During one night in early December I was awoken by a terrible scream. I knew that this was most likely a Hedgehog and rushed outside to see if I could see anything but there was no further sound or anything to be seen. Then, during the night on Dec 9th I heard squeaking so I went out to the garden to see if I could find the baby Hedgehog in distress but again there was nothing to be seen or heard.
The following afternoon I proceeded to do the daily rounds of my hedgehog feeder boxes. As I opened the lid of the most popular box, the smell hit me immediately. There inside was a sprawled out hedgehog and I immediately knew from the smell that there was a problem, most likely involving maggots. The hoggie was lying in the outer 'hallway' and the inner chamber had had a nest built in it. Huh ... maybe this one was outside the chamber because another hog was inside ... this does happen. However when I carefully lifted the straw back I discovered 5 teeny babies snuggled up together.
Mama then raised her quills a little (it was all she could manage I suspect) and I saw the back of her neck which revealed wriggling maggots in a purulent wound. Whoa! PANIC STATIONS! I blocked the entrance to the box with a brick as I didn't want the Mama to take fright and rush off or to try to move her babies and I rushed inside for a tub and some blankets. On returning I found Mama had not moved at all which was not a good sign. Transferring the little family to the tub, I brought them inside. The babies were all fast asleep, in surprisingly good shape and were about the size of a golf ball. Once I had weighed them I discovered they were all around 90gms.
Mama however, was another matter entirely. My initial inspection revealed two more large wounds along her left side, the largest of which was about 10cm long and 3cm at its widest point. Both were also purulent and full of maggots. She weighed 740gms which was actually a very good weight given her circumstances.
... a little side note ...
Once I had the wee family in a holding tub and was getting my supplies out I heard suckling and on gently lifting the blanket that covered them I discovered Mama hog was feeding her babies. I was just AMAZED!
I named this wee Mama hog Mary - after all it was just before Christmas and there WAS room at this Inn! After administering pain relief, antibiotics and Ivomec (this was to kill any maggots that were internal or that I might miss) I spent the next 90 minutes working on Mary - first removing maggots, then cleaning her large wounds and inspecting her carefully for further injuries. I initially found 6 more puncture wounds, however over the coming days discovered that the total was actually 12 punctures in addition to her three big rip wounds.
Through all of this Mary was amazingly compliant and cooperative which made my job easier but it also made me wonder if she was one of my 'babies'.
I now microchip all hogs that have been in my care before I release them which has removed any guesswork. However there are still hogs in the garden that I released prior to microchipping, so whenever I admit a hog from the garden I always wonder if they are one of 'mine' or a wild incomer. As I worked on Mary I discovered that she had a scar on the left hand side of her nose and knew immediately that we had met before. On 26th April 2016 I had come across a relaxed wild teenage female in one of my Hogstel sleeping boxes. She had a slightly bald patch with a scar forming on the left side of her nose, and here she was again but this time she'd brought her babies to me for some desperately needed help.
What just amazed me was that here was this wee mother who had likely been attacked by a dog about 7-10 days ago - this would have been the screaming that woke me up earlier in December. Not only had she escaped the dog but she had returned to her babies - who would have been about 10-14 days old at that stage, but she had continued to care for them through the horrific pain and stress she must have been in. Then, when she became very sick with advancing infection she brought her babies to the place where she knew there was food, water and safety. The squeaking I had heard the previous night would have been Mary moving her babies. Just mind blowing!
I kept my initial session with Mary as short as possible and then settled her into a hutch with her babies where she immediately started to feed them again.
Two days later - on Monday, we went to the vet as I had never dealt with such extensive wounds before. I was instructed to forcefully flush the big wounds, debride them twice a day and was shown what to do - this was a much more aggressive approach than I had been using and seemed awful but it produced results very quickly. I also chose to pack the wounds with Aniwell UMF Honey ointment as a dressing. We added a second antibiotic (one I hadn't used before) as well to ensure all the bases were covered due to the severity of the infection.
