A poor hedgehog is lucky to be alive after almost starving to death after his head became stuck – inside a conker.
The struggling hoglet was found in vet Simon Lapish’s garden by his dog Bert, who sniffed out the poor animal.
Simon, who lives in Wokingham, Berks, immediately called Jayne Morgan, who runs The Happy Hedgehog Rescue, and the pair managed to save the hedgehog’s life.
The hapless hoglet, who weighs just 74 grams, has now been named Conker.
Jayne, who lives in Yateley, said: “I had a call from Simon Lapish, a local vet, who said his dog had found the little hedgehog wandering around his garden.
“He found the tiddler in his garden in a right predicament – the small hoglet was somehow trapped in the innards of a conker with it stuck on its head.
“The poor baby was covered in maggots and fly eggs but was so lucky in choosing Simon’s garden as he is a vet and was quickly able to help.
“After administering emergency care Simon called me to take over the care of Conker.
“A lovely local lady, Nicole Haus, rushed off to collect the unfortunate hoglet and he is now at the rescue recovering.
“He’s in an incubator and comfy so we’ll see how he goes.”
Jayne, who rescues up to 600 hedgehogs a year, says she has never seen an animal in a similar situation, and believes a squirrel may have eaten the centre of the conker before the hedgehog became lodged.
She said that although poor Conker is struggling, he should make a full recovery.
Jayne added: “Hoglets leave their mum at 250g so at 74g this baby should still be with his mum, so something is wrong.
“Simon and his family are now trying to locate his siblings, as at this weight they just won’t survive winter.
“Wild hedgehogs need to be a minimum weight of 450g now and there are four to five hoglets to an average litter, plus mum might be poorly too.
“Conker is still with us, he’ll take a while to recover and he may have lost an eye.”
