Couple set up hedgehog hospital in garden in Basingstoke

Jo Akers, 58 and her husband Terry Akers, 65, set up Prickle Lodge - a hedgehog rescue hospital - in their back garden in Hook, in 2023.

The hospital and triage room have the capacity for nine patients and feature temperature-controlled facilities, with each pen having its own CCTV camera monitoring patients 24 hours a day. There are also temporary pens used in cases of emergency.

The facilities also include five further overwintering and hibernation pens that are fully insulated, these are used for patients that are too small to be released during the winter months following their treatment.

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Mabel was rescued by Prickle Lodge (Image: Prickle Lodge)

The couple who had lived in the house before them had asked Jo and Terry to continue feeding the hedgehogs in the garden and Jo told the Gazette that she and Terry were inspired to start helping the mammals after witnessing injured hedgehogs on a garden camera.

She said: "A few years ago, we started feeding hedgehogs in our garden and we also got ourselves a wildlife camera.

"After watching the videos, we saw that we had a number of sick and injured hedgehogs in our garden.

"We tried to get them help but all rescues were often full. Around the same time, I got made redundant from my job and had no better thing to do than to help them."

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Jo and Terry officially set up Prickle Lodge in 2023 (Image: Prickle Lodge)

In 2020, Jo spent some time training at the Hedgehog Cabin, a wildlife rescue in Hartley Wintney and eventually decided to start Prickle Lodge.

She said: "Since 2023 we have rescued and treated 139 sick and injured hedgehogs, if we include prior to that then it is well in excess of 150.

"We're at the point now where we are sadly having to turn hedgehogs away because we are often full."

In 2020, hedgehogs were put on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable to extinction in Great Britain, and Jo explained how she wants to dispel myths and misconceptions that many people have surrounding 'Britain's favourite mammal'.

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Charlie was rescued by Prickle Lodge (Image: Prickle Lodge)

She said: "There is not enough natural food or habitats. They need wild areas and fresh food and water in our gardens. Hedgehogs need a balanced meal and providing kitten biscuits, as long as the first listed ingredient is meat, is the perfect balanced meal for a hedgehog.

"We also need to provide access to gardens and that way they won't need to go in the road and risk getting run over.

"The biggest myth I would like to dispel is that they like to eat slugs and snails - they don't.

"Slugs carry lungworm - a killer in all mammals if not treated.

Jo warned of how Bonfire night can be fatal for hedgehogs.

She said: "I have sleepless nights because of unlit bonfires.

"Unlit bonfires are the perfect nesting site for hedgehogs.

"Please don't make bonfires before the day you are having it because hedgehogs will nest in them, and they don't have a fight or flight instinct, they just curl up into a ball and they get burned alive."

As well as this, she warned readers to check long grass before using a strimmer.

She said: "I've seen some horrific strimmer injuries. If you have long grass, there could be a hedgehog nest in there."

Jo also explained how seeing a hedgehog in the daytime is unlikely to be a good thing.

She said: "If you see a hedgehog during the day it is usually dying. They are nocturnal. It is not good news.

"If you ever see a hedgehog out in the daytime, it’s because they’re extremely sick and would have been sick for a while. Coming out in the day is the last desperate act of a dying hedgehog, they are going into shock and trying to get warmth from the sun. Please be their ambulance."

Jo gave six tips for how to help a hedgehog in this case:

• Bring them indoors (wear gloves)
• Warm a hot water bottle and wrap it in a fleece or blanket
• Place in a high-sided box or container (even a dying hedgehog will try to escape)
• Place another fleece or lots of scrunched-up kitchen roll over the hedgehog so they can hide
• Put a shallow dish of water in the box 
• Place in a quiet warm well-lit room and then immediately contact a rescue

If the hedgehog is moving with purpose, it could be a busy mum, so do not disturb her without getting advice from your local rescue first.

Readers can find out more about Prickle Lodg and the work of Jo and Terry by visiting https://pricklelodge-hedgehogrescue.org/warning