Hedgehog Loses Spines

By Queuebot in Animals & Pets on Mar 19, 2009 at 9:08 pm

The staff at St. Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in the UK can’t figure out why Spud the hedgehog has lost his spines.

He gets a warm bath and baby oil massage every day to try and heal his skin, and vets are looking for alternative medicine treatments that might solve his condition.

But other than being spineless, Spud appears to be a perfectly normal hedgehog.

Photo by Jeff Moore

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Tags: hedgehog, spineless

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Alex
Mar 19th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Aaaawwww! So cute! Who’s gonna knit it a sweater now?
shecky
Mar 19th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
He looks so embarrassed! Poor thing.
Johnny Cat
Mar 19th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Put him on an ice shelf floating in Lake Superior. Video. Profit! Spud used to be the name of the Budweiser dog, now it can be the name of the mascot for climate change.
BartC3
Mar 19th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
St Tiggywinkles?! who knew there rabbit saints…or kitty saints.
is this the patron saint of pinching somethings cheeks and making baby talk at it?
AnnMarie
Mar 19th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
That made my gag reflex shutter…
Zo
Mar 19th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Poor little hedgehog is NAKED!
Ali S.
Mar 19th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Ewwwwww!
LisaL
Mar 19th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Awww, poor lil fella! Hope he is healthy other than the skin thing and lives a nice long life.
darwin
Mar 20th, 2009 at 3:44 am
It’s called evolution. Not having spines doesn’t kill it because we don’t eat hedgehog. If it were to be allowed to mate, bam, new species. Spines are likely a waste of energy to make, this is a competive advantage in an environment without predators.
seefish3
Mar 20th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Dinsdale?
Evilbeagle
Mar 20th, 2009 at 4:28 am
darwin, there are people in some parts of England that still eat hedgehog. Just sayin’. It’s one of those peasant foods of old. While I am not saying that they couldn’t evolve or anything like that, I am more inclined to think that he just has some issues and wouldn’t have gone far in the wild.

He is adorable, though.
Edward
Mar 20th, 2009 at 5:10 am
Just in case anyone from St. Tiggywinkles reads Neatorama, I have two possible diagnoses. If it is an autoimmune disorder similar to psoriasis, then there is nothing anyone can do. On the other hand, it could be a fungal infection akin to athlete’s foot. A natural remedy would then be Tea Tree Oil, but modern athlete’s foot treatments would be faster and less irritating.
Skipweasel
Mar 20th, 2009 at 5:36 am
seefish3 – You rotter, you beat me to it.
Sammy
Mar 20th, 2009 at 5:45 am
Thanks for posting something interesting on the Que, Marilyn Terrell.

He’s kinda so ugly he’s cute
Cor
Mar 20th, 2009 at 8:29 am
That’s not how evolution works, sweety…
Heather
Mar 20th, 2009 at 8:41 am
The Stockers and friends do great work with injured wild animals. I remember them 30 years ago when I moved to Aylesbury and their wildlife hospital was in their back garden round the corner from me. If you peered through a knot in the fence you saw the eye of an owl peering back!
Avarana
Mar 20th, 2009 at 9:46 am
You spineless, lily-livered animal!
Kalel
Mar 20th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Seems a pointless existence for a hedgehog.
Gauldar
Mar 20th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Hey, enough with the bad puns already! We get the ‘point’.
Ally
Mar 20th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Surely rubbing one of mother nature’s creatures with baby oil, a byproduct of the petroleum refining process, isn’t helping matters at all…
Frau
Mar 20th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
@ Bart – the name Tiggywinkle comes from the character The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter. She is a hedgehog.

@ Ally – I thought the same exact thing. They need to use a natural oil, like Kukui nut.

I saw that on what I would call the Russian version of Neatorama. But my translation skills led me to think it was some malformed armadillo. Strange how without the spines, they look very much like an armadillo.
Evilbeagle
Mar 20th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Baby oil is good for the skin, and relatively harmless and gentle for animals in these sorts of situations.
seefish3
Mar 20th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Sorry, Skipweasel.

I know what it’s like to have a great wiseass comment snatched from under you. Appreciate that you got it, though…
Inti
Mar 21st, 2009 at 7:33 am
A hedgehog without spines is like Santa Claus naked. Seeing that is one of those things marking a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. I feel miserable.

PS: funny how the google ads suggest “Sonic the Hedgehog toys”.
Rolo
Mar 23rd, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Just to let everyone know, even though a bunch of people and sites recommend tea tree oil, it is actually toxic for a hedgehog. My hedgehog was losing his spines and some of his fur, so I applied tea tree oil on the affected areas. He was fine the first day, but then the second, he went through a sort of paralysis, then a coma, and then he died on the third day. I later went on more sites and there have been similar cases with other people and their hedgehogs. DO NOT USE TEA TREE OIL!!!!!!!!

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