A Red In the Bed

As winter encroaches, the behaviour patterns of my current wildling resident; Red, is changing.

When Red first appeared on May the 12th I suspected two things - one, that he may be Tom Thumb and two, that he had early mange. After giving him the 'welcome to the garden' treatment - weigh in, Advocate and war paint, I popped him back to bed and hoped he'd be back.

Well, 12 days later he was indeed back. I weighed him again and he had gained 168gms since his last visit. This was great because it means he's not being seriously challenged by anything too onerous.

His mange was however more apparent so I'm relieved he had come back. It is best to give a second dose of Advocate two weeks after the first and 12 days was good enough for me!

Although Red has mange - his quills were looking a bit dirty and he had that 'mangey' smell, his mange is mild, he had no crusting and no significant quill loss with just a little skirt loss - which had been apparent on his first visit.  With this in mind, I consulted with Narelle to check that my instincts were correct in thinking he was ok to be left out in the wild as he was a very healthy weight and that the Advocate would sort out his mange - and any worm burden, in time. She agreed with me so I topped up his war paint, took a mug shot and popped him back into his chosen bedroom. As a precaution, I will give him a third dose of Advocate in another 3-4 weeks when/if he sleeps over again.

Looking closely at his photo, I now think this isn't Tom Thumb. This dude has a pair of rather impressive white eyebrows which Tom didn't have and I think he's a random wild visitor who knows when he's on to a good thing!

A week later, Red was back for a couple of nights. I didn't disturb him this time, beyond pulling the bedding back to check out the 'war paint' to identify who was at home. I am assuming that it is mostly Red that is currently visiting my feeder boxes. They are being completely cleaned out every night - or should I say, the food is all being consumed .... 'cleaned out' they are not! Whoever is frequenting them has appalling table manners and I am having to change the lining papers and scrub them out nearly every day.

I've also had to 'detox' the feeder boxes and bedrooms as much as possible due to Red bringing mange into the garden. This has involved emptying them all, disinfecting and scrubbing them all out and 'remaking' the beds. Hopefully, Red is no longer contagious but I will do the whole lot again each week for the next month - or until he hibernates .... I wonder if he will hibernate here? Time will tell.

Into the Unkown - Here be Dragons...

So, Sonny was inside for ten days. It was an up and down time during which she was up and down both in weight and mood. On the third and fourth nights inside she ate some biscuits and managed to gain around 40gms. From then on she ate; a very little, some of the time and finally went on another hunger strike for the last few nights.

I was taking her out into her garden every day for about an hour of R'n'R and during these spells she seemed happy and content but once back inside she became increasingly grumpy in spite of initially seeming to enjoy the increased interaction and stimulation of having more human contact.

I decided yesterday; after Sonny bit me - the little brat, that she needed to go back outside. I'm struggling with the 'flu at the moment but needs must so I wobbled my way outside in the rain and rejigged her bedroom's insulation, installing her heatpad as part of the renovations. I popped her back into bed and left her to it. When I checked up on her after an hour or so I found her sitting in the doorway of her bedroom 'peering' around with her nose going frantically. She also had some company as Miss Effie had decided to crawl into the hutch to pay Sonny a visit. After much nose sniffing and a bit of confusion Sonny took her self back to bed and went back to sleep for the rest of the day.

I set up my IR camera near her ramp to hopefully help monitor whether she came 'out to play' or not.

 As you can see, she did indeed get up and I 'caught' her at about 10pm and again at 5am. This reassures me that she isn't sitting in her hutch sulking and is hopefully out hunting as she once again refused to eat any of the food I left out for her.

This morning she is tucked up in her bedroom under her huge pile of fleecey blankets so she successfully found her way back into her bed, thank goodness. I'll stick my hand into her bed a bit later to assess how warm she is and hopefully, the heatpad will be enough to keep her comfy and awake so that we don't see a big drop in her weight again.

This is all totally uncharted territory for us and we just have to make it up as we go along which is a bit scary to say the least. I do feel though, that it is probably the best plan to keep Sonny awake through the winter as that will enable me to monitor her condition with more accuracy.

I'll move the camera further back tonight to see if I can get more 'captures' and I'll keep weighing her every weekend - keeping up with the 'claw trimming' training at the same time.

Not so Sonny ....

The last 48 hours have been harrowing to say the least.

On Saturday I decided to check on Sonny as I was pretty certain she was attempting to hibernate and I needed to check she was heavy enough to hibernate safely. You see, to hibernate safely a hog needs to be well over 600gms - preferably around 800gms to be on the safe side. Let's wind the clock back 7 weeks ...

Prior to release - polishing off a snail in her pen

Sonny's first month after being released was successful and wonderful to witness. She was busy and seemed happy pottering around her garden during the night. Her weight at release was 981gms; down a bit on her heaviest which was 1075gms, but she had been on a hunger strike prior to her release so I wasn't too concerned. Hogs will go on hunger strikes when they are depressed and I was worried this was the case with Sonny This is why I was so desperate to get her moved into her garden.

Over the next month, her weight dropped little by little until by April the 25th she'd dropped to 883gms but I wasn't too concerned as her level of activity had increased enormously and she was obviously burning more calories.


She was however, still totally refusing to eat any food I provided for her - I guess wild food is just so much more exciting!

