One is very close to the main wound but the other is the opposite side on the edge of the skirt.

Given there are multiple other areas of snapped off spines I’m expecting there to be more pockets of pus to be found :(. However, his weight is holding steady, and this explains his increased levels of annoyance at me handling him.

I really feel for him as it’s clear from both how traumatised he was initially (and how long that trauma persisted) and also from the extent of these wounds that this wasn’t a single bite but multiple repeated attacks by a dog and with a lot of force behind it too. How do I know the level of force? Because the spines are extremely strong and they take a lot to snap them off, and he has large areas that correspond with a dog’s jawbone How do I know it was a dog? Because when he arrived I could smell dog saliva on him, and fox smells different to domestic dog saliva (yes my nose is weird).

He was picked up multiple times in the jaws of the dog and I suspect thrown or rolled due to the grass I found caught around his spines. It will have been a terrifying ordeal for him.

As much as I want to say he’s doing well and it’ll be fine, almost 2 weeks later and he still isn’t out of the woods yet. Infections can kill - even with antibiotics, they aren’t a guaranteed success.

It makes me so sad and frustrated that these incidents just keep happening. Please talk to friends family and neighbours who own dogs and encourage them to supervise their pets properly - on walks as well as in the garden at home. Our wildlife is vulnerable and deserve better, they really do. It’s also fledgeling season so if you have a pet cat, please help keep fledglings safe - keep the cats indoors either side of dusk and dawn, at the very least.

21/05/2023

I’m closing so won’t be rearing any babies this year but this advice is absolutely spot on. All of it.

I can’t tell you how many times only part of the advice about anything regarding hedgehogs is followed. We don’t say what we say for fun, and it doesn’t matter if you think it it’s overkill or something. We say it because we know what happens if it isn’t done. Please believe us, and please do what we ask and don’t do what we don’t ask. 💜

I need to stress this over and over again,

if you find a hedgehog with babies..

DO NOT TOUCH
DO NOT TAKE SELFIES
DO NOT GET YOUR SMELL ON THE BABIES AT ALL

Quietly cover them back up
Back off

and if you can't leave them alone for some dire reason then call your nearest rescue immediately BEFORE doing anything else.

Otherwise, watch from a distance to make sure mum stays in the nest.

If you don't follow these rules and the babies are younger than 2 weeks, mum is likely to do one of two things:
1 - run off and leave the babies to die
2 - kill the babies.

Rescues don't take kindly to having to hand rear a litter of orphans that would have been much better off with Mum. It's a lot of work and no sleep.
There are strict protocols for successfully moving a mum with newborns and they need to be followed if the babies are to survive. There is nothing worse than opening a box to find a mum and half a dozen half-eaten babies.

19/05/2023

This is Onyx, we saw the vet again today as I was very concerned at the colour of the tissue inside this wound. (I’ve coloured it over in green marker so it doesn’t make anyone faint or puke…). The lovely vet who debrided it on Tuesday saw him today and added to his regimen of meds.

He is now on two antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory, a stronger painkiller twice a day, an antibiotic cream and another ointment which will help keep the entire wound moist. Every morning and night the ointment is removed, the wound and small extra cavity under the skin flushed with sterile saline, any loose dead tissue removed, before being gently dried with sterile gauze, the antibiotic cream applied, and then half an hour following that the ointment applied. I’ve been advised to try and apply the antibiotic cream 3-4 times a day if I can, but have to balance the stress this will cause in a wild animal (which can kill) against the risk infection will kill him if we can’t get it under control.

His weight is, unsurprisingly, unstable from one day to the next. So far all his faecal tests are clear of any parasite evidence, which is frankly astonishing given the stress he is under from multiple directions! The initial trauma from the attack, the strain on his body as it tries to repair itself, being in captivity, and the amount of handling needed to take care of this wound… it is a lot to endure for a wild prey animal.

But, he is now into day 8 of rehab and making it this far is cause for hope - there is healthy tissue doing what it needs to in the wound, albeit with a lot that looks like it isn’t.

Hedgehogs are very stoic creatures and will hide pain well, and will keep eating up until the day they die, so just because he isn’t screaming his head off doesn’t mean he isn’t experiencing huge amounts of discomfort, something often overlooked when they’re found injured. Luckily the vet agreed to prescribe some good painkillers for him and I know from his behaviour and little telltale signs that he isn’t giving up on the fight yet (they get a particular look in their eyes when they’ve had enough). So we fight on together, with another review at the vet in 7-10 days 🤞

17/05/2023

When you’ve released a reprobate but he insists on returning to his bed every morning to sleep the day away…

Find yourself a wild nest Puck 🤣 you’re not getting any food in there either!

(Although it looks like the middle of the day, the camera is good in low light and you can see the time stamp shows it’s much later than it looks!)

16/05/2023

It’s been another rough week here and yes I am closed. The voicemail has been changed to reflect that and other changes will follow. There is some good news later in this post though!

A few sad cases have come in recently including Onyx, pictured. He was attacked by a dog (can smell the saliva and foxes often urinate on the hedgehog) & left with a puncture wound and this horrific gash. Thanks go to the vet nurses at who took him in initially and who saw him today for a sedated debridement after wound healing progress took a wrong turn. He’s now on two antibiotics and remains on painkillers too, plus flushing of the wound and cream applied twice daily… it was lovely to be complimented on my wound care by the vet though, as all the right things have been done.

Another sad case is a hedgehog named Wibbly Wobbly who was found on a road Sunday night. Unfortunately it took until last night for him to get to me from a neighbour, & what had been thought an injured front leg actually seemed to be far bigger problems. The vet at Swanspool reviewed footage of his movement & her checks confirmed my suspicions - likely head trauma/brain injury & despite meds given on arrival here for that the likelyhood of recovering enough normal function to be releasable was just too slim, so he was helped on his way & now won’t suffer weeks of trying for very little hope of improvement. RIP Wibble Wobble.

The happier news is that some releases have taken place! Birthday has gone to a lovely garden, so has Icarus, & last night Puck - who gave every appearance of being fully blind - has also gone free. He can distinguish night from day and - unlike in a smaller pen - didn’t come out during the day when he heard the kibble rattling 😂 so perhaps it was his stomach not eyes… he’s been released here so will be monitored closely. (He has returned to his bed in his pen today, as I did get a surprise when I went to clean it out fully!)

Baby season is in full swing so please be careful when gardening, tidying, no looking in nest boxes. If you disturb a nest don’t touch the babies or take photos, cover immediately & seek advice from a rescue.

05/05/2023

This hedgehog was meant to be a nesting mum taking advantage of support feeding in the afternoons - but actually turned out to be a juvenile with a suspected chest infection🤦🏻‍♀️

Named Pearl I can tell she’s going to be Trouble already (just look at the state of that ICU this morning!). She only weight 382g when she came in. Not that she did. Because I’m closed. Yes, yes I am.

She’s loving her tinned food and needs to put a fair bit of weight back on. Hopefully in a few weeks she’ll all be fixed up and ready to be kicked back out to the wild er I mean returned to her lovely finder’s garden 🤣

Photos in comments because fb won’t let me do video and photos on the same post.