Hedghogs suffering?

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ROCKIT

New Bee
Joined
Sep 17, 2010
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Location
Goosnargh/Preston
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
In the last two/three weeks I have picked up a couple of Hedgehogs that were suffering.
The first one had a lot of ticks and lumps on its nose (maybe ticks) and was struggling to breathe. Now I know that they can suffer from respiratory problems but I put the first one down just to ill health or old age
.
Today I picked up another one that was wandering down our main road in the bright sunshine. It was struggling walking, looked quite healthy apart from a bubbly nose and a weasey chest.
Took it home and warmed it a tad, but ended up taking it to a Hedghog rescue for antibiotics and some love and attention.
The upshot of this was that the first thing the lady at the centre said was that it was poisened with a chemical of some sort. She could smell it!

Considering that this second one came out of a true meadow that hasn't had anything added for 20 years and doesn't get cut till everything has stopped growing, I found it quite odd.

Now the only field around here that has had any chemical spray that I know of was a field about 1/2 mile away that has had a total ground cover kill spray on it about 4/5 weeks ago, yesterday it was ploughed over.

Has anyone any idea if this could be the likely culprit and just what it would be that might have been sprayed on the field?
 
Could be poisoned by slug pellets.

Hhmm! I had a read about that this evening Pete. It seems that the metalhydrwhatever it is is only toxic to a hedghog after they have eaten around two hundred of the things. If the Internet is to be believed!

To be quite honest, there are not a lot of gardens around us!
 
I don't use slug pellets at all but if you did you should put them underneath a stone/pot etc then the slugs will die and hedgehogs/pets or birds will not eat them. My garden hedgehog hasn't been around this year and I have a gazillion slugs, I'm going to the hedgehog rescue to see if they have any for rehoming.
 
im with hivemaker sounds like slug pellet poisoning..lots of people use rthem in towns and villages.. and of course farms
 
yes if they eat slugs that have eaten pellets it can be fatal, they also pick up lung worm from slugs, any hog out during daylight is in trouble so a rescue centre or 'sympathetic' vet is the first stop.
If it has been very hot they might be desperate for a drink of water, hogs need a fair bit to keep hydrated.
There are lots of rescue centres about but they are all usually volunteers so a small donation is always gratefully recieved, along with newspapers, boxes, chicken flavour cat or dog food and cat biscuits.
 
Could these be symptoms of a severe lung worm infection?

We looked after an abandoned young hedgehog for a few weeks over the summer (now seems to be resident in the garden) and were advised not to feed it or otherwise let it eat any slugs as there is a high incidence of lung worms this year and they are carried by slugs (of which there is no current shortage). We were also advised to consider worming it.
 
You got it Lung worm..
When the weather is dry and food is in short supply , Hogs will turn to Slugs...
Trouble is ,Slugs can carry Lung Worm !!!
which cause's Breathing problems , they often sound like they are drowning..

Hedgehogs are struggling again with the late summer / late litters.
This means many Hedgehogs will be to small to make it through the winter..

My Wife runs the Downham Market Hedgehog rescue.
We currently have 7 baby hoglets in , all being hand fed ' but we are expecting to see many more in the next few weeks..

P.S. Just added a couple of Pics to my Album , if anyone wants to see a 3/4 week old Hoglet , have a look..
 
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Hhmmm!
This last one didn't survive!
It was in the Hedgehog rescue http://hedgehogcare.co.uk/

It didn't last so long, even with antibiotics and a nebuliser.
Before it died it was bleeding profusely and aborted three young!

It was considered to be Rat poison or similar!

I have written a circular for the homes around here and will dish them out tomorrow.
 
Hhmmm!
This last one didn't survive!
It was in the Hedgehog rescue http://hedgehogcare.co.uk/

It didn't last so long, even with antibiotics and a nebuliser.
Before it died it was bleeding profusely and aborted three young!

It was considered to be Rat poison or similar!

I have written a circular for the homes around here and will dish them out tomorrow.

Possibly rat poison but probably via a secondary poisoning route, slugs and snail eat an awful lot of bait left to take care of rodents but as they are molluscs they do not succumb to the poisons effects and hold quite a lot of the active ingredient in the soft tissue.

Your better effect would be to educate people in how to use pesticides safely to negate secondary poisoning to other animals down the food chain

Bunny
 
Thanks for your comments.
That was the general idea behind the circular.
The two hogs that I have picked up over the last couple of weeks were probably just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. There must be quite a few more that havn't been found around here.
I'll find out where it's coming from.
 

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