The Hog Diaries - Happy Travels Jonesy Boy!

In an earlier post I told you how Quincy and Jones had been discovered and brought into care, explaining that I had found Quincy in the side yard, sitting on her lonesome in the middle of the concrete ... what I didn't mention was that there was a back story which had transpired earlier that day.

Earlier in the morning on Feb 6th Quincy's day of admission, I had discovered a little hog in the feeder box in the side yard. This wee one was 334gms and although this is little, it isn't necessarily too little to be on its own in the height of summer with access to beds and food in my garden. I brought the hog in to check it, marked it,  give it a mange preventative treatment, recorded it in my logbook - naming it White Left Side Wildie (which is where I marked it) and then snuggled it back into bed in the feeder box.

For the rest of the day I fretted about whether I had made the right decision and by nightfall I had decided to bring the little hog in to care, so I went back to the feeder get it. Alas, it had gone on its way BUT there was Quincy waiting for me instead and a few days later Jones arrived. There was no doubt about bringing these two in of course, because they were well under 200gms and far to little to be alone. A week later WLS Wildie was again asleep in the feeder which was great as it gave me a chance to check its progress. It weighed in at 473gms - a big gain of 139gms, so I was assured of its well being and was happy to leave it in the wild.

Jones on the day of his release

Quincy was released last week and last night it was Jones' turn. I tucked him up into the sleeping box in the back garden near where he was found. The box had been vacated by Mary - who has not been seen since her release, and this morning I found he had added to the nest over night and had found the feeder box. He's curled up warm dry and fast asleep which is lovely. Maybe he will hibernate there? Who knows....

Along with getting Jones ready to go yesterday, I also decided to check the sleeping box in the front garden because it had been occupied for at least a few weeks and a fabulous nest had been built in the box. With winter approaching I thought it might be a good idea to make sure the inhabitant was healthy and to give them a dose of Revolution to ward of mange.

Jonesy being a shy boy 

Upon rousing the occupant I found a lovely plump hoggie in beautiful condition. Very tightly curled up - so almost certainly not one of my 'babies,' I brought it in for a check up, weigh in and Revolution treatment. Once I had it on the bench in my 'clinic' I discovered faint remnants of white nail polish on the tips of its quills along its left side ... it was WLS Wildie!!!

Popping it on the scale - still 'it' as there was no way I could determine its sex as it was VERY shy and wouldn't uncurl, I was thrilled to see it was now 837gms. I decided to microchip it as it had been in the garden for the whole summer and was obviously going to stick around. So Hog No. 4891 was duly entered into my Logbook and after a Revolution treatment, WLS Wildie was returned to its nest.

This evening when I did the feeder boxes there was a hog asleep in the feeder beside WLS Wildie's sleeping box and upon scanning said hog, I discovered it was WLS Wildie. Hopefully it was just a bit confuddulated with all of yesterday's goings on,  decided to have a nap next door and will go back to its nest tonight ...

I think I need a better name than WLS Wildie though .... Any suggestions?

The Mad Menagerie - Getting to know you ...

Early in June 2014 Paws4Life posted a request asking if anyone could foster a bunny and I immediately put my hand up. The wee thing had been found on a busy road and taken into and left at a nearby vet clinic. From there, the groomer at the clinic (who has saved many cats off the Euth table, sending them to be rehomed by Paws4Life) took him home overnight and contacted P4L for help. The groomer runs a small doggy day care so the environment was not suitable for this wee bun in any way BUT she had brought his dilemma to the attention of the right animal welfare group that's for sure! After spending the night in the bathtub safely away from the dogs, he was brought over to me the following morning.

You are safe now, little buddy 

As soon as I opened the carrier and lifted him out he snuggled into my arms my heart just melted and I knew he would be staying with us forever I took him into the house to meet Geri and it was love at first sight for her as well.

At the timeI had a spare hutch - which I knew was too small in the long term, but it did allow me to accomodate him immediately. I set him up outside the back door so that he was close by and we set about the business of getting to know him. We named him Westley - because he was pretty and blond, after a character in out favourite film; The Princess Bride.

Malocclusion

I have never had a long haired bunny before and it was a steep learning curve. We quickly discovered that Westley was covered in matts, that his teeth were in a terrible state and that he had a bad case of fur mites. He was also skin and bones under all of the fur - his teeth would have been preventing him from eating so he was starving.

Slowly as we started grooming him and cutting the mats off his body and from under his feet we found that he had the most amazing temperament. He was so patient with all of the poking and prodding and just LOVED attention and company.

