Fawn Fallowheart 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🐶🐕🦏🐘🐬🐋

I've just had a call from a lovely lady who had asked my advice this morning regarding a hedgehog she was worried about, and I hadn't replied. Please be aware that because of the pile-on that Carl Bovis has initiated against me my notifications have been flooded with hundreds of nasty messages from his followers. Aside from being upsetting it has made my work twice as hard, and finding vital, time sensitive, life-or-death messages among all the trolling, impossible. So I've had to mute anything with his name on, which means I may miss some important messages. So if you have asked advice and I've not replied, please ask again, leaving off any quote or reply. If your need is urgent about a sick hedgehog please don't wait for me to catch up, just phone. And thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all your loving support and righteous indignation on my behalf. 🫂❤️ Please try to ignore the baiting.🥰

You're absolutely right, Julie. This is an emaciated, dying hedgehog. And what's heartbreaking is I have already advised Carl of this hedgehog's serious illness, twice, but he said he knew best and carried on posting images and video of this poor dying creature, instead of getting him the help he so desperately needs. Carl's previous photos of how this poor sick hog was attracting ticks was a big red flag, which I explained, and he told me I was wrong and carried on using the hedgehog as a prop. This poor hedgehog is extremely sick and *because of this sickness* has deteriorated and has become emaciated. He's not thin because he is starving (although he will constantly be feeling the pain of extreme hunger), it's because he is sick with internal parasites (most likely roundworm and lungworm, maybe fluke too). And most tragically, animals with severe internal parasite burdens suffer dehydration because the worms damage the intestinal lining. The resulting inflammation prevents the gut from reabsorbing water, and triggers systemic anorexia, severely reducing the animal's voluntary water intake. So no matter what he eats, he will never absorb nourishment and will continue to die. See that clear demarcation between head and body, and how you can see his shoulders, elbow and hips? That should never be seen - a healthy hedgehog is rounded, covered in a natural thick layer of fat, with no underlying structure visable. See how his coat is spikey and uneven? That's neurological decline from sickness and malnourishment. Weakness prevents him from flexing the muscles required to keep his spines aligned. A healthy hedgehog pulls his spines into a tight, uniform dome for defense. But worst of all - See how the spines on his flanks are laying flat? That's evidence of extreme dehydration. This will prove fatal, because as he eats now, his body will have to divert whatever remaining moisture it has toward the stomach to digest the food, causing his vital organs to shut down. He'll be in tremendous pain, but hedgehog are stoic, and as prey they hide any weakness.

Carl, I really can't believe you are still posting this sick, dying hedgehog and, despite all my warnings, are continuing this harmful misinformation and misrepresentation of this endangered species. I have no choice but to unfollow you. teapawt.net/HedgehogCabin/status/2…

When you see a hedgehog out in the day time please remember he's been sick for a long time before taking this last desperate step. He's dying. IT'S AN EMERGENCY. Take him indoors in the warmth and ring a rescue IMMEDIATELY. Find your nearest rescue here: helpwildlife.co.uk/

Some kind organisations are posting messages urging people to leave out water for our precious wildlife in this hot dry weather, which is brilliant, thank you. But this rumour doing the rounds that hedgehog mums abandon their nursing babies is utter nonsense. Hedgehog mums are the most patient, loving parents you can imagine. They are tightly bonded and would NEVER willingly abandon their babies. But they die. They die because lactation places a massive continuous drain on a mother's water reserves. If she is deprived of water, her body is forced to pull from its own tissues and blood supply to maintain milk production, resulting in rapid blood volume depletion and thickening of the blood. Producing milk requires a massive amount of calories and water. If resources are scarce, the mother's body goes into a negative energy balance, which drastically accelerates the depletion of her internal reserves. But they stay with their babies, protecting them, loving them, literally giving them their last drop of life. The starving dehydrated babies eventually stagger out of the maternity nest, instinctively seeking sustenance. By the time they are found by humans they are so near death and their dehydration so extreme that only subcutaneous fluids from an experienced rescue can save them. All this heartbreak and tragedy can be avoided, and rescues freed from bed-blocking babies, if only everyone simply puts out a dish of water. Right now. And tonight. Front and back. Under cover in the shade, if possible. A turn of the tap can save so many lives.❤️