Tiggywinkles (buy virtual gifts for a wildlife hospital)
Tiggywinkles (Buckinghamshire) runs a nationwide emergency phone helpline and has treated almost 500,000 patients since opening.
All creatures are treated free of charge and released back to the wild. It not, they are released near the site to live in nature.
Founded by a couple with no medical knowledge, the co-founder eventually wrote a wildlife rescue manual, that is now used by vets. It also runs training courses for volunteers, plus diplomas for wildlife rescuers, vets and vet nurses.
Learn how to help your local wildlife rescue.
Buy virtual gifts for Tiggywinkles!
You can buy a virtual gift to help Tiggywinkles. These include a link to videos to show your gift has helped:
- An x-ray for an injured hedgehog. Around two thirds of the 3000 hedgehogs at the centre need an x-ray to check for broken bones, abdominal trauma or bowel abnormalities, so vets know how to treat them.
- Treat a hedgehog with balloon syndrome (the cause is unknown but many hogs suffer from this, so they can’t curl up, making them vulnerable to predators). The treatment involves extracting air from the body, and a course of antibiotics, along with fluids and other treatments.
- Feed a fox cub – this covers the cost of feeding sick, injured and orphaned cubs, starting on milk and then proper food, to make them strong enough to be released to the wild.
- Mend a bird of prey’s injured wing (over 200 injured birds including owls, red kites and kestrels are treated yearly at Tiggywinkles, half with wing injuries. It’s really important to mend these properly, as they need perfect wings to fly silently at night, so prey can’t hear them.
- Raven enrichment – these are some of the world’s most intelligent birds, so while they are in the wildlife hospital, this gift pays for enrichment activities, to stop them getting bored.
- Dental treatment for hedgehogs (this pays for specialist treatment that can scale and polish hedgehog teeth, to prevent pain that can stop them from eating, if untreated).
- Lungworm treatment for hedgehogs and foxes (many creatures arrive with this, which can kill if not treated). This gift pays for a quick faecal sample to verify infestation, then treatment.
- Gapeworm treatment for owls (a throat parasite that can affect eating, drinking and breathing).
- Deer bandages (and for other creatures) to help those who arrive with limb injuries due to road collisions, fence entrapments or dog bites.
- You can even buy a bucket of maggots, to feed the 400 baby birds who cry out all day to be fed every 15 minutes from dawn to dust – they get through seven buckets a week!
easyfundraising for Tiggywinkles
You can also raise funds by signing up with easyfundraising (nominate Tiggywinkles, then anytime you buy things with shops or services, it donates a portion of profits, at no cost to you).
Or donate anonymously via Charities Aid Foundation.