I started researching and decided that Westley was a Cashmere Lop - but very poorly bred, no doubt the result of an irresponsible back yard breeder ... don't get me started on that one ... and that his tooth condition was called Malocclusion - the teeth don't align like they should. In a rabbit this is a serious state of affairs because their teeth never stop growing and need to be worn down by eating high fibre foods. When this doesn't happen the teeth over grow, preventing the rabbit from eating and causing a lot of pain. There are two options to manage this issue. One is to have the teeth ground down/off regularly at the vets and the other is to have them removed.

Yes, the bed is VERY comfortable, thank you!

I booked Westley in to see the shelter's vet to discuss options and have his first vaccination. In the mean time he made himself quite at home. He was proving to be quite a character.

At the appointment the vet ground Westley's teeth off for me,  gave him his jab, we discussed the options going forward and I brought Mr W home so I could have a ponder before making a decision. Part of this process was to see how quickly his teeth regrew because it can be quite variable, with the norm being a retrim every 4-6 weeks. Westley was a very happy bunny though - he could eat and drink comfortably for the first time in a quite a while I suspect.

What kind of Bunny are you? 

By this stage we had worked out that Westley was probably about 6 months old. I suspected that he had been dumped once his tooth issue became apparent - as it often does at around the 4-6 month mark, as the rabbit's head/face matures. Malocclusion is an expensive issue to address and dumping this poor wee man was the coward's way out. It turned out that Mr W's teeth regrew at a pretty fast rate and he started having trouble eating within 2 weeks. If I took option one, it would mean that Westley would need to travel to the vet's and have an unpleasant procedure every 2-3 weeks. Rabbit's are very easily stressed so I felt that this was not a viable option in the long term. Having his teeth extracted was not an easy option either, but I felt that it was a better long term solution albeit massively invasive and stressful for him in the short term. So, I duly booked him in for front teeth removal - luckily the alignment of his molars looked ok, desex and microchipping.

Is it play time yet? 

By now I had ordered Westley a bigger hutch and he had free range time out in the back garden every day which he absolutely LOVED.

Post Op blues, snuggled on his heatpad

The day of Westley's surgery arrived and things were a little complicated as one of his teeth snapped when they did the extractions, so there was a risk that it would need further attention later, if it regrew. When I collected him, the clinic told me he had had pain relief and sent us home with no other information or instructions. Westley was a very sad wee bunny and I was worried. As it was still cold outside overnight I had set him up in the Garage in his original hutch for his post op period, I give him a heatpad - animal rehab 101 ... and we tempted him with his favourite foods and lots of pats and attention. Luckily for us he started to eat by the end of the day. The clinic had assured us he wouldn't need more pain relief and I had trusted them ... I know better now and I am horrified that Westley went through his post op week with no further pain relief. We really dodged a bullet ...

Four days post op and much happier

After 3-4 days, Westley was feeling better and was well enough to spend some time in the garden enjoying the winter sunshine. I was sooooo relieved to see him returning to normal!

Westley settled back into his normal routine after a few weeks and continued to entertain us with his antics. I would have loved to have had him as an inside bunny but my allergies precluded that. He did however spend quite a lot of time inside with us. He like to splat out and sleep on the couch beside Geri and also made himself a special sleeping place on the shelf of Geri's chair side table.

Don't mind me ...

This shelf is nice and cool...

But, summer was upon us and with his long fur, Westley became increasingly uncomfortable inside with us so had to spend more time outside. He did have yet another new hutch, bigger again than Hutch V2.0 and still spent lots of time free ranging in the garden but he became quite glum and we knew that he was lonely ... hmmmm, what to do ....


Around this time the neighbour's Husky - left home alone whilst they were away ... GRRRRR, tunnelled under the back fence and attacked Westley - who thank GOODNESS, was locked in his hutch at the time. I was also home and heard the first thump and growl so was able to intervene immediately. Said dog was dispatched to the pound and we had dodged another bullet. I couldn't risk this happening again so I took two measures. The first was to move Westley into Sonny; the Blind Hedgehog's escape proof garden, out of sight of the dogs over the back. The second measure - after the owner's of said dog did NOTHING to address their dog's escape route, was to ensure that is totally impossible for the dogs to get under the fence or for any animal from this side to get through from my side but that's another blogpost ...

Five months after Westely's tooth extraction I found what looked like a piece of tooth when I was grooming him. I took him to the vet who was very dismissive and said it couldn't possibly be tooth as it had been too long. I thought he was wrong but left it ... Then nine months later, once again during grooming, I felt something as Westley was licking/mutual grooming me. I had a feel around and a piece of tooth about 1cm long came away from the front of his mouth. Armed with the tooth in a baggie I once again took him to the vet. At the appointment I asked "Can you tell me what this is please?" To which he replied "Well it's a tooth." I then asked "And whose mouth do you suspect it might have come from????" Needless to say he was rather surprised (and quite pissed off to be proven wrong I think) and we booked Westley in for another tooth removal (free of charge though, which was one good thing).