What kind of Hedgehog are you? You've got no prickles!

Before releasing her we used to get Sonny out during the day for a little R'n'R in the garden and although it's pretty hard to tell what a hog is thinking, Sonny seemed to enjoy it, busily exploring the lawn and the fernery. She took quite  a shine to Miss Effie as well. 

But towards the end of her time in the pen Sonny became quite grumpy and didn't seem to want any interaction so I backed off and decided to see if her demeanor changed once she  was in her garden. I was still very aware that her level of stimulation had gone through the roof and I didn't want to overload her so I kept it pretty hands off.

Look closely and you will see Sonny's tunnel

 We had decided that we'd let Sonny 'go wild' and after a few weeks in her garden she seemed to really be getting her wild hog on even deciding to move herself out of her hutch and set up house underneath a bale of pea straw that I had sitting in one of the raised garden beds. For a week I diligently got her out every morning and popped her back into her hutch so that I could be assured of her safety during the day because the gates of her garden were often open. I hadn't counted on Sonny being so stubborn though and at the end of that week I gave up and let her stay in her nest after covering the bale with some plywood to keep the rain out and shutting the gates when we were out.







 So, back to that day in April. I decided to get Sonny out from her bale nest to make sure she was ok as we'd had extremely heavy rain. She agreed to uncurl for me and seemed much more her old, nosey self. While she went for a little walk on the lawn I crawled around after her - yes in the mud, to assess her claws which I was very concerned were getting way too long. A hog usually walks a good 2-3kms a night, often on roads and footpaths and this keeps their claws - especially their back ones, nicely trimmed. Sonny had been in captivity all her life and had had her claws trimmed once under anaesthetic  but they had had no attention since she came to me. It turned out her front claws were fine as she'd been doing plenty of digging but her back ones were far too long to be left as they were.

Picture this  - small hedgehog is tottering around the lawn. Human is crawling after said hedgehog on hands and knees wielding a pair of nail clippers. As hedgehog extends back leg, human gently scoops back leg aside, stopping hedgehog from retracting leg as hedgehog curls up. Human speedily applies clippers to claw before letting foot go and waiting - again, for hedgehog to uncurl and walk again. This process went on for 45 minutes and resulted in 5 claws being trimmed. A sterling effort all round I thought!

Hmmm, what can I smell in this grass?

I was really encouraged by Sonny's attitude and weight that day and felt she would be ok to be left for another month before I attempted to trim her claws again and the weigh her so I popped her back into her bale nest - after modifying it a bit by lining it with soft hay and removing the baling twine which was precariously close to her nest. The twine is dangerous as she could have gotten tangled in it or gotten a thread wound around one of her toes, leading to  involuntary amputation. 

I closed Sonny's gates and then came inside but decided to check on her a few minutes later. I'm so glad I did as she had come out of her nest and was bumbling around, very confused and disorientated. I could almost hear her muttering under her breath about the idiot who had messed up her perfectly good nest. She totally refused to go back into her nest so I scooped her up and popped her into her hutch, locking her in. She threw a pretty good tantrum for a few minutes before settling down and going back to sleep. That night she moved herself back under the bale digging a new nest, as the old one was obviously not acceptable any more. Two nights passed and after that really heavy rain I went out to check on Sonny. I had made it a habit to check her hutch every day and was surprised and relieved to discover that Sonny had moved back 'home' - especially as the weather had started to turn really cold.

The next few weeks brought increasing disquiet and worry for me as I wasn't seeing Sonny out and about when I went out to check her at night. She also felt really cold when I checked her in her bedroom. Normally when you go looking for a hoggie in their bed the closer you get to the hog the warmer the bedding gets. Sonny felt ice cold and I suspected she was going into hibernation. I wasn't too sure how I felt about that because although it is a natural phenomenon it was very early in the season and I wasn't sure she was heavy enough to pull it off.

By May the 17th I decided I just had to disturb her and make sure she was ok so I put the scales in her hutch, got her up and weighed her. Absolute panic ensued as the scale read 560gms. This was really, really bad because at that weight Sonny would die if she hibernated. She was also very cold, and totally unresponsive but her breathing was still visible which meant she wasn't in full hibernation. Partial hibernation is also dangerous because whilst the hog is sleeping and not eating their body hasn't shut down enough and they continue to consume valuable body weight.

After a few calls to Narelle, we decided to bring Sonny inside into one of my hospital boxes, on an electric heat pad to warm her up. It took all day but she finally surfaced and said hello. This was good, but that night she again ate very little and I decided I would take her to the vet for a full range of tests to try to determine what was going on. Just before we were due to leave I got Sonny out and weighed her...

OMG...

I couldn't believe my eyes - the scale read 810gms. WHAT???? WHAT?????????

Ok, so the scale had read incorrectly in the hutch; opps, which is good. But the question regarding eating and hibernation remains. For now, I am going to keep her inside on the heatpad to see if I can get her weight up a little - and to get a poo sample to send off to the lab, which is pretty much impossible  with her not eating because nothing in = nothing out!  So far, Sonny is popping her head out of her bed to say hello to me which is good and she seems to be alright - ish.

