Looking For a Very Special Home

On the 8th October 2013 we took in a little hedgehog weighing just 218 grams. She'd been taken to Cheshunt Medivets who discovered wire wrapped right around her body. It had caused a horrific injury. Gemma (one of the nurses) spent ages carefully removing the wire and cleaned the wound. For the following two weeks Gemma (named after the nurse who originally helped) was taken to our vet (A120 Medivet) every other day for the next two weeks, so the wound could be checked and cleaned. To begin with her chances of survival were low. But she proved to be a fighter.

Gemma's wound three weeks after coming into us.

Against the odds Gemma has survived and is now thriving. However she has left us with a little bit of a problem, or rather the person who carelessly left the wire lying around has. Gemma is now unable to curl up. This means she can never be released. The following images show the damage the wire has done.

This is how a hedgehog should look from the back.

This is Gemma - the muscle that should enable her to curl up is badly damaged.

This is how a hedgehog should be able to curl up.

This is Gemma trying to curl up. 

So we are now on the hunt for the perfect home for Gemma. As you can see she has very special needs and will be the same sort of commitment as taking on a pet. Although she is used to be handled she is never going to be tame. It would be unfair of us to expect her to live her life in a small hutch and run. So we are going to be very, very choosy about where she will spend the rest of her life. So here is what she will need:

• Someone willing to take on the full responsibly and cost of looking after her, all year round for the rest of her life.
• Somewhere very secure, large (much larger than the average garden) that predators such as foxes cannot enter and with lots of vegetation for her to sniff around and enable her to be a hedgehog. 
• A place that is large, full of lovely things to sniff and warm for the winter months.

So if you are lucky enough to have a totally walled mature garden and a very large green house then you may be the person Gemma is looking for. Alternately do you work somewhere that has these things and you think you could talk the manager (or you may even be the manager) into offering Gemma a home.

If you are willing to help and think you have what Gemma needs please contact me at lynne@hertshogline.com 

Note:

Please be aware the average garden will not do - the place we are looking for needs to be very special indeed.