young hedgehog 305grams out this morning

[HedgehogRescue]

She said she had abcesses in 2 places

That is most likely the cause. Abscesses can be a mare to deal with even when you know what you're doing. I had a little guy in last year who had been bitten on the head by what we think was a fox, certainly a fox had sprayed all over him. Every time we thought we had the abscess beaten and drained it would come back with a vengence. Eventually it was kinder to give up and PTS as he was running in circles.

Sometimes no matter what you do you're going to fail. All you can do is keep going and know that you're making a difference.

Hang onto that vet. Having a vet that cares enough to not charge through the nose for wildlife is worth its weight in gold.

[Malx]

Originally Posted by HedgehogRescue

The only symptoms are that what seems to be a perfectly healthy hedgehog suddenly stops eating, loses weight alarmingly and despite syringe feeding, continues to lose weight until it dies.

Yikes! That's not good at all....

Originally Posted by HedgehogRescue

The chart and drug doses is on my web site as a downloadable PDF file. You really will need to discuss it with your vet though as many will baulk at the drugs and others may not have the required drugs on site. If you are not trained to give injections yourself then your vet will also need to be willing to have you turn up daily.

Just read that, and I don't envy you that at all, even when you know it is the right thing to do.... 7 doses - presumably injections? on the first day of treatment alone.
That's a bad day for everyone involved.

At least it seems the authorities have a handle on it though. Imagine if all this was happening without anyone noticing or caring.
I suppose there were wildlife rescuers in the 60s/70s who were flummoxed by a pandemic in rabbits which we know as Myxomatosis.

[dampflippers]

Good news- I still have at least one hedgehog in the garden. There was a fresh poo- adult sized.

[HedgehogRescue]

Just read that, and I don't envy you that at all, even when you know it is the right thing to do.... 7 doses - presumably injections? on the first day of treatment alone.
That's a bad day for everyone involved.

Six injections and one oral the first day. Not really an issue as I've been trained by my vet to do them. The results were remarkable though. That night she came out and ate a whole bowl of food.

Second day wasn't too bad nor was the third but the 4th lot, she'd learned that being picked up meant jabs and she'd go all concave on my lap to try and stop me grabbing spines to lift the skin

I suppose there were wildlife rescuers in the 60s/70s who were flummoxed by a pandemic in rabbits which we know as Myxomatosis.

Possibly but anyone in the game should have known that it had been introduced to try and control rabbits so should have at least suspected it as a cause. With hogs, as far as we're aware there is no such control going on.

[dampflippers]

Life goes on...
If you look closely at the 2 photos you can see how much water it has drunk.

[HedgehogRescue]

At this time of year they'll drink loads. When they come out of hibernation they're usually gasping and they'll drink before they eat. If the weather has been dry and there's no water around naturally that's when they get into trouble falling into ponds and drains.

All it takes is a shallow dish of water in the garden topped up every day.