This is Cup Cake's story
Little Cup Cake travelled the 30+ miles to us in my friends' bra! Bless you Jane. The call for help came after an evening of BBQ and wine drinking with friends so we were unable to fetch her ourselves.
A dog, that had also killed her sibling had attacked her mother who ran off. Cup Cake was very lucky to be alive. She arrived at 10.30pm warmed nicely by my friend Jane's body heat.
On close inspection we could tell that she was 24 hours old and had four wounds from the dog attack. Staying up all night isn't something we have to do very often but Cup Cakes' life depended on intensive treatment. We fed her two hourly but her most desperate need was to wee. Baby hedgehogs cannot perform this task until they are a couple of weeks old so we very gently rubbed her "naughty" bits until she relieved herself.... She was very full!
She appeared to be managing with the three minor wounds but she had a puncture on her back that after 48 hours began to look nasty. We took her to the vet for advice and antibiotics were started that day. It is very difficult to medicate a hedgehog so small and get the dose right. She weighed just 35 grams. The following day, still very worried about the wound we took her to the vet again. He told us that the wound was too deep and infected to repair and sadly Cup Cake was put to sleep. She was in our lives just 3 short days but her fight for survival will be with us for much longer.
This is Amy's story
Amy came to us in a terrible state. A young girl (also named Amy) was on her way home from ballet class when she noticed the distressed hedgehog bumping into things. This was in the middle of the day and young Amy knew the hedgehog was in trouble. Thank goodness for the Internet. Her father found our web site and so Amy's' story begins.
On first examination, it was clear that Amy (the hedgehog) had sustained a blow to the head and her eyes were both damaged and pussy.
Hedgehogs respond well to modern medicine but sometimes infections can be difficult to control. We started anti biotic medication straight away.
The next morning Amy was taken to the vet who after anaesthetising her, rang to say that she had also a broken upper jaw and that she had loose bits of bone inside her mouth. At this point he said it might be kinder to put her to sleep. Amy had already shown such determination to live and was eating greedily despite her mouth injuries. We thought she deserved every chance so the vet continued with his work. He removed all the bits of bone and stitched her gums. While he cleaned up her face and eyes he found a large hole in her head, which he also cleaned and stitched.
She received twice daily anti biotic injections but the infection persisted so much so that the hole that had been stitched on her head burst open again. She needed to be anaesthetised again to clean up the mess.
We are delighted to say that this tough old cookie is now on the mend and I am especially grateful to the vet who gave her the chance to live.
This is Chris and his story
He was savaged by a Jack Russell Terrier, taken by the dog from his nest under a shed. He weighed just 100 grms. He came to us on the Thursday evening by taxi. We had just finished a glass of wine so couldn't fetch him. The taxi driver walked up the drive with a tiny box in his hand grinning because he thought he was a victim of a practical joke. I showed him the tiny baby hedgehog that had a huge gaping flap ripped through his back, he was so amazed and in awe of him that I asked his name, Chris is named after that taxi driver.
On Friday I took him to the vet. By this time he was very weak and almost unconscious. The vet thought he was too weak for the general anaesthetic needed to stitch him up and gave me anti-biotics for him.
On the Monday he had miraculously improved in his general state and was quite bright. We had bathed his wounds every four hours and flushed out all the debris and pus that had accumulated. It was a weekend of fingers crossed and lots of stress. He came through the operation well, though the vet warned me that there hadn't been enough healthy tissue left to stitch.
On the Thursday we noticed that his wound was leaking and the stiches in places had actually burst, puss oozed out and we feared the worst. The vet had already mentioned the dredded euthanasia word but he was so bright in himself and was developing a real character I couldn't bear to lose him now.
Another operation to clean and stitch him up with more anti-biotics to add to those he was already on. Poor little mite, he'd arrived with his eyes still closed, no teeth, totally helpless and yet he'd survived against all the odds. He seems to be well on the mend now, his eyes are open and his teeth are just starting to errupt. It will be both a sad and joyous day when we manage to finally release him into the big bad world.
We are so very happy to say that Chris was successfully released into the wild at the end of September.
This is Huff & Grumps' story.
Huff & Grump were two of three abandoned babies found alone in a nest. Sadly the third youngster was too far gone for us to save. The babies had been attacked, probably by birds and the flies had then laid eggs in the wounds so by the time I got them they were being eaten alive by maggots. It was more than three hours of painstaking "maggot picking" before I dare leave them to rest. It was difficult to go to bed that night because we feared that even one missed maggot could be fatal.
The names definitely reflect their characters. Huff, did just that the whole time we were trying to help her and she often bucked and tried to bite us. Grump was miserable most of the time and we worried that she had given up the fight for her life.
Several very worried days later they began to recover from their ordeal.
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