In regards to moving her back outside, I have decided to put the electric heatpad into her bedroom (hmm cord out the window... not great but there ya go) to hopefully prevent hibernation. I'll spend the next few days beefing up the insulation in the bedroom part of her hutch which will; I hope, keep the power consumption down to a sane level!

The things we do.....

Hey La Hey La, The Boys are Back ...

After finding Baldric 'at home' on the day that I had Chance put to sleep I had been checking the hog boxes daily to keep tabs on him, and so far he'd been home for two nights. The way I check to see if anyone is in residence is simply to gently heft the hog box. If there is a hoggie at home the box is heavy. Not very scientific, but there ya go!

When I checked the boxes on May the 12th I found that both boxes were occupied, but the box Baldric had been using felt too light to be Baldric. Intrigued, I extracted the box from the fernery and popped it onto the benchseat before zooming into the house to grab the scales, some Advocate and some nail polish - as ya do! I then removed the lid of the box and quietly moved the hay away to peek at the occupant.

As I suspected, it wasn't Baldric. It was too small and there was no blue nail polish in sight so I picked the hoggie up - without much protest from said hoggie ... hmmm .... quite friendly really .... hmmm .... This was a slightly smaller hog, male and weighted 916gms. He seemed healthy but possibly had some very early mange on his skirt - though not enough to warrant being brought into care in my opinion, so I gave him a dose of Advocate and a 'paint job' with red nail polish. Oh! The indignity of it all! He tolerated all of my interference with extremely good grace, only getting squirmy and annoyed when the fumes of the nail polish were wafting around as it dried.

I had a good look at his face and noticed that he had quite a lot of white down his nose .... hmmmmm .... Didn't Tom Thumb have quite a white face? Not wanting to upset him more than necessary, I informed him that his name was now 'Red', popped him back into bed once his war paint was dry and returned his box to the garden.

Turning my attention to the other box I brought it out, opened it up and peeked in. Sure enough, it was Baldric the 'Blue'. I brought him out, weighed him, checked him over, gave him Advocate and reapplied his nail polish - he wasn't too impressed by that. He was in good condition, now weighed 1031gms and was mostly clean - apart from one poo smear which wasn't bad enough to warrant a bath thank goodness.

'Red' has since been back for another night or two which I'm pleased about as I was concerned I may have scared him off by interrupting his beauty sleep so thoroughly. When I finished with him I came inside and checked my Tom Thumb photos. There is quite a resemblance so I am letting myself believe my baby has come home to see me hehe.

A note about war paint and Advocate - because I release some of my foster hogs (the ones I deem are going to need a bit more support in their transition over to the wild side) into my garden and also have a wild population, the risk of mange contamination is potentially higher than it might otherwise be. Therefore I have made the decision to protect my 'gang' as best I can which is quite an expensive business, let me tell you! In order to do this I need to be able to identify who is who, keep track of their general condition and when they have had been treated with Advocate. It is ideal to give Advocate once a month if at all possible but obviously I can only check up on them and apply Advocate when they decide to have a sleep over. Hence giving them their 'war paint' and checking the boxes daily. Sometimes the nail polish doesn't last but I am starting to photograph their faces to help with identification and recording their weight helps as well.

Harold the Shy

Young Harold was rescued from drowning in the swimming pool of Jude Dobson - a local TV personality, as a teeny baby of 120gms. Narelle raised him to young adulthood but wasn't happy about releasing him 'cold turkey' as he is a shy wee man and she felt a supported release would help him to eventually succeed as a wild hog.

So, on May the 11th Harold came to Palais Belgravia; as Narelle has taken to calling our Hog Hotel, and was installed into my smaller pre release pen. This pen is handy because you can remove one end of it. This way the hoggie can have some time in the pen getting settled in and then when the  end is opened, their food and bedroom is still there for them as long as they want it to be.

I took this approach with Baldric and it was really successful. He stayed in his 'bedroom' for 4 nights before moving himself into a bedroom box in the Fernery - Posh's old one actually, and as we know, he still pops home every week or so for a sleep over.

Pre/Supported release pen with bedroom box

 The night of May the 13th was the big night for Harold. I gave him his dinner, opened his pen and left him to it. The next morning I opened his box to see if he was still 'at home' and yes, he was - LOL.




Today, as I write this, he is still here with us in his pen. I must try to remember to put the IR camera out on his pen tonight to see what he is getting up to in the garden - and I know he is coming out of his pen and into the garden from the lack of poo in his pen and the increase in poo in the garden. I also want to see if he is accessing the wild feeder boxes. I think he might be as the wet food is being scoffed up every night since I let him out, but I'd like to be certain. Once I know he is using the feeder boxes I'll wean him off being fed in his pen until he is only eating from the feeder boxes. He can keep sleeping in his bedroom/pen for as long as he likes until I need the pen for another hog. At that time I'll just shift his bedroom into the fernery where he can bunk with Baldric & 'Red' (Tom Thumb?) when they are 'home' for the night.

Take a Chance on Me

Little Chance came to me via her rescuer on May the 5th and it was apparent she was in a bad way from the very beginning. She was severely underweight, had mange  (the really stinky kind) and her back end had pussy infected quills which had become fly blown - thankfully she had no maggots. She had been observed going around in circles (never good sign in a hog) in a paddock and was being harassed by some young beef cattle. 

