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Pudding in plastercast after attack

11/ 5/2006

A HEDGEHOG called Pudding was attacked by a gang of yobs and booted like a football in Ladybarn Park.

Pudding was left motionless with two broken legs, a broken jaw and missing teeth after the savage attack.

But he is now being treated by Barbara Roberts who runs Withington Hedgehog Hospital - and has tiny blue plastercasts on his legs.

As he was unable to move or eat by himself, Barbara has spent the past week nursing him back to health.

Initially he was put in an incubator and given painkillers. His broken bones have also been set in plaster.

And since then Barbara has fed Pudding using a tube and a syringe three times a day.

Within three weeks she believes the fractures will have healed and she will then start the search for someone who has an enclosed garden where Pudding - who is just one-year-old - can continue to live. Barbara, 54, who worked as a nurse at Withington's Christie Hospital, said: "He has lost quite a lot of teeth, so food just falls out of his mouth, and he can't chew until his mouth is better."

Pudding is one of the 187 hedgehogs recovering at the hedgehog hospital which Barbara runs at her home on Parsonage Road, Withington.