Sonic the hedgehog in school playground

Well done to the children of Poolsbrook School who, earlier today,  rescued a small hedgehog they found wandering about in the playground.  It was hot and he wasn’t looking well – for any hedgehog to be sitting out during daytime means something is wrong.

He’s still a hoglet (baby hedgehog) although he has all his spines he is quite whiskery and fluffy too.  The first thing we did was to offer him a drink.  He was very thirsty and even dunked his head in the dish to slurp more water up.   We’ll give him some rescue milk later on.  Don’t give hedgehogs cow’s milk though as it doesn’t suit them.

We’ve called this little one Sonic, he has a cheeky little face and bright eyes.  He was very hungry and had some mealworms and sunflower seeds and a bit of cat food.   We’ll give him another larger feed later on tonight.   Once we had him rehydrated and fed we checked him over.  This can be difficult if they are determined to curl up but Sonic is already a trusting fella and stayed uncurled while we checked him for cuts and bruises – none found – and also ticks which are blood sucking parasites and have to be removed as soon as ;possible.

Ticks look like grey blobs and range in size – when they are big and easy to see it’s because they’ve had a good feed and swelled up with blood – they are like little vampires and feast on blood.  Fortunately Sonic doesn’t have any ticks but we always check carefully anyway.   The vet will remove them or you can buy a tick-twister – and get them off yourself.  Never try to pull ticks off hedgehogs or other pets, it can cause a lot of damage.

Sonic is cuddled up for the night now, we’ve put him a towel and blanket in as we find that these little creatures like to go under the covers before they settle down for a good sleep.  Hopefully all thas wrong with Sonic is that he’s hungry and thirsty but we’ll have to make sure he gets his weight up before hibernation.