By day 7 Mary was getting pretty annoyed with my poking and prodding which I took as a very good sign, and she was still nursing her babies who were all gaining beautifully.
The babies - 4 females and 1 male, were named Frankie (for Frankincense), Myrrh, Baubles (M), Lolly and Ribbons, were thriving but by day 13 some of them had stopped gaining and Mary's weight - which had been stable, was starting to drop. I removed the three largest babies - Lolly, Myrrh and Frankie and set them up in their own hutch. A day later I removed Baubles leaving Ribbons with Mary for a few more days as she was quite a bit smaller than the others. A week later Baubles decided to become a stroppy, pushy brat so he got put into a hutch on his own. His sisters - who had been joined by Ribbons at this stage, were very sociable and I would find them all curled up together in a heap inside the nest box when I cleaned them out each morning.
Mary continued to improve and started to gain weight. By day 14 her wounds had all closed and healed up. It was quite remarkable!
Now the waiting game began. I couldn't release Mary until her quills had regrown over her wound sites as she had too much exposed skin and would be too vulnerable to attack. The babies also needed to be around 600-650gms before they could go back to the wild.
Mary started to get stressed and lose weight at around the day 24 mark so I made the decision to release her into my 'Rabbitat' (escape proof) garden, which is also occupied by Sonny (at night), the little blind Hedgehog in my care and our rabbits (by day) Westley and Buttercup. This was a really tough call as I had never put another Hedgehog in with Sonny - who gets quite easily upset with changes in her environment. I consulted with St Tiggwinkles - a wildlife hospital in the UK that also has enclosures for blind Hedgehogs. They felt it was worth trying so I went ahead. Initially Mary gatecrashed in Sonny's box much to Sonny's disgust. But after a week of getting her up and popping her into her own box she decided to stay put and we had harmony of sorts. She also gained 200gms over the next 10days which was great.
Day 30 saw the arrival of new quills breaking through the skin and I started to get hopeful that the end of captivity was in sight for Mary who was desperate to get out, even though she had lots more space in the Rabbitat than in a hutch.
Day 42 dawned ... and disaster struck ...
I had been bringing Mary in every 4-5 days to check on her and monitor her quills growth which was progressing nicely. On this morning when I got her up I found a huge lump about the size of a golfball on her back. Rushing inside with her and examining her carefully I also found 5 scabs with clumps of quills attached around the same area. I removed the clumps, cleaned up the holes - ones of which was large, and contacted my vet to discuss the problem. I suspected that this had been caused by the Clavulox injections I had given Mary in this area and the vet agreed. It was all very weird as there was no purulent discharge or even any visible inflammation. the vet said it could be sterile inflammation and we decided to wait and see if it would resolve on its own, which if we were right should happen within 14 days and by the next day the big lump had subsided which gave me hope.
Initially everything seemed to be improving quite well with the holes healing up and the skin where the lump had been looking ok, but 10 days later things things went down hill. The healing stalled and everything looked more inflammed. I started Mary on Baytril and again things seemed to improve but 6 days later things again took a turn for the worse. The skin where the lump had been became very red and then a raised ring around it started spreading outwards. The site of the big scabby clump was also looking abnormal with the tissue thickened, angry looking and with quills dropping out.
Through all of this Mary continued to be in good condition and even gained too much weight - becoming too chubby to curl up properly.
A long weekend arrived and I decided to stop the Baytril as it wasn't making any difference and that ring was galloping outwards which was really scary. I consulted my Hoggie mentor and she suggested I try another antibiotic - Deprim, so I gave it a go. Within 48hrs I could see improvement and the ring started shrinking. It came back to the original size of the swollen lump and then stalled. then, the middle area became blackened and necrotic - the skin had died. Meanwhile the site of the big hole had mostly healed up but Mary was left with an inverted area of thickened scar tissue which included a new area of baldness from quill loss.
After 10 days on Deprim I took Mary back to the vet to make sure I hadn't missed anything. He was happy with her progress and felt that it was now just a matter of time and waiting until the healing had finished and the quills regrown..... poor Mary.