Our Toothless Goofball. Gotta love him! 

I had been becoming more and more unhappy with this practice and this whole debacle just reinforced my  misgivings. On collecting Westley after his surgery he was VERY groggy and extremely subdued and once again, no post op instructions or pain relief were in evidence. I knew what to expect this time though and had pain relief ready for him at home.

Once home Westley was in a bad way and we had to nurse him carefully for the next 48hrs before he started to improve a little. This was the final straw for me and I vowed never to return to that clinic.

Later in the summer, the rescue had another wee rabbit handed in and we fostered it for a short period. Westley was soooo excited to have bunny company - however she wasn't a good match for him as she was a very high energy wee girl. When she was adopted and left for her new home 2 weeks later, Westley was bereft, even though they had only had visits through the bars of her cage and run whilst he was free ranging in his garden. With his obvious depression slapping us in the face we decided that our lonely boy needed full time company and the search was on for a WifeBun for Westley....

... and that's also another Blogpost!

The Hog Diaries - Stealth Hog

Written in 2014

Hanging out the washing the other day I glanced down and what did I spot on the lawn but ....

Poo ....

At first I assumed one of the cats had diarrhoea - which was not welcome news in light of recent events, but on closer inspection and checking out the rest of the lawn I discovered that it was hoggie poo. LOTS of hoggie poo!

Now, this was a bit of a conundrum because the back garden is now fully 'enclosed' due to one side being shut off for Sonny's Garden and the other side being shut off to keep Westley on our property.

Hmmmmm ..... So .... Who? Where? What? How?

A tunnel fit for a hoggie

 Who?

Well, I suspect it could be be 'Red' as he had been sleeping in the garden bedroom box consistently for quite a while before he disappeared at the end of summer, and I assumed he had gone off to hibernate elsewhere.






Where?

Caught in the Act

There aren't many suitable hog nest sites in the garden and I knew no one had gone to sleep in the bedroom box - which I had subsequently removed once I had blocked off any remaining hog access via the remaining side gate. The most likely spot was my long term compost heap / dumping corner so over I trundled and had a good look. On the back side of the heap, near the fence I found a tunnel so the 'Where' was no longer a mystery.

What?

Already figured that one out - a Hoggie!

How?

Well obviously at the end of summer someone tunneled themselves a nice wee nest under the heap and has been fast asleep all winter. I confirmed this with my IR camera and caught the Stealth Hog in the garden the following night.

So now I need to figure out what to do. I'd quite like to have a look at the hoggie to make sure it is healthy, give it a dose of Advocate and to try and identify it before sending it on its way but I'm not going to disturb its nest. So I'll make a nice warm nest box out of a cardboard box (I haven't finished my wooden nest boxes yet, darn it) stuffed full of hay, in the hope the hoggie will move in to it. I'll give it a week and if it does move in I'll check it out then relocate the box to the front garden. If it doesn't take up my invitation I'll just leave the gate open with the camera on it so I know when the hoggie has left. In the mean time I've got a feeder box full of bikkies and and nice dish of fresh water which the Stealth Hog is enjoying every night.

The Hog Diaries - Who needs WWF when you have Hog Tag Teams ...

Mary on the day of her release

Last night was THE night! My precious wee Mary went free at last. Her back was good enough to go and she needed to be FREE. She had put herself to bed back in her own nest box the night before so I didn't even need to disturb her to release her. I simply carried the whole box out to the back garden and tucked it under a big fern. 

Later that night I heard frantic scrambling out in the garden and went to investigate. There was Mary desperately trying to get out of the garden at the corner of the fence. Silly girl! I scooped her up and carried her around to the side gate to show her where she could get out but she insisted on turning around and going back into the back garden. After 20 mins of picking her up, putting her at the gate, waiting for her to move, watching her turn around and take off back down the path .... I was arguing with a Hedgehog for heaven's sake, and I finally gave up and left her to it, hoping she would figure it out during the night. 

This morning I checked her box and she wasn't there; although there was a resident ... more on that later. There was also no sign of her being stuck anywhere in the garden, so fingers crossed she's off on her way and burning off a few of her extra fat cells! 

I also released Quincy last night. I returned her to the side yard where I'd found her, tucking her up into a cosy nest box underneath her hutch. There was no sign of her this morning but I'm sure she will visit for a snack most nights. 


