Knowledgeable Hedgehog people please (fairly urgent)

[MonumentalLentil]

There used to be somewhere that you could send a deceased hedgehog that had died of unknown causes for investigation.

Please does anyone know of this, and if so where it is, if it still exists?

I have searched but not getting anywhere and it is time sensitive.

You're thinking of badgers and bovine TB.

I have no idea why you'd need to know what a hedeghod died of.

https://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/

don’t know if they can help with dead ones but Tiggywinkles have a 24hr emergency helpline - and fantastic hospital

Thank you for your time. I have no idea why you replied.

Thank you, already contacted them and waiting for a response but know they are busy so asking here.

Its not a sarky response OP. Generally there's only a service for this and it's only urgent where there is disease which presents a risk to e.g. humans or farm animals. And to my knowledge there is nothing like this impacting hedgehogs at the moment, but I'm happy to be corrected.

I've never heard of this either and I have a close link with my local rescue, the woman who runs it can diagnose most things ime. Can I ask why you need such a service - do you suspect foul play of some sort?

OK, thank you. I seem to recall research of some kind which may no longer apply. The info I did find hasn't got me anywhere so far.

Sadly, yes.

They tend to die on the whole of a parasitic load. Their body manages the parasites until they become ill/stressed then everything goes out of whack and there is a general decline until they starve to death or hibernate and don’t wake up.

These poor creatures have a tough old life. We can help them by leaning out good quality kitten biscuits and fresh water.

Thank you.

You might be thinking of the garden wildlife health project. While it's not a reportable death in terms of transit table diseases, it's a project that aims to monitor trends and threats to wildlife in the uk.

We reported a poorly hedgehog that we took the the rspca. Sadly it died.

I found a link to that, for some reason the site takes ages to load.

Really could do with finding out what happened as it is not the first incidence of something that is potentially suspicious.

@RudsyFarmer do you have any tips to stop the slugs eating the biscuits? I put them out for months then one evening, when the cat set off the security light, I realised it was the slugs eating all the biscuits rather than the hedgehogs! The dish was full of them, HUGE they were.

I know you didn't ask me, but I find it helps to spread the food around if something else is eating it, at least the intended recipient will find some of it.

My best advice is join Facebook groups dedicated to hedgehogs as I know slugs ate one of the things lots of people struggle with and try to find solutions to.

Google hedgehog feeding station, my dh made one quite easily from offcuts of wood as one of my neighbours cats would pig all the food, never had a problem with slugs eating it probably because they're too busy eating my plants

You are right OP. I don’t know where they go. But our local hedgehog rescue definitely sends dead hedgehogs somewhere in the post. Wherever they send them does a post mortem.

I think it might be something to do with Hedgehog Street

https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/garden-wildlife-health-gwh/

Here you go, this might help.

Have a search on Facebook for hedgehog maybe see what pops up near to you. Or ask around on local community pages. We have one in the next town, she's amazing but very very busy - sometimes overwhelmingly so. Only found out about it because it popped on local feed due to other local groups linking to her posts.

@MonumentalLentil https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-ive-found-a-dead-hedgehog/

Thank you, I often use that site and that's where I started my search. It is mentioned there but can't find it.

I don't suppose you could PM me with their details could you please?
I rescued a baby last year and think this is her mum so would like to follow it up.

They've named changed now but @H8H8H8 can usually be summoned for hedgehog related things. Hopefully that will get through.

I am in a group and I use Hedgehog Street, there are a lot of dead ends though. I do know a rescue, where I took the baby for winter, but they are always very busy and difficult to get hold of. Others are almost impossible to get hold of.