A Typical Day
The rescue is open 7 days a week, 356 days a year​
08:30
Every day at the rescue is a busy day, we just don't know how many times the phone will ring and what patients are going to be admitted to the rescue. Each morning Diane does a welfare check on all the boxes looking for any problems or concerns that may have developed overnight. Sometimes medicines need to be administered straight away and very sick, or young, hedgehogs need to be handfed food or critical care. Stock levels of consumables need to be checked to make sure that every thing that's likely to be needed throughout the day is ready at hand.
09:30 - 12:30
Two different volunteers arrive each day to help clean out each of the hedgehog boxes. It's not all about the cute and cuddly babies, there's a reason they're called hedgeHOGS! Each box is cleaned and disinfected and filled with fresh newspaper and bedding. Water bowls are replenished and food bowls replaced. Every hedgehog is weighed, and recorded on their individual patient form, before being put back in their clean box. Outside hutches are also cleaned out, disinfected and topped up with everything the hedgehog needs.
12:30 - 18:00
When the volunteers have left there's still lots of work to be done. Patient records need updating daily, recording new weights, medications required and any observations noted. Poo samples are routinely collected, processed using a centrifuge and examined under the microscope to check for parasites. Water and food bowls are washed and disinfected and stock replenished. Some hedgehogs also need a variety of treatments which can include medicated baths, bathing of wounds or tick removal. Occasionally we need to take a hedgehog to our local vets for things that we are not able to do at the rescue i.e. x-rays and small medical procedures that require the hedgehog being sedated.
