Hedgehog without prickles made charity ambassador

A hedgehog that lost its prickles due to an infection has become an ambassador for a wildlife rescue charity.

Olly developed ringworm in the wild which caused all of his spines to fall out.

Judy Thompson, co-founder of Prickles in a Pickle in Stoke Fleming, Devon, where Olly has been for the last four months, said: "Somebody said he looks like a rolled up sock, and he looks a bit like a very large potato. He's about 1kg (2.2lb) in weight."

While recovering, he had become the "poster hog" for the charity's latest fundraising campaign, bosses said. In 2025, it cared for 946 hedgehogs with illnesses due to parasites accounting for about half of all admissions, they added.

Prickles in a Pickle works closely with vets to rehabilitate injured and sick hedgehogs, with the aim of returning them close to where they were found.

Lauren Jennings, a veterinary surgeon at Dart Vale Veterinary Group in Totnes, said Olly's recovery had "been a lengthy process".

She said: "He's been having baths in various things like an anti-fungal agent. His skin's really quite dried out, so we're trying to hydrate it.

"He's having lots of spa treatments, really, and pain relief as well."

According to Prickles in a Pickle, an adult hedgehog has up to 7,000 spines on its body.

Each one is about 2cm to 3cm (0.8in to 1.2in) long, and they serve as a hedgehog's main defence against predators.

For its latest fundraising campaign, the charity said it was hoping to raise £7,000 - roughly £1 for each spine a healthy adult hedgehog should have.

Thompson said: "Olly's story is about what he can do as an ambassador for his fellow mates.

"It's about awareness because most people don't know what a hedgehog looks like with no prickles, and so they don't know how to help."

Despite Olly showing a drastic improvement due to his regime of baths and creams, Thompson said she was very aware of what could sometimes happen.

She said: "We've always got their welfare at heart.

"If Olly was to deteriorate, we would have to have conversations about what the outcome might be, but, without prickles, he can't go back into the wild.

"He is still essentially a poorly hedgehog, even though the only poorliness he has is that he hasn't got any clothes on."

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