Rugs 🌈Jasper 🌈, Shugs&Gracie♥️🐾🐾

Pick the hedgehog up like you would a puppy - both hands under the tummy. They will curl up, so be prepared. Wear gloves, just marigold washing up gloves are fine. Put clean newspaper or wadded kitchen roll inside a box (never put leaves or hay or anything old or dirty, as you may contaminate wounds) and a hot water bottle - made up as you would for a child; warm, not too hot. If you don't have a hot water bottle, fill any watertight bottle or container with hot tap water. Never use towels, as the tiny loops can catch toes and dislocate them if the hedgehog struggles (they are prone to panic). Use fleece - a small blanket or cut up dressing gown is great, or a sweatshirt - or kitchen roll/newspaper. Put the hedgehog in the box beside the hot water bottle, ensuring the box is big enough for her to move away from the heat source if she wants to. Cover her with a fleece or lots of scrunched up kitchen roll or newspaper sheets, so she can hide. This will reduce her stress, which will kickstart her immune system. Put in a dish of water. No food is needed for an out-in-the-day casualty as she will be going straight to a rescue, and food can actually cause harm to a hypothermic animal. Put the box in a well lit room indoors (just as a darkened room makes diurnal patients sleepy, a bright room full of daylight will make a nocturnal animal sleepy), and then start ringing the rescues. Remember, the rescues often can't stop work on an animal to answer the phone, so if they don't answer, wait a couple of minutes and ring again, and keep doing that until they have a hand free to pick up. Repeat at every rescue until you find one with space. There will ALWAYS be a rescue with space - it may be further away than you'd hope, but keeping a sick hedgehog is not an option and it's only one journey, not a daily commute.😊Some rescues have volunteer drivers who can meet you halfway, if it's very far.