Her rescuer kept her for one night; doing a great job of removing all of the fly eggs with Narelle's guidance, which was terrific as they would have hatched by the next morning. She then brought her to me in the morning and I had a good look at her. I didn't feel good about what I saw ... She totally refused to uncurl and was unresponsive and trying to get her medications on board; antibiotics and Panacur to begin with, was a nightmare. As she had already survived those critical first 24 hours - where we tend to take a 'wait and see' approach, I decided to go ahead and give her a warm oil bath to try to soothe her mange a little bit. I removed as many of the mangey, clumped quills from her back end as I could, cleaned up the pus and applied a topical antiseptic to the raw areas. There was nothing else I could do for her so I tucked her up in a hospital box with a heatpad, food and electrolytes. 

The following morning Chance was still with us and had even managed to gain a little. I cleaned her 'room', attempted to medicate her without much luck and tucked her back up into bed popping her by her food dish to see if she would eat. She was unsteady on her feet, lurched as she walked and as she was still refusing to properly uncurl for me despite my best efforts, it impossible for me to fully assess her condition which really worried me.

Day three dawned and Chance had lost weight over night and had eaten very little. I was getting increasingly worried about her and my fears were confirmed when she did finally uncurl and walk a little way for me. It was quickly apparent that she was injured - her back left leg was barely weight bearing and wasn't functional. I phoned the vet immediately and took her in. Of course, she refused to uncurl but I had managed to video her walking which enabled the vet to start assessing her. He felt that there was hope and that the leg probably wasn't broken but to be sure I asked that he anesthetise her so that the leg could be examined fully. He found that although the leg wasn't broken, there was a wound on the hock of her injured leg which he cleaned up. He then gave her a pain relief injection and we decided to reassess her on Monday. I requested pain medication for her, brought her home and put her back to bed.

Sadly the next few days saw a steady decline in Chance's condition and demeanor with continued weight loss and refusal to eat or drink, so on the morning of the 10th I made the tough decision to end her suffering.  When we saw the vet he agreed it was the right decision and he quietly put her to sleep. I held it together long enough to get out of the vet's office but once back in the car the water works started and continued for the rest of the afternoon. 

Even though I know I've made the right decision in these situations - and I've had to do it more times than I like to think about, I always get upset. Geri says it is because I have such deep empathy for the animal and their suffering. All I know is that I mourn for them deeply before I come to terms with their passing.

Goodbye Chance, run free over the Rainbow Bridge with four strong legs to carry you wherever your adventures may take you.

Chow Down Charlie

Charlie came to stay on April the 22nd. He weighed 986gms and had been in care with Narelle since March the 23rd; having been 'admitted' with severe mange and a maggot infested wound in his side, and was in a bad way to say the least.

April 8th

Poor Baldy boy!








However he was soon on the road to recovery and was ready to 'move on' to finishing school so Narelle brought him to me to look after him whilst he regrew his quills as I had a free outside pen available.

April 24th

When he arrived Charlie's new quills were just starting to come through. He proved himself to be a lovely boy, very polite, gentle and a great eater.

April 24th

He quickly settled into his pen and started gaining weight until he soon began to resemble a Sumo Hog! By April the 29th he weighed in at 1264gms and I started reducing his caloric intake, dropping it further after I weighed him on May the 3rd when he weighed 1306gms!

April 29th

 In an effort to speed up Charlie's quill growth I'm giving him a supplement with Magnesium, B6 and Zinc (for fur and quill growth - hair and nail growth in humans!) and Flaxseed oil. I think it is helping and is certainly keeping his skin in top notch condition.

What? Another oil bath? REALLY??? 

So, Chow Down Charlie continues to grow his quills. I'm hoping he'll be ready to go before the urge to hibernate overtakes him. Although if he does hibernate, I'll just tuck him up in the fernery in a snug bedroom - as long as his quills are ready. Otherwise I guess he'll have to hibernate in his pen. Whilst he waits, I've been thinking about ways to enrich his environment. To this end I have put a pile of dirt at one end of his pen to give him something to do at night. Every night he digs all of the dirt into the centre of his pen and the next morning I dig it all back down to the end. This is now a daily ritual. I also scatter his biscuits through the dirt - sometimes burying them, so that he has to 'hunt' for them and once a week I bury dried meal worms in his dirt for a treat. He can't have them too often though as they are a  high calorie food and my Chow Down Charlie doesn't need any help gaining weight!

No Miracle for Miranda

Miranda; in the car on her way to my place.

Little Miranda was rescued by Rachael from Paws4Life on Tues May the 15th. She was on the side of the road frantically drinking from a puddle. Rach texted me and I told her to bring the little one straight over.

It didn't look good for Miranda; as Rachael's daughter Indi had named her.






She weighed 339gms and had mange but what concerned me the most was that she was really unresponsive and wasn't interested in having something to eat or drink at all. This is unusual for a wee hog with mange as they are usually very dehydrated and starving when they are first rescued.

Feeling pretty pessimistic about her chances, I tucked Miranda up in a hospital box on a heat pad with some food and water and popped her into a quiet room. When I checked on her before bed she hadn't had anything to eat or drink and indeed, hadn't moved at all.

This did not bode well and my instincts forewarned me of what to expect on the morrow.

