Priory Vets

🦇 Found a bat during the day? Please don’t put it back outside. 🦇

If you come across a bat during daylight hours, it’s usually a sign that something isn’t right. Healthy bats are nocturnal, so being out during the day often means the bat is cold, exhausted, injured, or unwell.

Bats use a natural energy saving state called torpor. In torpor, a bat’s body temperature drops, its heart rate slows, and it becomes inactive to conserve energy. While this is completely normal for bats, it also means they cannot fly until their body temperature slowly warms back up.

If a bat in torpor is put back outside:
It wont be able to move or take off.
It is extremely vulnerable to predators
It may not survive long enough to warm up safely

Warming up from torpor takes time and must happen in a safe, warm, quiet environment.

❤️What to do instead:❤️
Keep the bat contained and safe (for example, in a ventilated box with a cloth)
Place it somewhere warm and quiet
Contact a licensed bat rehabilitator for advice as soon as possible
Your calm, kind actions can save a bat’s life.

Please share this information as it could save a precious life.❤️❤️❤️🦇🦇🦇

This Christmas, please remember to keep the following foods well out of reach of pets 🚫🐶🐱
🍫Chocolate
🍇Grapes, raisins & sultanas (mince pies, Christmas cake & pudding)
Garlic & onions
Stuffing
Gravy
🍷Alcohol
🍽 Rich or fatty leftovers
If you think your pet has eaten something they shouldn’t, contact your vet immediately.
See: https://www.bluecross.ie/pet-proofing-christmas/ for more info 🐾

A few reminders 🤗

🦔 A hedgehog out in the day at this time of year, needs help. No what ifs, buts, it might be a nursing mother comments - It is sick, end of…

🦔 Secure a sick hedgehog in a high sided box with a blanket to hide underneath and a warm hot water bottle if there is no flystrike.. [If you are not sure what flystrike looks like, leave the hot water bottle until you’ve spoken to a rescue …]

Once you’ve done this, THEN contact a rescue for advice..

Catch first 🦔, Call second 📞 …

Not the other way round, because by the time you’ve got a response from the rescue, the hedgehog may very well have moved away..

🦔 If you find a sick hedgehog and cannot help, for whatever reason, please DO NOT stick it under a bush, in a field or anywhere else where it is hidden from view. You are stopping someone else from seeing it and getting help .. If it’s on the road, move it to a safe place as best as you can and contact a rescue with the location so that they can try and get someone to help..

🦔 DO NOT feed a sick hedgehog, I know that it’s a human instinct, but a cold, sick hedgehog will still try and eat, even if it it dying..
The energy it needs to stay alive will be used on digesting food ..

Water, yes 👍 - Food, no 👎

🦔 Mealworms..People are still feeding mealworms to hedgehogs, please don’t!
Mealworms will contribute to the leaching of calcium from bones and will result in metabolic bone disease, which is devastating

🦔 Pumpkins 🎃 There is a lot of debate about hedgehogs and pumpkins. Hedgehogs will generally not eat pumpkin, they are more likely to 💩 on them! [Mealworms are a much bigger issue…]

That said, save your used pumpkins and find a rescue that would like them. Pigs in the Wood in Scissett would be grateful for them if you’re local to us…

🦔 Please don’t use that horrible fake spiders web for Halloween - it kills wildlife. Birds, bats, bees and butterflies get caught up in it !

Thank you 🦔💙