Pip
I had been out at an evening meeting, when I arrived at home my husband told me that there had been a call about a baby hedgehog, I returned the call straight away as I always do, a couple just outside Edinburgh had found a small hedgehog the morning before on a neighbours path, they had picked him up, brought him inside and offered food and water, the little one was not eating and from the description they gave my concern was that he was not eating because he had not been weaned, though the size given suggested the hog to be roughly four weeks old. I offered to take the hog in but explained it would have to come in as soon as possible as it was unlikely to last the night.
The hog arrived at 10.00pm and I was shocked and amazed when I first saw him, he was tiny, no more than two weeks old, his eyes were still closed, the top teeth were only just coming in and he was so cold, I have never known an animal to feel so cold yet still be alive. I put him straight on a heat pad and got the goats milk out the freezer to defrost. I have to say there was little hope he would last the night, he weighed 68g and had not had anything to eat for at least 36 hours, so was severely dehydrated. A cold hedgehog will not eat so it was pointless to offer a feed until he had warmed up a bit. After an hour although still cold to touch the little one was starting to try to move about, I had made up a solution of part rehydration fluid and part goats milk, and using a 1ml syringe I was able to get some fluid into the little hog. It is important when dealing with a very young patient not to offer too much food too soon as this will often lead to bloating. I felt out of my depth and was not altogether sure how much or how often he should be fed and baby hedgehogs require toileting something I have only done once before. I got in touch with Kay Bullen, she is the President of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and knows hedgehogs inside out, on her advice I continued to feed the hedgehog hourly for the first four hours, 1ml at a time and then every two hours right through the night. Just before the hogs six o’clock feed I could hear a chirping sound coming from the lounge, it was the hedgehog feeling a little stronger and shouting for his mother. I can tell you the chirping tugged at the heart strings, at that time of the morning the chirping seemed so loud as the house was so quiet, I was feeding him and chatting away (as much to keep myself awake) when I called the hedgehog Pip Squeak, by the time the rest of the house rose in the morning the little hog was named Pip!
  
Pip was very keen to feed and took to hand feeding very quickly, later on that morning I took Pip to see Trevor our vet he too had never come across a hedgehog so small. Pip was started on antibiotics; this was to eliminate any infection he may have had and also to protect against pneumonia whilst Pip was being hand fed. Alison Pearson was kind enough to hog sit for me on the Friday night during the first week as we had a family party to attend in Edinburgh and would be away more than two hours, looking after Pip in the early days was almost as bad as having a new baby in the house. In the first 24 hours Pip managed to gain 6g, at the end of the first week 20g, at the end of two weeks 80g and today Pip weighs a whopping 279g.
 
Pip is such a character, like most young animals he has a sense of mistchive and is very playful, Pip moved on to solid food last week and he loves his grub, he also discovered he could huff, he loves any opportunity to display this assertive behaviour. Last week he visited the children in Kingsland Nursery and this week he will be visiting the Rainbows and Beavers at Cardrona. At the moment Pip spends his days in the shed and then moves inside over night. Pip will move out to the shed fulltime in the next few weeks. Pip is the only hedgehog here right now who will not be released before the Winter, he is too small and right now too friendly, my intention is that in the Spring he will move out to a run where my children will supply him with some live food and then I will have to find a carefully chosen release sight where food and shelter will always be available.
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