Yesterday morning once I'd cleaned out the hutches and prepped Mary and Quincy for release I went to clean out the feeder in the side yard. Oh ohhhh. A nest has been built in it over night. On pulling back the paper and hay (which had been robbed from the ready made nest box under the hutches) I found a wee juvenile. This time of year is tricky because any late litters of babies will be in real trouble once winter hits. A Hedgehog needs to be 650gms minimum to survive hibernation and what we call 'Autumn Juveniles' will not reach this weight target before winter sets in so are doomed to die. 

Vallance

I could see that the little one in the box was WAY too small to survive so in he came. He weighed 333gms and I've named him Vallance - after the Auto Electrician that came to fix the car today. I'm sure he'll be thrilled! I've installed the bubba in a Hogspital box inside so he's toasty warm and will hopefully gain weight FAST! There is a chance he may be able to be released in early winter IF he gains fast enough and IF we have a mild onset to winter. 

Vallance - too cute for words!

And that brings us to this morning ... 
As soon as I got up I went to check Mary's sleeping box. Ok, no Mary but .... OH OHHHHHH ..... Yup, there was another little one tucked up in the nest, fast asleep. 
In he came to the clinic and on to the scales he went. Weighing in at 316gms young Gaston is now installed in the Hogspital tower in the cubby above Vallance. They are of course, brothers and are both very cute. Vallance is eating up a storm and Gaston is still freaked out but should settle over the next few days. 

So you see - it really is a Hog Tag Team. Two out / Two in! Is there such a thing as a Hedgehog Conspiracy??? 

The Hog Diaries - Quincy Jones is in the Building

Late on the night of Feb 6th I went out to the side yard - where the Hogspital hutches are located, to put out  the rubbish. I turned on the outside light and there sitting in the middle of the concrete was a young hoggie. Too small to be out on its own, I picked it up and checked around in case Mamma hog was near by but there was no sign, so I admitted the bubba into Hogspital. It was a little girl, very cheeky and weighing only 193gms. I named her Quincy. 

I wasn't all that surprised to see this we one because late in January I had installed a feeder box in this area after spotting some very small (baby) 'sicky poo' there. The feeder had been visited every night from the first night and I've found Mary's babies there on more than one occasion  - often having a sleep over in it. 

Let me explain 'sicky poo'! 

When a Hh is sick with parasites, their gut tries to shed the nasties and this often results in runny poo with mucous and sometimes blood. The poo that I has seen was very small, pale, runny and had both muccous and blood so I knew there was a sick youngster in the area. 

Because the wether was warm I installed Quincy in a hutch rather than a Hogspital box inside. she settled very quickly and got on with the business of gaining weight and growing. I was a bit perturbed beause outwardly she didn't seem to have any issues other than being an orphan. 

Five days later just as I was getting ready to lock the house up very late one evening I heard a weird noise at the screen door - scritch, scratch, scritch, scritch ... On went the outside light and there scuttling away from the light into the corner to hide, was another little bubba. Again, no Mamma in evidence and this one was trying to get into the house through the screen. It was slightly heavier than Quincy at 217gms, but was definitely her sibling. A wee boy whom I named Jones, he was pretty freaked out and shakey so I tried popping him in with his sister but she was having NONE of that, so he was put to bed in a seperate hutch. 

Jones was extremely restless from the get go and was also super hungry. He did ok initially but on day 7 his weight started to drop and he was still very restless and anxious. This is often a sign of fluke but so far his faecals had been clear - except I had seen something quite 'weird' on day 5  - more on that later, and his poo was ok. I decided to shift him inside into a hogspital box and on to a heatpad which helped stabilise his weight and he started gaining again. Quincy's faecals were still clear as well and she was trucking along nicely. 

On day 17 I ran another faecal for Quincy and found a lot of fluke eggs. I couldn't believe it! Obviously there had been an adult maturing in there and it had just started to lay eggs. Not for much longer though, I got Ivo Super into her stat and popped her back to bed.

Jones' faecals were still clear and he was now back in his hutch. His weight was still being a yo-yo and he continued to be anxious and restless. It was frustrating! Day 28 saw another faecal test run and BAM! There it was - a heap of fluke eggs, Capillaria and lots of lungworm! In a way I was relieved because it explained his issues but WOW! That lot had been brewing away for a while! Within 48hrs of starting treatment Jones was a different wee man. He settled right down, became more friendly and easier to handle and started gaining weight consistently. 

