I think my hedgie might have a cold?!

[richlydney]

I have two regular hogs that visit my garden (sometimes both together, but usually on their own.) – I put out food and water for them every night which they have no problems polishing off! Very often I’ll sit on the patio working or reading, and regular as clockwork the wonderful little creatures turn up, eat their fill and move through the fence next door (who I know often leaves catfood out for them)

This has been going on for several years now. Obviously I usually only see them in the Summer, but I’m still quite familiar with the absolute mayhem and racket they make as they crush through the rhubarb and herbs. Stealthy they are not! I love the way you can hear them snuffling long before you see any sign of them.

Tonight, literally 10mins ago, in fact, I was outside as usual and heard one of the hogs appearing (I named it Sonic, it’s the smaller of the two, the other one is Tails) but when it snuffled it made a noise I’d never heard before. It honestly sounded like something out of a Lemsip advert – as if its nose was bunged-up with something gunky. It was really loud and quite strange. Sonic didn’t seem to be in distress of any kind, happily ate all the food I left out, drank some water and bashed its way off next door as usual. So I’m not concerned, but it was a really strange noise – like it may have a cold or something (which would be ironic in the weather we’re currently having)

Anyone else heard this sort of noise before from their spikey visitors?

[stef]

Sounds like he may have lungworm. I sugest you catch him and contact your nearest carer

[Suzynic]

I agree, I had one that was coughing whilst in his hedgehog box. I had read they can cough if in a dirty box, but it was getting worse and I kept hearing him a lot during the day cough. I sent a sound clip of it to a local hedgehog carer who confirmed it was most likely lung worm. Sounds like a smokers cough!

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