It was now day 70 and over the next 20 days the necrotic disc slowly - VERY slowly, shrank inwards and it healed underneath it. The disc was really thick being a good 5-7mm in depth. The other area slowly started to look more normal as well but the tissue was still thickened.
FINALLY on day 96 the last piece of the necrotic disc came off and new quills had started to regrow in the bald area around the hole from the big scab.
Throughout this journey Mary has been a joy to work with. She cooperates, stays uncurled to take her medication and only bites me on occasion when she's HAD ENOUGH!
She's now on very restricted rations to hopefully lose some weight as her (HOPEFUL) release day looms. Her quills are growing in fast so the end of March for FREEDOM is what I am aiming for. Mary has been through so very much and was such an amazing mother to her babies that she REALLY deserves this second chance at life.
Hopefully THIS TIME the end really IS in sight for this brave, tenacious and patient little soul.
The following afternoon I proceeded to do the daily rounds of my hedgehog feeder boxes. As I opened the lid of the most popular box, the smell hit me immediately. There inside was a sprawled out hedgehog and I immediately knew from the smell that there was a problem, most likely involving maggots. The hoggie was lying in the outer 'hallway' and the inner chamber had had a nest built in it. Huh ... maybe this one was outside the chamber because another hog was inside ... this does happen. However when I carefully lifted the straw back I discovered 5 teeny babies snuggled up together.
Mama then raised her quills a little (it was all she could manage I suspect) and I saw the back of her neck which revealed wriggling maggots in a purulent wound. Whoa! PANIC STATIONS! I blocked the entrance to the box with a brick as I didn't want the Mama to take fright and rush off or to try to move her babies and I rushed inside for a tub and some blankets. On returning I found Mama had not moved at all which was not a good sign. Transferring the little family to the tub, I brought them inside. The babies were all fast asleep, in surprisingly good shape and were about the size of a golf ball. Once I had weighed them I discovered they were all around 90gms.
 |
| Mary's wound after maggot removal |
... a little side note ...
Once I had the wee family in a holding tub and was getting my supplies out I heard suckling and on gently lifting the blanket that covered them I discovered Mama hog was feeding her babies. I was just AMAZED!
 |
| Mary's biggest wound after initial clean up |
Through all of this Mary was amazingly compliant and cooperative which made my job easier but it also made me wonder if she was one of my 'babies'.
I now microchip all hogs that have been in my care before I release them which has removed any guesswork. However there are still hogs in the garden that I released prior to microchipping, so whenever I admit a hog from the garden I always wonder if they are one of 'mine' or a wild incomer. As I worked on Mary I discovered that she had a scar on the left hand side of her nose and knew immediately that we had met before. On 26th April 2016 I had come across a relaxed wild teenage female in one of my Hogstel sleeping boxes. She had a slightly bald patch with a scar forming on the left side of her nose, and here she was again but this time she'd brought her babies to me for some desperately needed help.
What just amazed me was that here was this wee mother who had likely been attacked by a dog about 7-10 days ago - this would have been the screaming that woke me up earlier in December. Not only had she escaped the dog but she had returned to her babies - who would have been about 10-14 days old at that stage, but she had continued to care for them through the horrific pain and stress she must have been in. Then, when she became very sick with advancing infection she brought her babies to the place where she knew there was food, water and safety. The squeaking I had heard the previous night would have been Mary moving her babies. Just mind blowing!
I kept my initial session with Mary as short as possible and then settled her into a hutch with her babies where she immediately started to feed them again.
 |
| Day 6 - after debriding for 4 days |
By day 7 Mary was getting pretty annoyed with my poking and prodding which I took as a very good sign, and she was still nursing her babies who were all gaining beautifully.
