Jeanne Stanoch's European Adoption Story:

Jeanne Stanoch’s European Hedgehog, Naderi, at The West Bretton Hedgehog Rescue.

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A lady who had found her collapsed in the garden took Naderi to my veterinary hospital on 13.5.2003. The receptionist at the vets rang me & I went along to pick her up.

Firstly I noted she was struggling to breathe, but there were no obvious wounds.

On arriving back at the hogspital, I weighed Naderi & she was about average weight for a poorly hedgehog at 610g. Her eyes were sunken typical of a hedgehog with dehydration, her breathing very laboured.

I cleaned her nose with warm water to remove any build up of mucus & it immediately began to bleed, but her breathing did not improve.

I gave her an injection of antibiotic & injected her with fluids to combat the dehydration & placed her in a warm incubator on a very special cloth that was sent from America!!!!! (see photo).

Next morning she was looking more comfortable & her breathing improved a little. I dissolved some antibiotic powder + a pinch of decongestant in a little warm water & pipette fed it to her to make sure she swallowed it. She was not feeding very well as it was difficult to breathe & eat at the same time, but she was trying.

Naderi was now on two different antibiotics that worked well together as I needed to act quickly to get on top of the infection, which had now become clear as pneumonia. To be on the safe side I also wormed her as worms can cause mucus & lung problems.

By the 23.5.03 Naderi was eating & breathing much better and had gained weight tipping the scales at 694g.

Today she is still on just one antibiotic as she is over the worst, but needs to gain more weight, as you will see by the picture her head does look too large for her body. I would like to see her get to 800g before release & obviously be eating & breathing normally.

My only other worry is I believe she could be blind, in which case she would be better to be released into an enclosed garden where she would have her freedom but be supervised & fed by the owners. That decision will be made when we are happy with her progress.

In our experience blind hedgehogs tend to come out in the day as they have difficulty differentiating between night & day, this makes them very vulnerable to predators & fly strike, so we do prefer to release them into safe enclosed gardens.

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Hello Jeanne,

I hope you are well. Naderi has been released into a friend's walled garden, she has hibernated along with another female resident hog, I hope the rest will benefit her health. Thank you for your support in adopting her this summer. Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.

Sonia & the hogs at West Bretton Hedgehog Rescue

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