The following morning I wasn't surprised to discover that sadly Miranda had indeed died in the night. I suspect she had been hit by a car, poor baby. At least she was warm and safe as she crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

RIP Miranda - May your days over the Bridge be full of warmth and sunshine.

MMM Yoda I Am, Mange I Have ...

April the 26th had been tough day and we were in 'crash and burn' mode as we ate dinner. Then, Declan pinged Geri; as he often does in the evening to say "Hi!" However, this time it was to ask if we could take a hoggie that his parents had just found. I told him to tell them to come straight over and so Yoda arrived.

Poor little thing. Brian and Brenda had assumed he was a baby as he was pretty small - just 403gms, but on examination it was apparent he was an adult as he had really big feet and well developed claws. He presented with severe mange - with cracks all over his skin, starvation, dehydration and was hypothermic. 

I'm really hungry and thirsty!

The open wound on Yoda's back caused by Mange cracking.

This little man had been found in the late afternoon, walking along (I have no idea how he was managing to be mobile ...) the foot path looking for a way back into the grass at the top of a gully. Brenda scooped him up and they came right over. The first order of business was to warm him up and then to offer him some food. In cases like this I use a mixture of Hills AD, electrolytes and BabyDog (a puppy formula that Narelle brings in from the UK).


 After Yoda had polished off two bowls full of food, I decided he was strong enough to cope with an oil bath so we warmed some oil up and he got 'the treatment' which is essentially to cover the whole hog in oil to smother the mange mites and ease the itch. It also begins to soften the mange crust and condition the skin. The crust was very thick and had started to cause his skin to crack. The largest crack was on his back and was really nasty.

Once he'd had his bath, I tucked him up on his heat pad in the hospital box I had prepared for him and he went off to sleep.

Day two - and he's getting those feet tucked in a bit more.

When he first arrived, Yoda couldn't roll into a ball properly and his back legs stuck out at weird angles. This was due to a combination of being hypothermic and the mange 'freezing' him due to the crust being thick and hard which restricts the movement of their limbs. He really was just a ball of abject misery.

Day two dawned and Yoda was still with us. He had eaten well overnight and gained a good amount of weight. When I got him up to clean his room and give him his dose of Advocate he managed to curl up more than he had the previous night which was great. The crust was starting to lift off as well and I spent a 'happy' 1/2 hour 'picking scabs of the hedgehog'! Yuck!
I also started him on twomedications - Deprim; an antibiotic and Panacur; a parasite medication.

See my 'V' shaped bum? Not good!

By day six Yoda was looking SO much better. I used HMF honey on his face and ears -  two areas that can be hard to get the crust to shift from, and this had worked really well. He was pretty much clear of his crust, his back; which I was also using the honey on, was healing up nicely and he could roll right up. He was still far too skinny though.

On the afternoon of day 6, Yoda declined dramatically. For the first week I had been waking him up during the day to eat as his weight gain had been sporadic and his appetite wasn't the best. On this day he didn’t eat much during the day when I woke him to have something to eat, refused all food from 3pm and then developed awful diarrhoea that night. He didn’t eat at all that night and dropped 48gm, which was nearly half of what I’d managed to get him to gain in the previous week. By 3 pm Fri he’d had nothing to eat or drink for 24hrs and I made the decision to force feed him. He was surprisingly amenable and managed feed him; up to 20mls at a time, every 2 hours until bed time. That night he actually ate some biscuits and managed to gain a little. The following morning I decided to leave him be other than to give him one syringe feed so that I could give him his morning medication and the Diatomaceous Earth I’ve started him on. I then left him to sleep for the rest of the day. The following morning he had eaten well, had trashed his bedroom and had gained 44gms.

Yoda rockin' his new fat bum!

 Day 10 and Yoda was doing very well. He now weighed 605gms and was rounding out beautifully. I had another critical hoggie coming in so Yoda went off to a new foster Mama. He continues to be a little up and down but in general is doing well. He will come back to me when he is big enough to go into one of my outside hutches - this will be at around 800gms I think.

Baldric the Begrimed and Befouled...

Baldric arrives - you can see that his mange hadn't resolved fully.

 It was March the 8th and along came Baldric - a 470gm bundle of scared, shy wee hoggie. He had been raised from toddlerhood by his rescuer who brought him to me to finish growing up as she was going away on holiday for 3 weeks. Baldric had; unfortunately, traveled to Hamilton in a large cardboard box on the back of a ute and he was traumatised and very subdued for his first week with us. However his true personality soon made itself very apparent - Baldric was actually a very cheeky, squirmy little man with a huge personality.

Baldric was cheekiness personified!

 Setting him up inside in a nice warm bedroom box over at Aunty Donna's Hoggie Hostel, Donna and I proceeded to worry about him for the first week or so as his weight fluctuated and he struggled to stabilise. He had been treated for mange, but to my eye he was far from clear of it. So we reintroduced regular oil baths and gave him more Advocat to ensure the mange was cleared from his system.

As his mange started to clear Baldric developed another skin issue. Within a 24 hour period he developed yeasty smelling 'cornflakes' all over his back. This was NOT good and I sent photos to Narelle for her perusal. We agreed that it looked fungal so I bagged up some pulled quills, along with samples of the 'cornflakes' and dropped them off at the vet's to have a fungal screen run. Whilst we waited for the results, I started treating Baldric with an antifungicide spray.

