Helping Hogs

14/02/2025

Happy Valentines 💘 Day

09/02/2025

Oh Andy 🦔 do you feel you’re being watched 👀 …. Or are they just after your biscuits 🦔🐈‍⬛🤷 🦔🦔🦔

02/02/2025

Andy is Outside climatizing ready for release and looks like one of my wildies wants to be his buddy ❤️🦔 ❤️ 🦔🦔🦔

29/01/2025

Checking out a new pad 🐾 🐾🦔🐾🐾or a friend 😉 🦔🦔🦔

25/01/2025

19/01/2025

This is Andy’s mate Vinnie they came into rescue around the same time early October, he ran across the road in front of one of our volunteers bringing another hedgehog 🦔 to the Hogspital at Paythorne !

He was just 138g 🐾🐾One of the very few hedgehogs that hasn’t needed any medication as he didn’t have any parasites! He has a slight deformed front paw 🐾 it’s smaller than the other and he’s been monitored to see how it’s growing. He can move fine but will affect where we place when release time comes. In comparison to Andy his progress has been very slow and he has struggled to gain weight, hence why he’s still here! It is as if he doesn’t want to produce the necessary fat and get big! He’s still loves his glop and when removed from heat he refuses to eat 🤷 what a fickle hog ! He seems to have finally decided to play ball he’s up to 646g today and he’s gone back in a hutch and making a nice nest . He’s a handsome dude, the crust on the end of his nose is dried glop 🦔🙄 not ringworm …I am weaning him off it honest🫣

Hedgehogs build up fat reserves in the late summer and autumn to sustain them through hibernation. These fat reserves are made up of white fat and brown fat.
White fat
Most of the fat a hedgehog stores is white fat
White fat is stored under the skin, around the stomach and intestines, and along the gastrointestinal tract
White fat is used to maintain a hedgehog's metabolism during hibernation
Brown fat
Brown fat is stored around the shoulders, chest, neck, and under the front legs
Brown fat is used to quickly convert into energy when a hedgehog wakes up from hibernation
Brown fat is also used to gradually increase the hedgehog's body temperature back to normal.

I am seeing some of my wildies 🦔🦔 waking up from hibernation already , the food is going from the feeding stations and there’s p**p about 💩💩🐾🐾

Let’s hope they are awakening in good health 🤞

🦔🦔🦔

15/01/2025

We need to help hogs

The European hedgehog has unfortunately been listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as a 'near threatened' species as their numbers have declined by over 30% in the last decade.

There are a variety of factors contributing to hedgehogs' decline, including:
➡ The destruction of their habitats
➡ Increased road traffic
➡ Use of pesticides which makes it harder for them to find food
➡ Garden hazards like netting and ponds cause further casualties as hedgehogs can become easily trapped in them

If we don't start making small changes to help species like this and make their lives a little easier, we really do risk losing them forever.

Please share this post to encourage others to help hedgehogs in 2025

14/01/2025

It’s not only hedgehogs 🦔 that are facing difficult times but birds, wildlife too🥲

24-26 January 2025 🦅 🐦‍⬛🦉🐦‍⬛

Are you joining in Big Garden Birdwatch is the world’s largest garden wildlife survey. Every year, hundreds of thousands of nature lovers like you take part, helping to build a picture of how garden birds are faring. I thought the beautiful Robin would have been on last years list but it’s not 🤔
🦔🦔🦔

13/01/2025

My name is Andy, some of you may remember me! I came in to Helping Hogs on 11 October 2024 , I was only 113g from Clitheroe and I’d been asking for help for a few days, they brought me in and put me in a lovely snuggle , fed me and kept me warm 🤗

I had no fur and it was freezing and I’d lost my momma 🦔 🥲

Dem hoomans said I looked like a Mohican 😏 it was 34 days before me fur grew! But they put me into an incubator then into a nice warm cage and things started to grow 🦔

After 17 days I got nasties in me belly called lungworm and fluke, but they gave me medicine to make me better ❤️

I’ve been living the life of Riley in a heated shed over Christmas and New Year it’s been too nice in there to go to sleep 💤 I’ve been here 94 days now and grown into a handsome chap now, the hoomans think I can go back to the wild, whatever that is ! 🦔 once they’ve found me a supported place to release me to and to learn to be wild 🐾
I’ve reached 787g today 🎈❤️

Hope for some better weather for me then I can go go free 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾 🦔❤️

🦔🦔🦔

12/01/2025

We always hope that the stay with us will be a short one so the hedgehog 🦔 can get back out to the wild but it is increasingly rare 🫣

We were hopeful with Ava that she had just awoke from hibernation and couldn’t find food because of the snow but….

