Washing hedgehogs
Hedgehogs are cool. I like them a lot. I’m talking about Erinaceus europaeus here, which in Britain are pretty darn unmistakeable as no other wild mammal has spines.
Sadly, in Britain they’re also getting rarer. No-one’s quite sure why, but the most frequently-mentioned suspect is probably habitat loss through the increase in building and/or intensive farming techniques.
Not much is known about hedgehog behaviour or numbers, either, which is strange considering they’re one of the most familiar, distinctive and easy-to-deal-with wild animals out there. But estimates put the number of wild hedgehogs in Britain in the 1990s at (very approximately) 2 million, while statistical analysis of roadkill numbers suggests that this may be declining at a rate of about a fifth of the population every four years. There could now be a British hedgehog population of just one million individuals.
pisco is on the case though. For the past few years, I’ve overwintered hedgehogs every year and had the special joy of sharing my home with them for several months.
Basically, British hedgehog naturally go into hibernation during the colder months to conserve energy. The trouble with this being, obviously, that it takes a huge amount of energy to power up again from a dormant state into normal trundle-y summery hedgehog mode. So what tends to happen is that huge numbers of underweight hedgehogs simply go into hibernation each winter and lack the energy to ever wake up again.
A hedgehog needs to be about 600g at the absolute minimum to survive winter in this country. Most of the ones I’ve overwintered so far have been fully grown, but hovering around the 300g mark. By the time they’re released in spring, these hedgehogs will weigh approaching 1 kg easily, simply from spending a winter indoors with abundant food supplies, warmth and limited exercise. Easy peasy, and instant smugness gained from releasing an ever-more threatened animal into a normal ‘wild’ pattern of activities.
There are some downsides though. Firstly, hedgehogs can be mighty picky eaters and some individuals have a very firm sense of what is and isn’t appropriate. Some will be horrifically shy and hide from human contact as much as possible, whereas others get quite demanding if they don’t feel they’re being fed on time or offered suitably tasty food. They also have a HELL of a bite on them – not enough to do you proper injury, by any means, but certainly enough to make for a very painful five minutes in which you’re waiting for the hedgehog to get bored and let go. (Tip: never try to encourage a hedgehog to stop biting you. Chances are it’ll get even angrier and roll into a ball, still keeping its teeth firmly sunk into your body part. This means you get horribly spiked as well as bitten.)
Thirdly, they absolutely stink. They’re pretty dirty animals and think nothing of crapping all over their house, and it’s not pleasant. Last year I developed quite a nasty infection just from being stabbed in the finger by a hedgehog spine, and I dread to think what I inadvertantly introduced to my body with that one.
And, fourthly, no-one knows anything about their healthcare issues. When a hedgehog gets ill, you’re pretty much on your own. Mostly it’s fairly easy-to-manage stuff like worms and tick infestations, but I’ve had two or three now with ringworm/mite infestations that have proved a bit more tricky.
Which brings me on neatly to why I’m washing hedgehogs. Put simply, I’ve still got one of my inmates from last winter staying in the house, and he’s been doing pretty badly. I originally picked him up because he was underweight, active in extreme cold and had areas of spineless indicative of possible ringworm infection. Unlike the other hogs, though, he just hasn’t responded well to treatment. He’s had a course of ivermectin shots (which he reacted very badly to), internal fenbendazole and topical selemectin, miconozole and enilconazole. To be honest, I feel like I’m getting to the end of what conventional veterinary medicine can offer him – simply because hedgehogs are so under-researched that it’s a case of constantly stabbing in the dark, guessing what might work on them from what works on other species and the like. I’m starting to wonder, too, whether there might be some other disease at play here: there’ve been rumours of a mysterious virus affecting British hedgehogs over the past couple of years that causes yellowing and thickening of the claws, which he certainly has.
So, with this little hedgehog I’m now trying a new tactic of simply treating the symptoms and seeing what happens for a bit. He’s now lost almost all of his spines, so I’m taking advantage of this and giving him an oatmeal bath (to try and soothe the itchiness), followed by painting him with melted shea or cocoa butter, which it won’t matter if he licks at. (A lot of places recommend tea tree creams for ringworm, but in my experience they’re just too dangerous to mess around with). And he’s on a super-rich diet of high-quality cat food and baby food, together with all-round nutrition supplements just in case.
I’ve stuck some pictures up of him being washed because he looks kind of sad and cute and we can all go awwwww and stuff, but know this: he is a killer at heart and takes on the towel every single bath he has. One day he will probably gore me to death.
