Hedgehogs

When I was planning my Journals for June I thought it would be a good time to do a little update on the hedgehogs living in our garden. After all the mating activity in April and May I was hoping I might be able to tell you about some hoglets! But unfortunately one of the hogs has been really poorly so unfortunately this isn’t a hoglet celebration Journal.

Hedgehogs are very easily disturbed and like to be left alone so we generally avoid their part of the garden as much as possible and I’ve let it get pretty wild! Intervening and taking a hedgehog to a rescue centre is definitely a last resort.

We keep an eye on the camera box and after putting out food in the evening we watch from the window to check they’re looking okay (if they come out early enough to see). And over the last year I’ve got to know their habits and what’s normal for them.

For example - you often hear that if they’re out during the day there is definitely something wrong and they need rescuing… but ours regularly pop out during the day to have a wee, a drink or stretch their legs. After Haggis had the babies last summer she would sometimes come out in the middle of the day for bedding materials and the hoglets would often pop out for a nosey.

Haggis also regularly slept outside by the box entrance on hot days… five baby hogs probably made the box a bit too warm! The main thing I noticed was that they never ventured far from the box.

So the fact that one of the hedgehogs (we think Haggis) was popping out for water during the day and coming out a bit earlier in the evening didn’t worry me until I saw her doing weird belly flops and looking a bit wobbly…

After flopping on her belly a few times she dashed off down the path and looked fine - but it was also unusual to see her on the path before dark. I thought she maybe wanted extra feeding time if she’s pregnant.

Then two days later we saw some concerning behaviour in the camera box overnight. Her body seemed to be contracting and her breathing laboured and squeaky… but no hoglets arrived so it seemed likely that she was unwell or injured.

She didn’t sleep in the camera box the following day so after putting out food in the evening I stood by the window waiting for her to come out (instead of my usual occasional check). She was clearly in distress and struggling to breath so I went outside for a closer look while Beardie dashed around gathering a box, old towels and my gardening gloves so we could scoop her up and bring her inside.

She didn’t even try and move away or put her spikes out so we knew that intervening was definitely the right thing to do.

We spoke to Brinsley Animal Rescue who gave us some advice on how to keep her comfortable overnight (shredded newspaper, a small amount of wet food in the box and a bottle of warm water to keep her cosy) and we arranged to take her in the following morning.

I won’t give you all the gory details… but she had an infection - possibly from an unhealed wound on her nose. They gave her pain relief, antibiotics and fluid therapy and although she’s doing much better now, she is also being treated for internal parasites. They think she might be pregnant, but this hasn’t been confirmed so we’ll wait and see.

We’ve really missed having her in the garden! We’ve seen other hogs coming for food and we think Rodney is living in the old box (and also potentially pregnant), but Haggis was the main one living here consistently and regularly sleeping in the camera box.

Hopefully she’ll recover enough so that we can release her back into the garden… although she might choose to immediately move on! If she is pregnant then I hope she’s well enough to come home before the babies arrive and that she can cope with the birth. We’ve got some fresh hay for her so we’re ready at this end!