Jones' fluke 'bum'! x 100mag

Previously seen fluke x 100mag - 2016

I went back and reviewed Jones' notes, which led me to look again at the images I had taken of the 'weird thing'. To my horror I realised that what I was looking at was the bum end of an adult fluke which had been chopped up in the prep for the slide. Now I've only ever seen fluke once before - and it had been full of eggs so was easier to ID, but I am kicking myself that I didn't realise what I was seeing sooner. However, I got there in the end and Jones is fine.  

Inside an adult Fluke with eggs x 400mag

Both Quincy and Jones are now clear of Fluke and Capillaria, however Jones' Lungworm is proving difficult to shift. I suspect the drug we have been using to date is no longer 100% effective against Lungworm and I am researching to hopefully come up with an alternative drug.  

So, day 45 dawns for Quincy and she has reached 660gms. Tonight she is off back into the wild. Although we are having a few cooler nights now, she will have plenty of time to establish herself and get settled in for her first hibernation. 

Quincy on the day of her release

Jones still has a way to go - he needs to be heavier AND we need to get that Lungworm cleared out so he has a minimum of 10-14 day in captivity left. 

The Hog Diaries - It's the Laundry .. Isn't it?

I have finally settled on the right space in which to have my Hedgehog 'clinic' area. When I started rehabbing I used the kitchen bench which for obvious reasons was less than ideal to say the least! The next area I tried was on a work table in the office which was sort of ok, but tied up space that could and should be used more efficiently for other activities. So I moved to the laundry bench and rearranged the cupboards underneath to hold all of my bits and pieces, drugs etc  - and there are is a LOT of stuff, believe me ....

The new wall unit. Absolute HEAVEN!

Last month Chris suggested we make a wall unit to bring 'stuff' out of the cupboards and up on to the wall where I could access it more readily and quickly making the daily hog related tasks I had to do once or twice a day faster to complete. The absolute minimum I'll do on any given day is to bring each hog in from their Hogspital Box or hutch to weigh them. I will also do a quick assessment to make sure no new issues are becoming apparent and may also administer medication if it is scheduled. With this new set up everything that I use daily is right at my fingertips instead of either cluttering up the bench top - thereby reducing the work space, or down in the cupboard where it is difficult to access, especially if I am wrangling a wriggly Hog!

The new drawer is small but perfect... 

There is a place for everything - we designed it that way. Over on the left; in the deeper cubby, my folders and record sheet clip boards have their own slot, as do the puppy pads, clippers (used for bunnies) and sharps container, whilst my stethoscope, headlamp and microchip scanner are right there on the wall where I can grab them quickly. The long shelf holds frequently used medications, F10SC spray bottles, Vetericyn spray bottles, gloves etc.

That just left the small fiddly things like the small syringes, needles and small tools - such as the tick lasso, tweezers, claw clippers, scalpel, as well as various larger syringes and microchips that I need quick to access to.

The magic drawer! 

Right on cue, Chris espied the small gap between the top of the drier and the bottom of the bench top. Voila! Perfect for a 'smalls' drawer!

So, we set to work designing and building a very shallow drawer to fit the space. It took us a day to build and was a really fiddly job, but the result is perfect for its intended purpose. It is only deep enough of one layer of each item - except for the little packets of needles, and  nothing gets hidden underneath anything else which means no more 'rifling' around looking for what I need.  

Who knows, one of these days I might even get around to painting the front of the drawer to match the rest of the laundry ... Oh, and on the right hand side of the wall unit (out of picture) there is another deep cubby for my laundry 'stuff' ... I guess we shouldn't forget the washing huh!

The Hog Diaries - The Most Amazing and Magnificent Miss Lily Chester

Arrival Day. March 13th

Miss Lily Chester.

What can I say?

This story of this little animal is quite remarkable.

As you can see she arrived in the most appalling state.

She arrived on the 13th of March 2015, weighing just 363gms and had advanced mange - one of the worst I've seen.
She had 3 maggots in her right ear as well as a purulent discharge from it, there was a  'Hairy Blow Fly' maggot deep in a  mange crack on her shoulder and an infected hole in her left shoulder.

She was a mess, to put it lightly.

All relevant and necessary meds were started immediately and I gave Lily an oil treatment to start softening the thick and restrictive mange crust that completely covered her.

March 15th. the crust is coming off and we can see eyes!

March 14th

 

March 15th

Initially I couldn't see what sex Lily was as the mange crust was very thick and completely covered her whole body. Her rescuer's daughter had said that if the hoggie was a boy it was 'Chester' and is a girl it was Lily. For the first 5 days I was pretty sure that the hoggie was a boy, so Chester it was, but then Opps! It's a girl, so she became Miss Lily Chester. 

