3 legs

I sat outside for 2 hours last night hoping to catch the three legs hog, but no luck. Then Pickle woke me up at 3am to go out in the garden and I though I'd just check the feeding station and there was a hog in there. So there I am, in my pjs and dressing gown, gloves on and scooped the prickly thing into the box I had prepared. It took me a while to uncurl it - I had to make sure it was indeed the one with three legs! I remembered how to calm it from back when I fostered them and with a little patience it uncurled and gosh what a beautiful hog it was, and it was the three legged one. It must have been an old injury as there was no fresh wound.

To my un-expert eyes it looked healthy, nice wet nose, a decent size, bright eyes and not covered in ticks, it has some flakey skin which is an indication of ringworm, but not too bad. The rescue said the best way to assess its health and stress levels is by looking at its poo under microscope though.

I settled it in a high sided box lined with a towel, food, water and a fleece to sleep in. It very quickly started eating. It was 4am by now, so I set an alarm to check it an hour later, and again at 6, when I got up. I left it in the lean-to, so not to give it a sudden temperature change.

I took it to the Hedgehog rescue for a checkover later in the morning and I am waiting to hear from them. It is likely to be re-released into a closed garden where it can be closely monitored as a front leg missing is not great.

I hope its the right thing to have done. I do think wildlife should be left alone, but I was advised and I read a lot of articles too explaining that hedgehog with amputations are most likely to have a very difficult life and problems with parasites due to the stress of the missing a limb which ultimately leads to a slow death, and this is worse for a front amputee. Hopefully this little one will have a much better chance under the rescue.