Posts
Sincere apologies for not having posted anything on here for absolutely ages but we are in the midst of our most manic season at the Hospital & I simply haven't had time to even think about writing anything.
At the moment we are inundated with baby hedgehogs (& older ones too come to that). Our Brooder Room (the room where all the tiniest & sickest animals are cared for) is packed solid with all kinds of baby mammal & bird. We have 37 hoglets to hand feed first thing (& then at varying times throughout the day & evening), all needing careful feeding with syringes full of Esbilac (the milk replacer we use for rearing hedgehogs). This is an extremely time-consuming job as baby mammals need to be fed very carefully so as not to allow milk down into their lungs, which can often be fatal. Very young mammals also need to be stimulated to urinate & defecate before feeding as they are unable to do this without stimulation (naturally, mum would do this by licking her offspring to encourage them to pass urine & faeces, but we use a moistened cotton bud!)
Each animal is carefully weighed both before & after hand-feeding & their weights are recorded on their record sheets. The constant monitoring of each ones weight is the best way of telling whether or not they are doing well, or if there is a problem. Without weight monitoring it is very easy to overlook a problem, which can very quickly lead to serious illness, dehydration or even death.
Besides all these hoglets (& more turning up every day) the Brooder Room is also home to many baby birds needing hand-feeding every 15-30 minutes, so you can imagine that this room is a hive of activity from early in the morning until late at night.
The days are very long for our poor Care Assistants at the moment - they are expected to put in many hours for not very much pay but on the whole they do a grand job - the Hospital wouldn't be here today without them & all the willing volunteers that come in at all times of the day & evening to help us out.
Unfortunately, this is also the time of year when our funds hit a regular low point as our running costs shoot up incredibly because of the increase in the amount of food we use & the massive increase in antibiotic & other drug usage.
We desperately need people to fundraise for us or give a donation.
Natalie & Helen are still raising sponsorship for their Arctic Trek they are undertaking next April. They can be sponsored through their Just Giving Fundraising Page at www.justgiving.com/nataliegould
Neil Hopkins is going to be running the Bristol Half Marathon on 14 September to raise money for us. Please let me know if you would like to sponsor him, or donate directly from our website http://www.vwr.org.uk/
Well that's it for now. Will post again soon....I hope!
Please let me have any positive (or negative) feedback about my Blog & feel free to ask any questions you may have.
