"Little hog"

You know what? Basil's a lucky boy.

I don't just mean in that his injury could be a lot worse, and in us finding him on two separate occasions when he was in trouble.
















I mean in the trouser department.

Of course I've had the occasional look down there to check everything's okay, and I've noticed what I thought was the penis. Have a look at the picture - these are African Pygmy hedgehogs but they are pretty much the same as their European counterparts.

Last night when Basil was looking particularly ill and floppy I was shocked to see something huge and pink and cylindrical under his belly - my first throught was that it was a prolapsed intestine until I realised how stupid that thought was.

But it turned out that what you can see on the picture was not the actual penis - the 3-inch long, 1/2-inch wide pink object that I saw was the penis.

To give you an idea of scale, Basil's body nose-to-tail is probably 7 or 8 inches. And a quick google tells me that 10% of an adult male hedgehog's weight is in his penis. That's pretty impressive if you ask me.

I'll leave you with this picture, which I found amusing. As I'm obviously in a penis mood.

Better news

Basil looks much better today. When I checked on him last night he'd moved over to the water to have a drink but looked like he didn't have the strength to go back to bed afterwards, but he was sleeping under the newspaper in the bottom of the cage this morning and pricked up when I tried to look at him (a good sign). And I think he's been in the food even if he hasn't eaten much.

I'll try to resume normal service soon and keep updating about Basil as well.

Poor Basil

Basil looks ill. It seems he's inhaled too much of the alcohol in the Frontline spray and it's causing him breathing difficulties. He was hardly breathing at all earlier this evening, felt cool and was both more curled up and more floppy than usual.

Derek on the hog forum says to keep him warm and comfortable, plenty of fresh air and fluids, and the effects will wear off in 24 hours. So I've got him next to me on a heat pad and there's a fan in the room to circulate the air. He does look a little better. I'll give him some water when he's a bit more responsive.

Poor guy. As if he didn't have enough to contend with.

Vet visit

Basil scratched at his face last night and removed the new scab. Guess it's itchy where it's healing. The plus side of this is that I realised that it isn't infected, it was just that where the cut had sealed itself it was a light colour.

He was much more lively last night in general, attacking the syringe when we were feeding him, and sniffing around, even trying to wander off. He hasn't shown much interest in his food though, I'm going to try some different things to tempt him. I'm hoping as he starts to feel better his appetite will return.

We went to see the vet this afternoon, mostly because the remaining ticks are proving very difficult to remove as he has so many underneath him and they are small - plus he won't let us near the ones on his face and ears. She sprayed him with Frontline to kill the ticks and had a look at his wound, which she says is healing up fine. Apparently it doesn't matter if he does scratch it a few times as long as I clean it each time and he doesn't make a habit of it - the new skin will still grow underneath. There's no infection so he doesn't need antibiotics.

All in all it's looking quite good.

I continue to be pleased with the vet's surgery (Vets4Pets in Chesterfield) as the vet there acknowleges that she doesn't know everything about hedgehogs, asks for my opinion and discusses treatments with me. She's also very gentle with the hogs and they only charge for the medication and not for their time (cost me £6.50 for the Frontline). Also the vet nurse has rehabilitated hogs herself so she's pretty knowlegable. I'd certainly recommend them.

Summer found a little hog in the garden last night, and after what's happened to Basil (and after being pawed and barked at by a big dog) I brought it in and checked it out. She looks fine, a few ticks but nothing a healthy hog can't handle, very bright and alert and soooooo cute!! She's been named Jasmine, marked and released. I hope she'll stay around.

Yet more Basil

Basil's still very quiet. The wound is scabbing properly towards the top but I'm not so happy about how it looks in the middle. Think we'll have a visit to the vet tomorrow in case it's getting infected. Poor little prickler.

And we're going to have a serious tick removal session later too. Not an easy job, and he won't like it at all. Bastard things.

He had a little nibble of his dry food last night, but not very much, and I can't tell how much he's had to drink so we'll try to get more food and water into him tonight.

I know I'm not being very entertaining here at the moment with all this hog talk, but you know what? I don't care. Basil's important to me.