megwaf

Poor darling Owen is still critical, still not eating, and only still alive because of the fluids and drugs I'm injecting him with twice a day. He's using every ounce of energy to keep living, and can't afford to spend any on digesting food. He has more internal parasites than I've seen in a live hedgehog for many years. Aside from a huge burden of deadly lungworm, putting him in acute respiratory distress, and a massive gutful of roundworm, leaching any nutrients left in his frail little body, Owen is full of lethal fluke. Below are three microscopic images I took from a sample of the tiniest blob of poo Owen produced. These are three adult fluke. It's very rare to see one. But that tiny blob contained three. I shudder to think how many more are inside his body. Inside each fluke's body you can see the eggs it is producing. Fluke are hermaphrodites, so produce self-fertilised eggs. The golden coloured ones are ready to hatch. Just one is enough to tip the balance and kill Owen. Adult flukes live in the digestive tract, liver and bile ducts. They have strong suckers and physically bite into the delicate mucosal lining to feed on tissue and blood. They literally eat the living liver. This causes sharp, agonising pain. Even without consuming enough liver tissue to cause organ failure on its own, in a wild animal whose body is already being starved by roundworms and suffocated by lungworms, that added physical stress can easily trigger a fatal heart attack or total immune collapse. Owen's life is on a knife edge. Only time will tell. I am so touched by all the loving well-wishes this dear little boy has received. If only he knew how many people are rooting for him.🥹 Please do remember to wash your outside dishes and baths well, at least once a week, preferably daily. It's likely Owen got fluke from contaminated water.