Look! My face is clear of mange now ...

 Prior to coming to us, Baldric had been raised in a cat carry cage. I don't approve of this practice as I believe; along with other issues, the space is too small. This was proven with Baldric. He had never had the space available to him to learn to  toilet away from his bed. Every other hog I've had - which have all had adequate space during their rehabilitation,  had toileted in a specific area of their crate/hutch/pen and always away from their bed. So, Baldric was a mucky little bloke - pooing and peeing where the fancy took him. Morning cleaning sessions were EPIC  in Baldricland! Messy little bugger!

All grown up and ready to leave home.

Once the fungal condition came under control, Baldric began piling on the weight and we moved him into an outside hutch at my place to start getting used to being in the great outdoors. Over that first week I weaned him off his heatpad and also the towels that he loved for his bedding. At first he wasn't impressed with that hay stuff but he soon got used to it - However, he did still go to the toilet in his bedroom and bed.

Who ME? Photobomb? NAH! Baldric's parting shot.

After a few weeks in the hutch - and once he had finished his fungal treatment, I moved Baldric into a pre release pen which had just been vacated by Bobbi. As the end of April approached his weight rose to the mid 800s and he was making it pretty clear he was ready to go.

April the 20th dawned sunny and warm and I decided that as Baldric's skin was still beautifully clear and he now weighed 880gms it was time for him to go. Quietly moving his bedroom box into the fernery, I said goodbye.

But, it wasn't to be goodbye at all!

Oh NO! Severe mange in my garden?

 Baldric stayed in the garden for over a week, then stayed away from home for one night before coming back for a night or two. This pattern continued with the absences getting longer and the sleepovers getting shorter each time.
 April the 23rd brought a bit of drama. When I did my usual 'Baldric' check I got a nasty surprise. There in the box was a filthy hog with what looked like a severe case of mange. I wasn't sure if it was Baldric but thought if it was, surely he couldn't have gotten mange so quickly and if it wasn't Baldric then I was in for a major mange detox in the garden and hog boxes. In a bit of a panic I took photos and emailed them to Narelle who initially thought it was mange as well, but once she had called me and we had discussed the situation she said she suspected it might be Baldric and that he was covered in poo!

Baldric's bath water.

We decided that giving this hoggie a bath would solve the mystery - if it washed off it was poo and was simply Baldric being his usual grimey self, and if it didn't wash off it was mange and I had a contaminated property.

So, bathtime insued!

As you can see from the bath water it was indeed Baldric and he was indeed covered in poo. It was disgusting .... what a grubby little shite! I was never so pleased to see poo in my life. After drying the little brat off I weighed him - he was now 960gms and was obviously thriving. I then put him back to bed after painting some of his quills with blue nail polish to make it easier to identify him in future, in the event we had another 'poofest!'

Baldric the Beautiful! 

The morning of May the 10th was a sad one for me as I had to have Chance - a hoggie that had been in care for 5 days, put to sleep. I came home from the vet's in a fragile state and decided to check the wild hog boxes, which hadn't been occupied for well over a week. Low and behold, one was occupied so I opened it up and there was a huge hoggie in it, fast asleep. I got it out and yes, it was Baldric. He now weighs 1031gms and is wonderfully healthy. I gave him a dose of Advocate, topped up his nail polish and put him back to bed feeling so much happier in myself and commended Baldric on his impeccable timing.

Bobbi the Bald Hits the Tron

Bobbi post oil bath. Bald, but beautiful.

 Bobbi was one of Narelles hoggies who had been nursed back to health after being rescued with severe mange and a nasty head wound, which was infested with maggots.

She was the picture of health when I picked her up from Narelle on February the 27th. She was completely mange free, weighed in at 760gms but was rather bald and just needed time to re grow her fur and quills.

Once we got home I installed her into one of my pre release pens in a nice warm bedroom box. 

New quills just peeking through.

Bobbi was an absolute sweety, very gentle and mild mannered.

I started her on some supplements; a Magnesium/Zinc/B6 pill crushed into her food and Flaxseed oil, to help with her quill growth as well as to help keep her skin in top condition.

I now use this combination with all of my post mange hogs and I am certain it makes a difference.

 By March the 19th Bobbi's fur was almost all grown in and she was looking just gorgeous.

4 days before release. Look at that face! Simply beautiful.

Bobbi and Henry were set to be released together and a release site had been arranged in Henry's foster carer's mother's garden, but they messed me around a few tooo many times and these hoggies were tired of waiting so I blew her off (LOL) and arranged to release the happy couple at my best friend Floss' life style block.

On her release day Bobbi weighted  1114gms and was lovely, round, roly poly and prickly.

Go forth and prosper Bobbi.

Hey, Babe, Take a Walk on the Wild Side...

Late on the evening of February 6th I responded to an urgent message on the Hedgehog Rescue New Zealand FaceBook page. Someone had scooped a ting hoglet up from the middle of the road in central Hamilton. They had then driven home to Te Aroha, hoglet in tow and yelled for help!

The following morning I offered to go and collect the wee one look after it until it went into foster care. The rescuer had named the hog Heroic Henry, but we changed that to Henrietta as it looked like it was a girl initially. 

