EDWINA NEWS - September 28, 2002

 

 As you can see, Edwina is not "little Edwina" any longer!  She has sure grown up in a short period of time.  With her added weight, her quills can be a little painful, so even though she knows me, I started using gloves. 

As you remember from our earlier postings, we were worried about her not gaining weight for a week or so.  We phoned Frau Kessel and she wanted to see Edwina.  We took her there on the 7th of September and Frau Kessel examined some of her feces and found out that she was suffering from a lung worm and intestinal worm infestation. 

Hedgehogs are very sensitive animals and sometimes after injections are given, they go into shock and can die.  Frau Kessel explained that she needed a series of 4 injections spaced out over around 8 days.  We didn't want to endanger her at all, so we left Edwina with Frau Kessel.  As you can imagine, I was worried sick and asked Juergen to call her to check on her every couple of days. 

She slowly started responding to the injections.  We were able to pick her up on the 27th of September and she had grown to 560 grams!  She had gained 251 grams in that length of time!  She was back on track.  Since last Saturday, she is up another 133 grams.  She is within 7 grams of her desired release weight and we plan on setting her free in the next few days.  It will be a sad day for me, but I know it is the best thing.  I just hope she drops in for a visit once in a while.

We plan on leaving her sleep chamber outside on our patio somewhere and try to winterize it a bit, just in case she cannot find shelter elsewhere in the garden. 

Here are more recent pictures of the new and grown up Edwina!

Here is the bigger ball Edwina!  You can see her little feet on the left and right side of her nose.  What a sweetie!

What a picture!  For a couple of days after we brought her home, she had a bit of a cold - the weather here turned cold overnight.  You can see her "drippy" nose.  In a couple of days, she was much better.  She had brought her forehead of quills forward so you can't see her eyes. 

Another close-up of her.

Here we placed her on the scale to see how she was doing.  She opened up from her ball and we got a good look at her beautiful eyes and face - complete with ears!  You can see her claws underneath her chin.

Here is another picture from the front.  I can no longer hold her in just one hand as before.  Here she is around 650 grams....just a little over a pound.

Juergen caught this picture and you can see how she can bring her forehead over her face for protection.  That is her nose on my finger. 

This little slimy guys better be heading for the hills in the next few days as Edwina rejoins nature and looks for her most favorite food....SNAILS!  They have them all over in the gardens here, as well as her other favorite foods, earwigs, worms, etc.   Hedgehogs are the friends of the gardener as well as the farmer.

 

 

 

We want to add a note here about Frau Kessel.  I don't believe that we would have been successful in helping Edwina without her help.  She is a dedicated hedgehog rescuer, friend, and expert.  She gives willingly of her time, money, and love to help these little creatures and we don't feel people like her get enough thanks or credit.  Thanks Frau Kessel for caring as much as you do and for helping us with Edwina!  The world needs more people like you!  This card of thanks is for you!