A sad experience with a hedgehog

[kippers garden]

Yesterday I came across a poor hedgehog that had somehow managed to crawl into my wire netted cages, that were protecting my peas from the birds. I am really not sure how he managed to get in there, as there is wire all the way around, he must have squeezed into the smallest hole.
When I found it, the poor little thing was breathing, but it wasn’t doing a lot else. I called my allotment neighbour and we decided to give it a drink in case it was dehydrated. She picked it up and put it next to some water that I fetched, but the poor thing still didn’t move. It didn’t even try and curl up.

We checked it over and we thought that maybe one of its legs was hurt, so we put the hedgehog in a tub with newspaper. My friend rang her husband who then rang their local vet, who agreed to check the hedgehog over. Her husband then very kindly came and took the hedgehog to the vet.

Unfortunately after checking the hedgehog over, the vet said that as his leg was badly hurt and it was extremly cold and dehydrated, he decided that the kindest thing to do was to put the animal to sleep.

I am really upset that the animal may have hurt it’s leg somehow on my wire cage, though I just don’t know how it could have done this. Yesterday, I made sure there are absolutely no holes under, or in-between the cages, in the hope that this doesn’t happen again.

[WendyC]

How sad for you especially when you thought you had done your best to avoid such events. I don't think there was anything else you could have done, either to prevent it or to resolve it afterwards.
I recently had a similar horrible experience. My next door neighbour came round looking for one of their cats. We found her. Drowned in my waterbutt attached to the shed. Due to the water level she was not able to stand or climb out. She had obviously been in there overnight. It was lidded but seemingly not tight enough. I can't tell you how terrible I felt after that. The water butt has been replaced with one with a very tight lid.

[KittyColdNose]

Oh Kippers & Wendy C, that is so sad for both of you. I just went outside and put the lid the right way round on the water butt. It certainly makes you stop and look at your garden differently.

OH had to call the vet out with his gun for a hurt deer this week. Looks like it had been hit by a car.

I will say welcome to the vine btw, it will get better.

[WendyC]

I just went outside and put the lid the right way round on the water butt.

If that saves something else from an unhappy end then that's a positive.

[out in the cold]

Had a fairly sad experience with a roe deer yesterday when out walking the dogs.

Amble was staring at a spot on the fence next to our road, around 200yds from our house, or so I thought, completely ignoring me when told to take his ball. This is so unlike him, so I stood and stared for a while until eventually the poor thing moved. I only saw it at that point.

I took the dogs back to the house and walked round to have a closer look. The animal was almost completely bald down one side and had several gashes in its side which were bleeding badly. It was completely terrified and was badly hurt, as it allowed me, wearing a dayglo jacket to get within about 3ft. I think it had been hit by a car or something had attacked it.

Called the SSPCA who arranged for the local vet to attend and it was put out of its misery. I was a wee bit upset at the loss of a beautiful animal.

[Verinda]

Water barrels can be dangerous, my dad found two tiny bats drowned in his, he felt terrible about it. And i found a wren drowned in ours and suffered over it for weeks. The wren must have squeezed through a little hole to see what was in there and fallen in the water. There are no holes now of course!

Oh but to find a cat must have been awful. Kipper how sad about your hedgehog, it's not your fault though, sometimes these things just happen.

[dogsbody]

For bad things to happen good people only need do nothing.

It sounds to me as though all the good people who care and thereby do good things are here.

I have had the sad sight of a drowned hedgehog in my pond despite it having all the recommended features built in. Bad things happen folks, but the good people just keep on doing those good things.

[TulipJ]

Oh that is sad.
Glad you could help the lil fella and he is not suffering any more.