Olly the hedgehog lost every prickle — and became a poster hog

Olly arrived at Prickles in a Pickle, a hedgehog rescue in Stoke Fleming, Devon, having lost all his spines to ringworm — leaving him, as co-founder Judy Thompson puts it, looking 'like a rolled up sock, and a bit like a very large potato.' Four months of anti-fungal baths, skin creams and pain relief have brought a drastic improvement, and the 1kg (2.2lb) hedgehog has a new job: 'poster hog' for the charity's latest fundraising campaign, which hopes to raise £7,000 (about $9,500) — roughly £1 for every spine a healthy adult hedgehog should have. Without his prickles Olly cannot return to the wild, but he is putting his fame to work for the 946 hedgehogs the rescue cared for in 2025, around half of them admitted with parasite illnesses.