Back Legs Giving Way???

[Penny]

I have noticed two hedgehogs on camera in the past week or so where their back legs have suddenly given way. They will be walking along with no problems and then suddenly their rear end will go down; just as quickly they get up and carry on as though nothing has happened. The one spotted on camera last night I’m pretty sure was a female and her rear end looked rather large. Could this just be a symptom of the late stages of pregnancy or something more sinister…any ideas anyone?

The same thing happened to one of our regular males last year after he piled on weight ready for hibernation; so far this year he’s been fine.

[Wildlifehaven]

Hi Penny, don’t want to be alarmist but could it be metabolic bone disease causing thin bones due to calcium deficiency? Hope its nothing sinister, fingers crossed they return back and are back to normal.

[Penny]

Hi Nina,

Yes, I also wondered whether it could be metabolic bone disease, so I mentioned it to our local carer and she pretty much ruled it out. Hedgehogs with MBD are more or less in a total state of collapse and barely able to put one foot in front of the other. She has treated a few hedgehogs with this distressing disease and in an attempt to stop people feeding too many mealworms to their visiting hedgehogs has written a brilliant article which I shall be posting on here shortly.

One of the other hedgehogs with the problem is definately another male, so I don’t think pregnancy can explain it either! My worry is that it could be some kind of chemical in the environment affecting their nervous systems. 🙁

At least it hasn’t affected their appetites, we are being eaten out of house and home at the moment!

[Wildlifehaven]

Hi Penny

That’s good news, could it be an injury maybe from the rutting? All that pushing and shoving with it being the back legs ?? I’ve not seen it myself but from what Nic says it can get quite fierce.

Let’s hope it’s not chemicals, it fills me with dread every time I drive past a field and a tractor has its long arms out spraying god knows what. On my way to/from work we go down a lovely country road one side is nice and green the other side of the road for a very long section has been nuked, why was that necessary.

[Author]

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