Every year the same. Spring and summer come, people start to work in their gardens and the overgrown winter property must be quickly made summer fit.
And so the grass trimmer or brush cutter is taken out of the garden shed and trimmed as a matter of course. It is especially convenient in the corner with all the dead wood. There the weeds have once again really spread. But quickly pulled through the brush cutter and the weeds are killed.
Unfortunately, it’s often not just the weeds. What many people do not consider; in such corners and overgrown bushes hedgehogs find a shelter to sleep there the day. It is not uncommon for hedgehogs sleeping there in the undergrowth to be seriously injured in this way, often resulting in a long and agonizing death. The wounds fester, flies lay their eggs on such wounds and the fly maggots that hatch from them eat deep into the hedgehog’s flesh until it dies in the end.

Therefore, I can only repeat my urgent appeal. Before someone holds such a grass trimmer or brush cutter blindly in dense undergrowth, please make sure BEFORE whether an animal has not sought shelter and protection in the bushes. Because these animals have no chance against these dangerous garden tools.

And so last night I had to secure another hedgehog with just such an injury at my feeding station and give him veterinary treatment. It is now the third hedgehog with such an injury. Already last year I had to give two hedgehogs with cuts from grass trimmers into treatment.
Fortunately my feeding station is monitored by a camera, so I usually notice when such an injured hedgehog finds his way into my garden to feed. Therefore, this hedgehog was also discovered in time and secured.

This hedgehog has a deep cut from the forehead to behind the right ear. The wound was already very festered when found, but fortunately the hedgehog was not yet discovered by flies, so the wound was not yet contaminated with fly eggs. Therefore the chances are good that the hedgehog will recover. As soon as he is healthy again, he will come back to my garden.

Anyone who would like to support the work of the person who cares for the hedgehogs and rehomes them is welcome to do so. Medication, food and housing of the animals and the later release, all this costs a lot of money. I have created a PayPal donation link for the donation. All money received via this link will be forwarded 1:1 to the pauper. Please enter “hedgehog help” in the donation text so that I can allocate the donation. Thank you!

Here is the donation link:

To document the extent of such an injury, I show here a few pictures of the hedgehog with his injury. The first pictures are from before the treatment. Further down come the pictures with the cleaned wound. For those who can not see such pictures, the last pictures are not pixelated and therefore the open wound on the head can be seen.