Henrietta was 109gms that first day and was with us for a couple of days before going into care with Mambo's carer - this was before my doubts about Mambo's situation had surfaced. I provided all of the initial set up gear including an accommodation box and food.

Henrietta did really well in care, but I was suddenly asked to take her back on March the 7th as the fosterer had decided to go away for a few days. I'm not sure what happened to Mambo over those days - this was just before I got Mambo back, and was another reason I was desperate to get him out of there ...

On 'her' return I gave Henrietta the once over and discovered; to quote Lou Reed backwards, that She was a He! Opps! One must remember to wear ones glasses when determining the sex of little hedgehogs LOL! The renamed Henry weighed in at 440gms and I got him set up in an outside hutch - complete with a heat pad over night for a week, so that he was toasty warm as he got used to being an 'outside' boy.

 Henry was a real cutie and a fantastic eater, gaining over 100gms per week and I discovered that he really loved Sunflower seeds. Nom, Nom!
















I didn't feel he needed any time in a pre release pen as he had gotten his 'wild hog' hat firmly on and enjoyed having time out of his hutch on the grass, immediately snuffling around and looking for food.

On March the 31st Henry was deemed ready for release, weighting in at an impressive 820gms. I had arranged to release him in his fosterer's mother's garden, but they mucked me around and I got a wee  bit fed up, so I called my Sista From Another Mother; Floss, and asked if I could release Henry (and Bobbi) on her life style block tonight please!!  Floss was thrilled and so Bobbi and Henry; who had been waiting in their release boxes in my car for HOURS, were driven off into the setting sun by their chauffeur.


Once at Floss' night was falling and we got them placed into a shelter belt pronto, putting food and water out for them. They left as soon as it was dark but Henry did visit every night for about a week for a feed of his favourite treat - Sunflower seeds.

Have a wonderful life Henry.

F.O.R.D.

January the 30th.

Hamilton.

Temp sitting at around 32c.

11.30am.

Mambo had just gone into foster care.

I walked down to the letterbox to check the mail. Pausing to look over at the traffic island plantings my eye was caught by a movement on the road. There in the middle of the baking tarmac, dragging itself along was a tiny little hoglet. I rushed inside to grab a paper towel and ran back outside to scoop the baby up.

This little baby weighed 109gms and he had a big feed as soon as I got some tucker sorted out for him. Chris named him Ford - Found. On. Road. Dehydrated. I contacted Narelle, she found a lovely fosterer for him over in Tauranga and the next day we met half way to do a Hog Handover.

He was the sweetest wee thing and initially did quite well, but there must have been something wrong as he couldn't consistently gain/hold weight and he finally passed away about two weeks after I rescued him. 

 RIP Ford - May you forever have a full tummy over the rainbow bridge.

Mambo No. 5

Mambo was another Donna find - I tell you, Donna is a regular Hoggie Magnet! I'm sure the sick hogs lay in wait and come wobbling out of the bushes in time for her to spot them LOL.

Anyway, on January the 24th in the late afternoon, Donna spotted a weak hoggie on our street, walking in the gutter and looking thin and unwell. She raced home to grab something to pick him up with and grabbed him outside No.5 - hence his name, which Geri came up with.

He weighed 598gms but was an adult hog and was obviously under weight. Initially it looked like he had mild mange - just a few clumping quills, smelly and looked a bit moth eaten. We did all of 'the usual' and got him set up in a crate over at Donna's. We planned to keep him in care for a week whilst we made sure he was stable and then to place him with a fosterer.
 
Mambo did well during that first week and we were happy to let him go into faster care. I visited about two  weeks later and mambo was looking pretty awful. Now, this was my first ever mangey hog so I wasn't really sure of what I was seeing but I knew mange often looked worse before it got better  so I assumed this was the case.











Over the next month I visited a few times, delivering medication and checking on treatment etc and I started feeling quite uneasy about Mambo's situation. Although there was some improvement in his mange, it seemed to be taking an awfully long time and he was being kept in a dog crate in a shed which I was concerned about. He also seemed very stressed and depressed - a direct result of being in captivity and the conditions he was being kept in, in my opinion. I also wasn't confident that he was being oiled as often as he should be which would slow his recovery further.

Overall, he just seemed to be struggling and I wasn't happy ...



I felt he needed to be outside and I would have had him back and into one of my pre release pens like a shot, but I had a full Hoggie House and wouldn't have room for him until Bobbi was released.

Finally on March the 22nd I had a vacancy so I went a grabbed him and his carer gave me the food she'd been feeding him - it was total rubbish, another reason he wasn't getting well faster. Grr. I immediately intensified his treatment; applying more Advocate, oiling every second day and feeding top quality food with Flaxseed oil and a Magnesium/B6/Zinc supplement added. He went into my biggest pre release pen, outside in the fresh air and I piled a heap of dirt down one end for him to dig in. By this stage I suspected that Mambo was an oldish hog. He was desperate to leave and I did everything I could to ensure he could go free as soon as possible.

By the 1st of April he had improved out of this world, although his ears were still dry and crusty. I was certain he was quite an old hog by now and he wanted OUT! Every day we would play 'move the dirt'  - during the night Mambo would dig all of the dirt away from the pen boundary and every morning I would move it back. At least it gave him something to do and hopefully was some sort of distraction for him.