Afraid not 💩 tested, she has fluke and roundworm, we also found a wound / abscess that needed treatment , she needed a medicated bath to remove the scab and clean the wound she is receiving daily wound management and meds to treat those pesky parasites 🪱 so will be with us for a while now

She’s spent a lot of time in the incubator it’s been so cold and gives a stable heat source 🦔

There is always a reason why they are out in the day … please look out for them🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔

🦔🦔🦔

08/01/2025

Another sign that hedgehogs are about trying to find food -🦔🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾 hedgehogs leave crumbs in their dishes mice take whole biscuits 🐁

Please leave out kitten (both biscuits below can be an example (ideally mixed together Purina has a higher meat content but Tesco’s is affordable) biscuits for the hedgehogs 🦔 preferably in a feeding station 🤔 biscuits don’t freeze cat/dog meat does 🤔water is important too!

🦔🦔🦔

07/01/2025

First inmate of 2025 …
This is Ava from Barnoldswick found crawling in the snow, she was freezing 🦔🐾🐾🐾
At 507g maybe just heavy enough to survive, if we can warm her up and get her organs going again, she’s in the incubator and she made it through the night 🙏

We must thank her finders and Elaine risking the snow and ice to go get her 🙏🦔

She’s probably woke up from hibernation but there’s not much chance of finding food in the snow so she’s come out for help

We are checking her sample 💩 and hoping for the best 🙏

🦔🦔🦔

05/01/2025

As you’re all tucked up around the fire please spare a thought for the wildlife 🦔🦔🐾🐦‍⬛🦆🐿️🦔🐾🐾
I Have to say I was worried about Lord Snuffles our blind hog out in the snow, he doesn’t get the weather forecast and he’s been up for over a week out of hibernation . All my houses and feeding stations are under snow this morning so those that have shelter should be snug.
I could see Lord Snuffles had ventured out , 🐾🐾🐾 he’d been in his summer autumn 🍂 residence, his self built nest with shelter, but I decided to check his house and relieved to find him snug in his main residence, huffing in his hog house 🦔 he’s one smart blind hog🦔

Please please keep feeding 🦔🦔hedgehogs are still up and about and they will be desperately seeking food and somewhere dry out of the freezing temperatures and snow 🦔

We still have some hog houses available just £35 each if you know there are hedgehogs 🦔 still about x
🦔🦔🦔

31/12/2024

Happy New Year 🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔
🥳
2025 💥

24/12/2024

Hoggy Christmas everyone 🦔🎅🏼🦔🤶🦔🎄
Hopefully Santa will get out in time 🎅🏼😂🤣HoHoHo

18/12/2024

Please Slow down 🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔

17/12/2024

A quick happy post..

Yeah 🐾 🐾🐾🐾🦔 we’ve managed to say goodbye to Sugar before Christmas, he came in out in the day in November and was very poorly , a shy little hog with a bad case of lungworm, needing days in the nebuliser, he did so well surviving all three parasites 🙏
We’ve only released him as he is going home to our volunteers Paul and June-Mary in Clitheroe, he has a warm cosy house and support feeding untill he hopefully hibernates there. At a whopping 950g it’s safe to say he loves his biscuits and built up his body fat 🐾🐾🐾🐾
Stay safe Sugar hopefully you may find Lucy in the Spring 😜

🦔🦔🦔

07/12/2024

These little guys would like to
Wish all our followers, volunteers and all who have donated to their care throughout the year 🦔🦔🦔🤗
We couldn’t have saved and released so many hedgehogs without help 🐾🐾it’s been a tough ending to the year but we have done incredibly well to get all our Hogspital residents back to the wild where they should be, many are already snuggled up in our specially made houses that folk have bought from us 🙏.

The few remaining wonky hogs will spend Christmas 🎄 in care , they are still too small to hibernate so need keeping warm to stop them 😴 with the exception of Sugar who is big enough but having just come off meds needs to keep warm a while longer 🦔 we are still hoping if the weather is kind he can return to his supported garden and go to bed there 🦔 and of course Lord Snuffles who has woke up From hibernation and thinks it’s spring 🦔🐾🤣

So we will taking a little break from posting, we will be about for 🦔 emergencies 🐾🐾🐾 so Happy Christmas 🎅🏼 🎄 Hope Santa comes 🎁
We still have a stock of hedgehog homes if you need a gift for that someone who has everything 🤗 and would love to add one to their garden 🪴

🦔🦔🦔