March 17th

From the very beginning Miss LC proved herself to be a bright wee thing, happily sleeping on her heat pad and snuggling up in the nest inside her Hogspital box. She preferred biscuits to wet food and merrily polished off her dinner every single night without fail, making very healthy weight gains from the first night and never slowed down. 

March 17th

March 20th - 7 days since admission

By March 23rd - day 10, she was trashing her crate which is a good sign as it indicates the recovering hog has some extra energy to burn. She accepted her medication with no fuss and just got on with the business of getting well with consummate professionalism and was really cheeky. Quite a little character, it was incredible to watch just how quickly she was improving! I'd never seen anything like it before .... or since ... 

March 21st

April 3rd - Day 21

April 3rd

The 26th - Day 13, saw Miss LC graduate off her heatpad and on the 30th - day 17, she moved outside into a hutch. By the April 3rd - Day 21, her new quills started arriving and her fur was growing back FAST!

April 10th - Look at that fat, fluffy tummy!

The 10th of April - Day 28 saw a literal forest of new quills in evidence and a Miss LC who now  weighed 917gms. This wee girl was NOT mucking around, that's for sure! 

On April the 21st - Day 39, Miss LC stopped eating and over the next fews days she dropped a bit of weight. Because her quills were almost at the perfect length for release, I made the decision to let her go - she was obviously starting to get stressed with captivity and was ready for FREEDOM! 

April 24th - Day 42

On April 24th - Day 42, exactly 6 weeks from her admission day and weighing a chubby 953gms, Miss LC was released into my garden after being carefully marked with some nail polish on the tips of her quills and being given a topical dose of medicine to prevent mange. 

However, the story does not end there! 

I next saw Miss LC on Oct 30th - 6 months after her release date. Asleep in one of my Hogstel sleeping boxes, she had survived her first winter in the wild. She was a good size and had no signs of mange so I didn't disturb her other than to retouch her ID marks. 

On Dec 29th I heard feasting going on in a feeder box and had a look to see who it was - yup, it was Miss LC. MY eyes nearly popped out of my head at the size of her so I scooped her up to weigh her. She tipped the scales at 1328gms!!! A gain of nearly 400gms since her release. I suspected that she might just be pregnant... 

Jan 10th 2016 saw her fast aslepp in the Hogstel again and I just left her to it. A month later on Feb 14th she was back in the sleeping box and impossibly, was even bigger. I gently got her up and weighted her. When I saw the number I decided that we might need to rename her Sumo Hog! She was now 1544gms. Beautiful, perfect, healthy, happy, friendly and fully able to curl up properly. Just HUMONGOUS!

Feb 25th 2016 - Early photo for comparison

By this time I had bought and installed an infrared wildlife camera by the most poplar feeding box and on Feb 25th I struck GOLD! My over night photo showed a VERY large Hedgehog visiting the feeder multiple times and SQUEEEEEZING its way into the box. There was only one hog I know that is that big, so I'm certain that is was Miss LC. 

Miss LC was seen and checked again on April 23th when she weighed 931gms - so she must have been heavily pregnant when I had last seen her, and then again on June 10th weighing 1082gms at which time I microchipped her. She had been sleeping in one of the Hogstel boxes for over a month and this was quite late to be awake in the winter. Soon after she disappeared for her winter's hibernation, and I hoped I hadn't scared her off by microchipping her.

2017 rolled around and I was pretty busy with my current prickly charges. By this stage I had 3 feeder boxes and 3 sleeping boxes and early in the evening of Feb 10th I went out to the feeder in the back garden and on opening it up I got the fright of my life! There inside was a MASSIVE hedgehog.... Knowing what the result would be - after all, there's only ONE hoggie that is THAT big, I rushed inside to grab a blanket and gently hoisted the hog out of the box. I brought it inside to weigh, check over and scan with my microchip scanner. BINGO!!! It WAS Miss LC. She weighed 1100gms, was in absolutely PERFECT health and was as happy as ever to see me - uncurling in my hands, having a sniff and saying hello. Grinning like a crazy loon I took her back outside and put her back to bed. 

She doesn't look that big in the photo - but the box is 40cm across ... 

She was back again on Feb 27th, this time weighing in at 1293gms. This was a familiar scenario! She stayed sleeping in the feeder box for a good few weeks until I decided it needed cleaning out one day and she decided that a clean, poo free Hogstel room was NOT to her liking thank you VERY much and moved on later that night.

I hope the Miss Lily Chester Chronicles continue for the next few years to come. It is such a privilege  and is truly awe inspiring to witness her living so successfully in the wild. What an amazing girl! 

