The Hog House: Hedgehog Help

10/10/2026

This morning I had a call about a young hedgehog found in Pen*stone… I agreed to take it into rescue and was sadly surprised to find that this ‘young’ hedgehog was in fact microchipped, to Watermeadows Hedgehog Rescue..

Weighing only 325g you would have suspected that she was an autumn juvenile, but no, she is a full grown, but emaciated adult, that when talking to Joanne, found that she had released her only a couple of months ago .. 🥺

Later this afternoon, I admitted another microchipped hedgehog, that I had released in June this year. Found in the same garden that she was released into, she has lost half of her body weight since release…

The even sadder fact is that so far, both of these hedgehogs f***l samples are clear 😢… which would indicate that they were just starving to death ..

This year has been devastating for wildlife, these are the lucky ones, we have a chance to give them another start … but what about the others? 😥

02/10/2026

A huge thank you for the 3bags of Brambles hedgehog biscuit, received yesterday with no name of donor- very much appreciated

06/09/2026

Another update on our hedgehog research

We are continuing with postmortems on the hoglets who have sadly died in our care, while also collating all of our findings ready for further investigation and testing.

Our previous post has now reached just shy of 1 MILLION people. The response has been absolutely incredible.

We have been contacted by wildlife rescues from across the UK, as well as Europe, who are reporting that they are seeing very similar cases in their own areas. To hear that this isn’t something we are experiencing in isolation is both incredibly important and, quite frankly, very alarming.

We are now working alongside several of these rescues to share information and findings, in the hope that by bringing everything together, we can start to understand what is happening to these young hedgehogs and, ultimately, what we can do about it.

We have also been incredibly grateful to hear from Simon at the University of Lincoln, a researcher of microbiological and parasitologist with experience in testing for microplastics, who has reached out and offered to provide us with various methods of further testing. We are hopeful that this will give us some much-needed answers and help us take our investigations to the next level.

There is still a long way to go, and we don’t have all the answers yet. But the amount of knowledge, experience and support being shared between rescues, researchers and wildlife professionals is incredibly encouraging.

It is also important to say that, although the death rate we have been seeing in some of these hoglets is incredibly worrying, our hospital is still absolutely overflowing with hedgehogs who are doing well and continuing to thrive in our care.

We are continuing to release hedgehogs weighing 600g and over to carefully selected release sites, where they will have access to supplementary food and water while conditions remain so challenging. Until we get some substantial rainfall and the natural food supply begins to recover, we will continue to support them to give them the best possible chance of coping with these exceptionally dry conditions.

Thank you, once again, to every single person who has shared our previous post, contacted us with information, or simply taken the time to follow what we are doing.

01/09/2026

🦔 Something is seriously wrong with some of the hoglets we are seeing this year

We have lost several hoglets in the past week alone, and sadly, they all had something very important in common.

All were found wandering around during daylight hours, with no obvious injuries.

Despite receiving dedicated care in hospital for at least three weeks, including treatment for every reasonable, treatable cause of failure to thrive, none gained weight or developed as they should. Eventually, despite everything we could do, they deteriorated to the point where euthanasia was necessary.

We want to make something very clear: we tried everything we could for these babies. Hundreds of pounds worth of medications, intensive nursing and supportive care were given to each one. Their post-mortems have sadly shown that this wasn’t a case of something being missed, or something we had done wrong. Their bodies were failing despite everything we could do to help them.

We post-mortem every animal we can because understanding why these young animals are dying is incredibly important. What we are finding is becoming increasingly concerning.

Of these hoglets, four had significant abnormalities involving their lymphatic system. They had markedly enlarged lymph nodes associated with the small intestine and mesentery, with some also showing enlargement of the lymph nodes in the neck. One was diagnosed with juvenile lymphoma — cancer of the white blood cells.

Two other hoglets had multi-organ hypoplasia. In simple terms, several of their internal organs had failed to develop properly. In one case, the heart was the only organ that had developed normally.

Unfortunately, this is a problem we have been seeing repeatedly in hoglets. These animals can eat, drink and receive intensive care, but their bodies simply haven’t developed properly, leaving them unable to grow and thrive.

We cannot say with 100% certainty that environmental conditions are responsible. Proving a direct cause would require much more investigation. But we are becoming increasingly concerned that there is a connection.

This year we have experienced prolonged drought, extreme heat and exceptionally dry conditions. Natural water sources have disappeared or reduced dramatically, while the availability of the invertebrates hedgehogs depend upon for food is also being severely affected.

For a tiny hoglet, this can be devastating. They are still developing, have enormous nutritional requirements and an immune system that is still maturing. If their mothers are struggling to find sufficient food and water, could we be seeing the consequences in the next generation?

When we repeatedly see young, apparently uninjured hedgehogs found in daylight, dehydrated and failing to grow despite intensive care, and then discover significant abnormalities after death, we cannot ignore the pattern.

These aren’t isolated animals from one garden or one small area. We are seeing similar problems in hoglets coming into Wildlives from different locations.

We are also keen to investigate the potential role of microplastics. The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) has raised concerns about microplastics and their potential impact on hedgehogs. While research is ongoing, they continue to advise supplementary feeding with good-quality, meat-based dog or cat food where appropriate.

The hoglets we have post-mortemed were not being supplementary fed. However, with natural food becoming so scarce, we cannot rule out the possibility that desperate animals may be consuming things they wouldn’t normally eat. Microplastics are now found throughout our environment, and this warrants further investigation.

Nottingham Trent University is currently conducting research in this area, and Wildlives will be sharing our findings in the hope that we can begin to understand what is happening to these young hedgehogs.

For now, please put out fresh water for wildlife wherever you can. In these conditions, a shallow dish of clean water can quite literally make the difference between life and death.

And if you find a hedgehog out during the day, please don’t assume it is simply out exploring. Pick it up and ring for advice.

We are increasingly worried about what this exceptionally harsh year is doing to our wildlife. 🦔💔

27/08/2026

27/08/2026

26/08/2026

How Amazing is this??!!! ❤️❤️‍🩹❤️

Our charity this Halloween is The Hog House: Hedgehog Help Long Stratton. We will be raising money for air conditioning for the baby hogs to help them cope with the high temperatures in the summer and cold of the winter!