The babies - 4 females and 1 male, were named Frankie (for Frankincense), Myrrh, Baubles (M), Lolly and Ribbons, were thriving but by day 13 some of them had stopped gaining and Mary's weight - which had been stable, was starting to drop. I removed the three largest babies - Lolly, Myrrh and Frankie and set them up in their own hutch. A day later I removed Baubles leaving Ribbons with Mary for a few more days as she was quite a bit smaller than the others. A week later Baubles decided to become a stroppy, pushy brat so he got put into a hutch on his own. His sisters - who had been joined by Ribbons at this stage, were very sociable and I would find them all curled up together in a heap inside the nest box when I cleaned them out each morning.
 |
| Day 14 and healed over |
Now the waiting game began. I couldn't release Mary until her quills had regrown over her wound sites as she had too much exposed skin and would be too vulnerable to attack. The babies also needed to be around 600-650gms before they could go back to the wild.
Mary started to get stressed and lose weight at around the day 24 mark so I made the decision to release her into my 'Rabbitat' (escape proof) garden, which is also occupied by Sonny (at night), the little blind Hedgehog in my care and our rabbits (by day) Westley and Buttercup. This was a really tough call as I had never put another Hedgehog in with Sonny - who gets quite easily upset with changes in her environment. I consulted with St Tiggwinkles - a wildlife hospital in the UK that also has enclosures for blind Hedgehogs. They felt it was worth trying so I went ahead. Initially Mary gatecrashed in Sonny's box much to Sonny's disgust. But after a week of getting her up and popping her into her own box she decided to stay put and we had harmony of sorts. She also gained 200gms over the next 10days which was great.
Day 30 saw the arrival of new quills breaking through the skin and I started to get hopeful that the end of captivity was in sight for Mary who was desperate to get out, even though she had lots more space in the Rabbitat than in a hutch.
 |
| The hole left by the biggest scabby clump |
Day 42 dawned ... and disaster struck ...
I had been bringing Mary in every 4-5 days to check on her and monitor her quills growth which was progressing nicely. On this morning when I got her up I found a huge lump about the size of a golfball on her back. Rushing inside with her and examining her carefully I also found 5 scabs with clumps of quills attached around the same area. I removed the clumps, cleaned up the holes - ones of which was large, and contacted my vet to discuss the problem. I suspected that this had been caused by the Clavulox injections I had given Mary in this area and the vet agreed. It was all very weird as there was no purulent discharge or even any visible inflammation. the vet said it could be sterile inflammation and we decided to wait and see if it would resolve on its own, which if we were right should happen within 14 days and by the next day the big lump had subsided which gave me hope.
 |
| The biggest scabby clump - yucky hu |
Initially everything seemed to be improving quite well with the holes healing up and the skin where the lump had been looking ok, but 10 days later things things went down hill. The healing stalled and everything looked more inflammed. I started Mary on Baytril and again things seemed to improve but 6 days later things again took a turn for the worse. The skin where the lump had been became very red and then a raised ring around it started spreading outwards. The site of the big scabby clump was also looking abnormal with the tissue thickened, angry looking and with quills dropping out.
Through all of this Mary continued to be in good condition and even gained too much weight - becoming too chubby to curl up properly.
 |
| The edge of 'the ring' with the 'disc on the right |
 |
| The site of the big scabby clump looking really nasty |
After 10 days on Deprim I took Mary back to the vet to make sure I hadn't missed anything. He was happy with her progress and felt that it was now just a matter of time and waiting until the healing had finished and the quills regrown..... poor Mary.
It was now day 70 and over the next 20 days the necrotic disc slowly - VERY slowly, shrank inwards and it healed underneath it. The disc was really thick being a good 5-7mm in depth. The other area slowly started to look more normal as well but the tissue was still thickened.
 |
| Once again, light at the end of the tunnel |
Throughout this journey Mary has been a joy to work with. She cooperates, stays uncurled to take her medication and only bites me on occasion when she's HAD ENOUGH!
She's now on very restricted rations to hopefully lose some weight as her (HOPEFUL) release day looms. Her quills are growing in fast so the end of March for FREEDOM is what I am aiming for. Mary has been through so very much and was such an amazing mother to her babies that she REALLY deserves this second chance at life.
Hopefully THIS TIME the end really IS in sight for this brave, tenacious and patient little soul.
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