Arty Farty - Green Shawl

Written in 2009 in Melbourne

Knitted in Manos del Uruguay Wool Classica 100% Merino; Loden & Jungle on 7mm needles.
Details on the pattern and wool used are in the post for Sat Mar 13th.
Working time 1 week - said week was spent knitting instead of getting ready and sorting  out stuff for our impending shift to India ... hmmm ...





 Just off the needles and prior to blocking.






Blocked and off the wires. I didn't stretch it very much during blocking, just enough to open up the lace.

The Mad Menagerie - and the Herd goes RAW

I was recently asked to write an account for a RAW feeding blog/website/FB page covering our RAW feeding journey. I thought it could be an interesting contribution to my blog as well, so here it is! 

Our journey to RAW began in early 2013. At that stage we had 4 cats – Effie and Coco who were 3 years old, and two rescue, bottle baby foster fails - Lisbeth and Tyrion who were 1 year old. .

Effie

Effie and Coco were adopted as kittens from a rescue group – both came to me very sick with cat ‘flu (especially Effie) and Coco had Ringworm, which we weren’t told about. Within a month both kittens had developed intractable diarrhea which didn't respond to any treatment. Fiinally; after spending 1000s of dollars, ‘visiting’ the vet twice a week for 2 months and running every test under the sun with no resolution, the vet and I both hoped onto the internet and came to the same conclusion – Tritrichomonas foetus. He had never herd of it before, as it is very rare here so I took the kittens to a feline specialist who very quickly confirmed an extreme case of TF and prescribed medication, which sorted the issue out effectively.

Effie in the meantime, was also treated by the specialist for a chronic sinus infection caused by her cat ‘flu and had also developed eosinophilic infiltration in her lips which resolved once her other issues were identified and successfully treated.  Over the years however, Effie continued to have bouts of diarrhea, especially if she was stressed. She’s a highly sensitive cat and being very closely bonded to me is my emotional sponge, which doesn’t help her stress levels. As time went on she also became itchy and started to have inflammation in her mouth. Coco was mostly healthy as far as we knew at that time, but she was prone to being overweight, even on restricted portions. At this time both cats were fed ‘quality’ food - Iams dry and canned.

Lisbeth

Lisbeth came to me as a teeny abused, abandoned foster baby, hours away from death. The rescue had thought she was about 2 weeks due to her size old but it transpired she was 6-8 weeks old and was severely emaciated. She has ongoing behavioural (epic scardey cat) issues due to her start in life but with every year that passes she continues to blossom and gain confidence. From the beginning she had serious GI issues with weekly bouts of appetite loss, vomiting and diarrhea and at 3 years old she developed Stomatitis and had a FME which successfully ended the problem.

Tyrion

Tyrion – once he had been rescued with his mother and siblings from a terrible situation, went on to lead a charmed start to life in my foster room. He was the class clown and as healthy as an Ox.

And so, we arrive at 2013. Effie and Lisbeth’s GI issues were causing me more and more concern and Coco was increasingly obese despite being on ‘diet’ food for two years. She was relentless in her search for food and was never satisfied. Tyrion was still the class clown.

Coco

I started to research and the first thing I did was transition all of the cats to grain free dry and stopped free feeding. This helped up to a point but didn’t completely resolve things. So I kept searching and discovered the ‘novel’ concept of RAW feeding! I researched solidly for another 4 months before feeling confident to act and then I went for it, making homemade RAW using Dr Pierson’s recipe with chunks added. Tyrion and Coco transitioned immediately with quite startling results. Coco immediately started losing weight and stopped begging for food and Tyrion? …. 

Yep, he was still the clown and loved to assist me making their food, which involved stuffing his face as the meat came out of the grinder. Their coats became softer, really shiny and their dandruff disappeared.

The transition for Effie and Lisbeth was more challenging because Lisbeth’s appetite had always been very poor and Effie doesn’t have a good sense of smell due to damage from her previous sinus infection as well as often feeling ‘off’ and not wanting to eat. I had to use every trick in the book to get them going and it took about 6 months, but we got there in the end and once they got going, the change was quite incredible to witness.

Lisbeth went from 1-2 really nasty GI episodes a week during which she wouldn’t eat for days at a time, to eagerly asking for food. Her GI episodes fell away until she was having roughly one every 6 months. Their severity was a mere shadow of what they had been and they resolved within a day. Before RAW I had struggled to keep weight on her but within a few months she become a chunky wee monkey and her coat was also glossy and soft.