April the 5th brought bad tidings. Mambo had what seemed to be inflammation above his eye. I was devastated and sent photos to Narelle to see if she could figure it out. We initially thought it might be a fungal infection but after 24 hours another swollen, raw patch appeared above his other eye. Hmmm, we hypothesised that Mambo was self harming by pushing his head through the bars of the pen in a desperate bid to get out and go free, and although he wasn't 'perfect' yet health wise I made the decision to release him.

Mambo went free on March the 9th, weighing 1186gms. I moved his bedroom box into the fernery and set up my InfraRed camera to monitor him. Just after dusk, he came out of is bedroom, had a quick drink and went on his way. I could almost hear him yelling "I OUTA HERE!!!!!!" as he waddled away.

Happy Travels Mambo - I hope your remaining time on this earth is full of succulent snails and juicy worms. You know where the feeder box is if you need a snack!

Thor, Not So Mighty ...

January 20th brought two little hoggies to us; both rescued by the same family, on the same night - an hour apart. Sparkle weighed 125gms and Digit was 105gms. We looked after them whilst Narelle found foster homes for them.

Sparkle was eventually raised by his rescuers and Digit was raised in Morrinsville. Both were successfully released. 

Proving the old adage - 'It never rains but it pours', on the morning of January the 22nd I was standing in Geri's room, looking out the window and contemplating the rain. I looked down at the patio and yes, there directly below me was a little hoggie, curled up tightly in a ball. I scooped it up, brought it in and did the 'usual' - weighed it, checked it over, determined its sex, put it on a heat pad and offered it some food and water.

Named Thor by his foster family, this wee man struggled from the beginning. There was obviously something very wrong and he never gained weight consistently, passing away a few weeks later.

RIP Thor - may you find a sunny, warm garden to play in over the Rainbow Bridge. 

Posh by Name, Posh by Nature ...

 This is the beautiful Posh. She was hand raised by Narelle from a teeny, tiny baby and has the sweetest nature ever .... in fact, she is a little too sweet. You see Posh decided that she didn't need to put her 'wild hog' hat on so her Mamma banished her to Herd Boot Camp.

Posh arrived on the 21st of December 2013 and immediately went about stealing my heart. She was just SO amenable and friendly you could pick her her and she'd just relax in your hands and serenely look around at the scenery. Narelle had literally been ignoring her for months in an effort to get her to wild up as withdrawing all contact - as much as is practicable, usually does the trick and the hoggie becomes very antisocial and wild.

Posh's pre release pen.

After spending about three weeks in her hutch being as ignored as was humanly possible, Posh still set out the welcome mat whenever she saw or heard me and I decided I needed to up the anti.

As I was only 3 1/2 weeks post op, the solution had to be quick, simple and easy to implement so after pondering for a day or two, I grabbed a cheap dog exercise pen off TradeMe and set up a long pen against the house in what would ultimately become Sonny's Sanctuary.

I made Posh a bedroom box and in she went in the hope that spending time on the ground out of the comfort of her hutch would help her get the message.

Posh's pre release bedroom box

Once every 7-10 days I got Posh out to check her well being and to weigh her but there was no change in her attitude - in fact she was thrilled to see me each time. It was exasperating to say the least.

In mid February I  thought Posh had had a huge break though as suddenly her food intake went up (she'd been on a hunger strike on and off since she arrived), there were signs of digging in the pen, and there was quite a lot of noise at night. This 'improvement' went on for about 10 days until one night the racket was incredible ...hmmm..

I grabbed a torch and snuck my head out the window to see if I could see what on earth Posh was up to. A hoggie shot past, through the torch beam and into the feeder box that I had in the pen to 'teach' Posh about using before she was released.

Hang on .....

That's NOT Posh ....

I zoomed outside (this was the middle of the darned night I might add...) to investigate. Posh was firmly wedged between her bedroom box and the feeder box. Ok, so ....  what on earth is going on? I opened the feeder box and a little hoggie face looked up at me before 'hiding' LOL. Incredulously I scooped the little one out, shut the pen back up and took the hoggie inside to have a look. It was a wee female, about 500gms and in perfect health. she was gorgeous and there was no reason to do anything other than give her a dose of Advocate and then set her free in my wild hog feeder box. The cheeky little monkey must have squeezed into the pen about two weeks prior; when she was a lot smaller, after sniffing out Posh's food. The increase in the volume of food being eaten in those two weeks certainly explains why she quickly grew too big to get back out - piggy oink oink, and the ruckus was probably Posh yelling at me to get the pesky kid out of her pen!!

What you looking at huh??? !

Another few weeks passed and Posh wasn't making any more progress so I made the hard decision to release her so that she could at least have a chance at leading a wild life. Staying in captivity simply wasn't an option as she was already depressed and desperately needed to go. In order to give Posh the very best chance at surviving,  I decided to delay releasing Sonny into the orchard for a week or so - instead I moved her into Posh's old pre release pen which I extended. Then I released Posh into the orchard as the first stage her 'soft release'.  On March 19th, I moved her into the garden in her bedroom box and with her feeder box. She stayed in the garden for four nights and then left.

Goodbye Posh - Have a wonderful life. Come and visit us some time!