Effie …. Ahhhhh Effie, my problem child! Once she was fully transitioned things did improve for her but her itching slowly worsened and she still had periodic GI attacks, which also involved her mouth flaring up. As the years went by Effie’s stress levels remained high as both Coco and I were unwell. Coco was suffering from a progressive Neuro/Muscular condition – for which she was medicated, but she was becoming increasingly aggressive and depressed due to pain. And so, our former happy clowder became unstable with ensuing behavioural issues. I worked with the cats intensively for a year but eventually Tyrion decided he couldn’t cope with living with other cats and began hosing the whole house down every night and started attacking Lisbeth, his special buddy. I consulted with the rescue and made the impossible decision to rehome Tyrion because I could not give him what he needed, which was to be the king of his very own castle. He spent all of 10 days in the shelter before being rehomed with a lovely couple (with full disclosure) that absolutely adore him. He is blissfully happy and I still miss him EVERY day.

My beautiful wee man, Tyrion.

All of this plus some frustrating medical problems for me has had a big impact on Effie, and her health issues have worsened. She had also started peeing outside the litter box again – a BIG red flag as we all know. At the same time, her itching escalated and she was scratching her face until it bled (she is on medication for the itching) and her GI attacks were becoming more frequent and severe which confused me because she is fully RAW fed. On reflection, I thought that there might just be more to this than stress so I did some detective work ... I began following Effie when she was outside (real secret squirrel stuff!) and discovered that she was visiting one particular neighbour’s garage, where she was stealing biscuits!

What an EPIC lightbulb moment. It explained so much, but is was also extremely frustrating to realise that she was eating all of that CRAP which was  upsetting her system and undoing all of my hard work!

Butter wouldn't melt .... 

And so it has been and continues to be.

I am slowly restricting Effie’s outside time more and more (all of my cats are locked in after dusk & overnight) especially at dusk which is when she saunters off for her 'fix', but in order to keep her stress levels down I have to be careful not to make too many changes too fast. 

Coco in happier times

Also, the dynamic between the cats is still tricky – we had to have Coco put to sleep just before Christmas and Effie literally went off the deep end and started spraying, which she has NEVER done before. 

She and Lisbeth (who is an indoors only cat due to her anxiety issues) are only just tolerating each other at present and we are working towards harmonious full time integration. Hopefully we will reach that goal in the near future. I will also be cat netting some of the garden soon so that Effie can go outside but not off the property which means she will no longer have access to the kittie crack. 

When Effie has had little to no access to ‘crack’ her gut is settled, as is her mouth for the most part. But recently she had a bikkies binging episode which caused more serious dental problems to develop so she has had FME to stop her suffering and to furhter reduce her stress levels through pain reduction. The vet and I both feel that neither Effie nor Lisbeth’s dental issues are related to feeding RAW. They’ve always had chunks, necks and wings etc to clean their teeth and I brush their teeth – or I used to when they had them! The brushing was another source of stress for Effie as she hated it. Unfortunately their dental issues have been intractable and stubborn and we feel that genetics and immunological causes are the culprit, not diet.   

An uneasy truce ...

Recently when my own health problems made making their RAW at home difficult I made the

decision to start using commercial RAW. This was not an easy choice for me, as I like to know EXACTLY what is in the food my cats are eating. Another factor in making this decision was the chance that eating only one source of protein (chicken) may have been exacerbating Effie’s allergy problems. Back to the researching drawing board I went and found a RAW feeding company that is owned and run by vets and was available in my town! YIPPEEE! The product is fantastic and Lisbeth adored it from the get go. Effie, well you know the drill! As I have introduced each new protein source I’ve had to convince her that it is indeed food and that she will actually like it! We are most of the way there now and she is happily eating around 8 different proteins. I have also introduced them to bone broth. Lisbeth literally inhaled it the first time I offered it. Effie treated it with deeeeep suspicion and distain, so we’ve been working on that. I started adding 1/8th of a tsp to her dinner every night and only JUST got away with that! We are now up to 2Tbsp and we’ll just keep it there for now as she is happy and is enjoying her RAW immensely.

Since introducing the novel and varied proteins I have seen a small improvement in Effie – but of course it is hard to truly quantify because she is still stealing biscuits on occasion. Lisbeth on the other hand has shown a total remission in her remaining GI attacks. Zero. Nada. Nothing! Completely gone. Her episodes of being a bit ‘off’ and not wanting to eat are also a thing of the past. She simply wolfs her food down at every single mealtime. Their coats, which I didn’t think could look any better than they were have however, reached a new level of glory. They are finer, uber shiny, soft, totally dandruff free and the colour is deeper. The other bonus of course is one that must still be mentioned …. Ye Olde litter box. Zero smell and small compact poo. Bliss!